Gender and genre variation in weblogs

A relationship among language, gender, and discourse genre has previously been observed in informal, spoken interaction and formal, written texts. This study investigates the language/gender/genre relationship in weblogs, a popular new mode of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Taking as the dependent variables stylistic features identified in machine learning research and popularized in a Web interface called the Gender Genie, a multivariate analysis was conducted of entries from random weblogs in a sample balanced for author gender and weblog sub-genre (diary or filter). The results show that the diary entries contained more 'female' stylistic features, and the filter entries more 'male' stylistic features, independent of author gender. These findings problematize the characterization of the stylistic features as gendered, and suggest a need for more fine-grained genre analysis in CMC research. At the same time, it is observed that conventional associations of gender with certain spoken and written genres are reproduced in weblogs, along with their societal valuations.     

Transparency laws and interactive public relations: An analysis of Latin American government Web sites

A content analysis of 50 Latin American government Web sites was conducted to assess whether new transparency laws in the hemisphere impacted the interactivity, usability, technological expertise, and national symbolism manifest on the sites. Web sites were found to be generally usable but limited in interactivity. There was no difference in Web site interactivity between countries with transparency laws and those without them, but countries with laws used more visual symbols aimed at national branding. The article offers a model of Web site features for public relations practitioners interested in increasing the sophistication, usability, and interactivity of their sites in order to improve relationship building with stakeholders.     

Relationship building and the use of Web sites: How Fortune 500 corporations use their Web sites to build relationships

This study examines the dialogic features of corporate Web sites in order to determine the Web site practices of the corporations for building relationships with their publics. Content analysis of 100 Fortune 500 companies’ Web sites revealed that the corporations designed their Web sites to serve important publics and foster dialogic communication. The corporate Web sites appear to promote control mutuality, trust, satisfaction, openness, and intimacy. However, the corporations need to maintain repetitive interactions with their publics to enhance trust, commitment, and exchange relationship.     

How activist organizations are using the Internet to build relationships

This study examines the mediated communication of activist organizations to understand how these groups use their Web sites to build relationships with publics. A study of one hundred environmental organization Web sites identified common features and examined the incorporation of dialogic communication into this new medium. The data suggest that while most activist organizations meet the technical and design aspects required for dialogic relationship building on the Web, they are not yet fully engaging their publics in two-way communication. Moreover, it appears that the activist organizations are better prepared to address the needs of member publics rather than media needs.     

The relational determinants of nonprofit Web site fundraising effectiveness: An exploratory study

In this article, we develop a framework for assessing the relational content of nonprofit Internet sites. We operationalize this as a series of eight relational constructs applicable to the context of Web site design and operation and explore the relationship between the presence of these dimensions and the fundraising performance of nonprofit Web sites. We conclude that accessibility, accountability, education, interaction, and empowerment are significantly correlated with the number of new donors a site is able to attract, and that accessibility, accountability, and education are also highly correlated with the total value of online donations offered.     

For Whom the Web Toils: How Internet Experience Predicts Web Reliance and Credibility

This study employs an online survey of politically interested Internet users to examine the degree to which Internet experience predicts reliance on the World Wide Web (Web) and Web credibility. Respondents in this study represent an experienced group of Internet users. The average user had been online 6.2 years. However, they regularly engaged in only 9.4 of 22 possible online activities, suggesting they regularly visit a core group of sites. Although years online and number of online activities emerged as distinct measures of Internet experience, neither strongly predicted Web reliance or Web credibility. Neither Internet experience variable predicted any of the six measures of Internet credibility. Number of activities did not influence Web reliance and years online was negatively related, indicating that those who had been online for a shorter time were more likely to rely on the Web than veteran users.     

Adolescent Weblog Use: Risky or Protective?

Weblogs, or personal websites updated in time-based fashions, are common media used for expressing thoughts and networking socially online (Lenhart et al. in Teens and social media, Pew Internet and American Life Project, Washington, DC, 2007). This qualitative study describes the content of 100 adolescent weblog users’ communications through a risk and resilience framework. These users primarily utilized weblogs for community building, as most of their postings involved communications designed to foster and nurture relationships with peers via the weblog. The majority of the content posted involved the discussion of common prosocial behaviors, such as doing homework, hanging out with friends, or planning for events such as dances. A surprisingly small amount of weblog content included text about risk factors and related problem behaviors. Findings are described in relation to adolescent use of the Internet. Specific implications are drawn for social workers and other professionals involved in youth work.     

