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Research
Click here to see my research lab's Web site with information about ongoing projects and
collaborators.
This page lists my publications in chronological order (my CV lists them
by type and then chronological order). On this page, you will find links
to pre-print copies of most publications. If something is not online,
please send me an email at research04-at-eszter-dot-com to request a
copy. Clicking on the title of a publication will lead you to a page with an abstract, an outline and acknowledgements in addition to
the paper itself, when available.
Legend
A = article
C = book chapter
E = edited volume
A14. Do You "Google"?
Understanding Search Engine Use Beyond the Hype
2004. First Monday. 9(3)
Much anecdotal evidence suggests that Google is the most popular search engine. However, such claims are rarely backed up by data.
The reasons for this are manifold, including the difficulty in measuring search engine popularity and the multiple ways in which the
concept can be understood. Here, I discuss the sources of confusion related to search engine popularity. It is problematic to make
unfounded assumptions about general users’ search engine choices because by doing so we exclude a large number of people from our
discussions about systems development and our understanding of how the average user finds information online.
A13. Classifying and Coding Online
Actions
2004. Social Science Computer Review. 22(2):210-227.
Summer.
Research on how the Internet is diffusing across the population has broadened from questions about who uses the medium to what people do
during their time online. With this change in focus comes a need for more detailed data on people's online actions. In this paper, I
provide a method for coding and classifying users' online information-seeking behavior. I present an exhaustive list of ways in which a
user may arrive at a Web page. The proposed methodology includes enough nuanced information to distinguish among different search
actions and links. In its entirety, the coding scheme makes it possible to understand many details about the users' sequence of actions
simply by looking at the spreadsheet containing the information proposed in this paper. I also demonstrate the utility of this coding
scheme with findings from a study on the online information-seeking behavior of 100 randomly selected Internet users to exemplify the
utility of this coding and classification scheme.
C05. From Unequal Access
to Differentiated Use:
A Literature Review and Agenda for Research
on
Digital Inequality
with Paul DiMaggio, Coral Celeste and Steven Shafer
In press. In Social Inequality. Edited by Kathryn Neckerman.
New
York:
Russell Sage Foundation, 2004.
This paper reviews what we know about inequality in access to and use of new digital technologies. Until recently, most research has
focused on inequality in access (the "digital divide"), measured in a variety of ways. We agree that inequality of access is important,
because it is likely to reinforce inequality in opportunities for economic mobility and social participation. At the same time we argue
that a more thorough understanding of digital inequality requires placing Internet access in a broader theoretical context, and asking a
wider range of questions about the impact of information technologies and informational goods on social inequality. In particular, five
key issues around which we structure this paper.
(1) The digital divide. Who has access to the Internet, who does not have access, and how has this changed?
(2) Is access to and use of the Internet more or less unequal than access to and use of other forms of information technology?
(3) Inequality among persons with access to the Internet.
(4) Does access to and use of the Internet affect people's life chances
(5) How might the changing technology, regulatory environment and industrial organization of the Internet render obsolete the findings
reported hear?
A12. Internet Access and Use in Context
2004. New Media and Society. 6(1):137-143
Over the past five years, thousands of articles have appeared in academic
journals about new media, the Internet and the web. The topics range from
identity expression in online communities to how new media may affect
political participation and voter turnout. The range of questions is both
overwhelming and exciting. At the core of all these explorations lies a
more basic question, however: Who uses new media and -– equally important
–- who does not? It is an important baseline measure for putting into the
appropriate context all other studies of new media use. In this short
review piece, I look at three books that consider the "digital divide" at
different levels
and focus on different dimensions of access
and use and offer thoughts on how this research agenda needs to move
forward.
C04. The Digital Divide and What
To
Do About It
2003. New Economy Handbook. Edited by Derek C. Jones.
San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
In a society where knowledge-intensive activities are an increasingly important component of the economy, the distribution of
knowledge across the population is increasingly linked to stratification. Much attention among both academic researchers and in
policy circles has been paid to what segments of the population have access to the Internet or are Internet users. Although the
medium has seen high rates of diffusion, its spread has been unequal both within and across nations. In this chapter, I look at (a)
individual-level inequality in Internet access and use in the United States, (b) cross-national variation in connectedness, and (c)
inequality from the side of content producers in gaining audiences for their material online.