The Requirements of Community: An Online Survey of the Social Work Access Network (SWAN)

SUMMARY

This study details the typical user profile of visitors to the Social Work Access Network (SWAN) website. The online survey methodology is discussed along with data that benchmarks expected response rates for this method. User preferences for additional content and interactive opportunities as well as user satisfaction with the current site are described. It is concluded that the social work professionals must seek new ways to define, organize and implement a portal on the World Wide Web by building partnerships among sites offering social work content. In support of this, SWAN must evolve to provide a platform for discussion among the social work community through online gatherings using chat and bulletin board technologies.     

Building dialogic relationships through the world wide web

This article provides a theory-based, strategic framework to facilitate relationship building with publics through the World Wide Web. Although many essays on the Web have appeared in professional and technical periodicals, most treatments of the Web have lacked theoretical frameworks. Strategic communication on the World Wide Web can benefit from a consideration of dialogic communication.This article offers dialogic communication as a theoretical framework to guide relationship building between organizations and publics. Five strategies are provided for communication professionals use to create dialogic relationships with Internet publics.     

The potential of Web sites as a relationship building tool for charitable fundraising NPOs

The Internet and especially the new challenges within Web 2.0 provide organizations with the possibility of encouraging two-way communication and engaging publics in dialogue. Charitable fundraising nonprofit organizations (NPOs) can particularly benefit from the Web's relationship building potential. This study aims to explore the potential of Web sites as an online-communication tool of Swiss NPOs. Via content analysis, the Web sites of 134 Swiss charitable fundraising NPOs were examined in order to point out how those organizations are using the Web to create dialogic relationships with their most important stakeholder groups, which are potential donors and the media. Results indicate that the potential of the Internet for dialogic communication is not used efficiently by most NPOs. Nevertheless, NPOs seem to be acknowledging the importance of engaging publics in dialogue, as most of them replied to information requests from potential donors and the media.¹     

Dialogic strategies and outcomes: An analysis of environmental advocacy groups’ Facebook profiles

Previous studies of advocacy groups’ Web sites suggest that the use of dialogic strategies could lead to greater dialogic communication. This study examined whether dialogic strategies utilized by environmental advocacy groups via their social networking profiles lead to greater dialogic engagement between organizations and visitors. This study offers the first examination of the relationship between the creation of an online space for dialogue and actual dialogic engagement by identifying and measuring six dialogic outcomes.     

The Effects of the Political Environment On Public Relations in Bulgaria

The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between Web characteristics and perceptions toward relational components. A 2 (low interactivity and high interactivity) x 2 (text-oriented and multimedia-oriented) between-group experiment was designed with 197 participants to investigate this question. The outcomes showed that interactivity has significant effects on relationship building. However, the interaction effects between interactivity and medium arrangement suggest that nonessential arrangement of interactivity and multimedia did not enhance positive perceptions of relationships with the organizations. Interactivity, however, showed that the main effect, multimedia orientation, did not. The application of interactivity on the Web was discussed for better relationship building.     

Thinking critically about the Internet: suggestions for practitioners

Parents have a long history of seeking child-rearing information in the popular media. This trend continues on the World Wide Web, with the number of parents online still on the rise. The Web offers speed, 24-hour access, and extremely large quantities of child rearing information. Although the availability of huge quantities of childrearing information has many positive aspects, there is a serious risk of exposure to erroneous and potentially harmful information due to the absence of monitoring of online material. This article summarizes the literature on parents' Web use and describes several steps that, if taken, will help to lessen the chance of parents' exposure to risky online material. The steps include: making parents aware of the risks, providing them with sets of screened sites that they can trust, and teaching them a few simple Web skills to improve their searching and their assessment of sites' trustworthiness.     

Internet use for health information among college students

Use of the Internet to retrieve health information is increasingly common. The authors surveyed 743 undergraduate students at 2 academic institutions to examine their Internet use, health-seeking behaviors, and attitudes related to the use of the Internet to obtain health information. Fifty-three percent of the respondents indicated that they would like to get health information online, and 28% reported that they would like to attend a health program online. Overall, 74% of the students reported having ever received health information online, and more than 40% reported that they frequently searched the Internet for information. They used various search engines and multiple Web sites to find health information. Issues related to the credibility of the information on health Web sites were crucial considerations for students. The study found differences in Internet use for health information by gender and by level of Internet experience.     

Suicide prevention in the dot com era: technological aspects of a university suicide prevention program

Western Michigan University's Suicide Prevention Program utilizes multiple technological components, including an online training course, a Web site, and 2 social networking Web site profiles, as integral aspects of a comprehensive program. This article discusses the development, maintenance, use, and impact of the technological aspects of this program, which complement other program activities in meeting program goals. The Web site and use of social networking Web sites have been very well received by members of the university and wider community. Although initial outcomes of each component are positive, low participation in the online training course has limited the usefulness of pretest-posttest comparisons. It is thought that other campus suicide prevention programs may benefit from using technology as a primary method in their suicide prevention programming efforts.     

Risk Management in Online Human Services Practice

SUMMARY

The growing use of the Internet for human service practice has resulted in ethical and legal issues that have yet to be fully addressed by current professional codes of ethics and the courts. This paper describes issues and risk-management procedures related to online human service practice, including: use of novel and untested services, unclear jurisdiction, equivalence of face-to-face and online practice, duty to warn and to provide emergency services, privacy and security of online transactions, establishment of fiduciary relationships, online assessment, and fees for online services. In addition, risk-management issues related to human service agency Web sites including copyright, ownership of the Web site, posting of staff names, online fundraising, online threats and disruption of services, unsolicited e-mail, and agency e-mail policies are discussed.     

THE INFLUENCE OF HOLISTIC AND ANALYTIC COGNITIVE STYLES ON ONLINE INFORMATION DESIGN: Toward a communication theory of cultural cognitive design

Although studies have linked culture to online user preferences and performance, few communication researchers have recognized the impact of culture on online information design and usability. It is important to ask if people are better able to use and prefer Web sites created by designers from their own culture. We propose that to improve computer-mediated communication, Web site design should accommodate culturally diverse user groups. First, a body of research is presented that aligns East Asian cultures with more holistic cognitive styles and Western cultures with more analytical cognitive styles. Building on this contrast, a theory of cultural cognitive design is proposed as a means of understanding how cognitive styles that develop under the influence of culture lead to different ways of designing and organizing information for the Web.     

‘My Vagina Makes Funny Noises’: Analyzing Online Forums to Assess the Real Sexual Health Concerns of Young People

ABSTRACT. One hundred online sexual health forum pages were analyzed to identify sexual health concerns of young people. Pages collected from five popular forum Web sites posted in August 2011 were indexed, noting demographics, primary complaint, type of question and response, misconceptions of medical concepts, and general keywords. Gaps in knowledge were identified regarding tampon use, menstrual fluid, hormonal contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and signs of pregnancy. Forum participants searched online using symptoms, a finding that suggests Web sites providing sexual health information to young people should be organized by symptom. Sex education should inform students about transmission risks associated with common sexual practices rather than focusing on diseases and should teach how to find and access local services.     

Suicide Prevention in the Dot Com Era: Technological Aspects of a University Suicide Prevention Program

Abstract

Western Michigan University's Suicide Prevention Program utilizes multiple technological components, including an online training course, a Web site, and 2 social networking Web site profiles, as integral aspects of a comprehensive program. This article discusses the development, maintenance, use, and impact of the technological aspects of this program, which complement other program activities in meeting program goals. The Web site and use of social networking Web sites have been very well received by members of the university and wider community. Although initial outcomes of each component are positive, low participation in the online training course has limited the usefulness of pretest–posttest comparisons. It is thought that other campus suicide prevention programs may benefit from using technology as a primary method in their suicide prevention programming efforts.