C03. The Changing
Online Landscape:
From Free-for-All to Commercial
Gatekeeping
2004. Community Practice in the Network Society: Local
Actions/Global
Interaction.
Edited by Peter Day and Doug Schuler. New York: Routledge.
pp.66-76.
Much of the literature on Internet use looks at the behavior of users in isolation from institutional factors that also affect how
people use the medium. This chapter looks at how decisions at the organizational level influence what people do online and more
specifically, how they find their way to information on the Web. Big point-of-entry sites make strategic business decisions about
how to organize and present content to users. The results of search engines, the layout of portal sites, the way people are
directed from one site to another may all influence what type of content people find and view online. Since big portal sites are
driven by a need to make a profit, their decisions on what content to feature are not necessarily based on the quality and
relevance of the Web sites they present to users. Companies spend great financial resources on gaining prominent positions on
portals and in the results listings of search engines. Thus, exposure seems to be increasingly connected to financial means. What
are the implications of this for not-for-profit Web sites? Non-profits have fewer resources to spend on promoting their online
presence. After discussing the ways in which financial considerations affect much of what content is easily accessible online, the
paper suggests ways in which non-profits can also gain exposure to relevant audiences without large expenditures.
A10. Serving Citizens' Needs:
Minimizing Online
Hurdles to Accessing Government Information
2003. IT & Society. 1(3) Winter.
With the rapid spread of the Internet across society, government institutions are taking advantage of digital technology to
distribute materials to citizens. Is merely having a Web site enough, or are there certain usability considerations site creators
must keep in mind to assure efficient public access to online materials? This project looked at typical people's ability to locate
various types of content online, in particular, their ability to find tax forms on the Web. Findings suggest that people look for
content in a myriad of ways, and there is considerable variance in how long people take to complete this online task. Users are
often confused by the ways in which content is presented to them. In this paper, two common sources of confusion in users' online
experiences with locating tax forms online are distinguished: (1) URL confusion, and (2) page design layout. Ways are also
suggested to decrease these two sources of frustration, yielding less exasperating and more productive user experiences.
A09. Beyond Logs and Surveys:
In-Depth Measures of People's Online Skills
2002. Journal of the American Society for Information Science
and
Technology. 53(14):1239-1244.
Finding information on the Web can be a much more complex search
process than previously experienced on many pre-Web information retrieval
systems given that finding content online does not have to happen via a
search algorithm typed into a search field. Rather, the Web allows for a
myriad of search strategies. Although there are numerous studies of Web
search techniques, these studies often limit their focus to just one part
of the search process and are not based on the behavior of the general
user population, nor do they include information about the users. To
remedy these shortcomings, this project looks at how people find
information online in the context of their other media use, their general
Internet use patterns, in addition to using information about their
demographic background and social support networks. This article describes
the methodology in detail, and suggests that a mix of survey instruments
and in-person observations can yield the type of rich data set that is
necessary to understand in depth the differences in people’s information
retrieval behavior online.
A04. Open Portals or Closed Gates:
Channeling Content on the World Wide Web
2000. Poetics. 27(4):233-254.
This paper looks at what the tension between information abundance and attention scarcity implies for the diversity of information
accessible to users of the World Wide Web. Due to limited user attention, there is a role for gatekeepers in the online content
market. Sites that catalog Web content and primarily present themselves as content categorization services are argued to be the
gatekeepers in the new information age. Identifying the mechanisms by which they organize content is essential to understanding how
user attention is allocated to information available on the Web. Theories about media content diversity are delineated to suggest
what we may expect with respect to content diversity online. Methods for future empirical investigation are suggested. Finally, the
policy implications of the argument are presented.
The rest of this page is still under construction. In the meantime,
please check out my other publications on my fully functional research
page.
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