Internet

Twitter saw a surge in its number of users between 2009 and 2010, particularly among teens. Content on the character-limited blogging and social networking ranges from the mundane to important world news, and from personal exchanges to advertisements. This broad range of content leaves open a range of possible explanatory factors driving increased usage.

Whether violent video games are a harmless pastime or a facilitator of aggressive behavior is a subject of continuing public debate and scholarly inquiry.

The Internet is thick with social networks, but it is not clear which conditions favor the rapid spread of information or the adoption of behaviors offline. One theory maintains that an online network with more “weak ties” and overall connections can quickly and efficiently encourage the adoption of a given social behavior. A competing theory suggests that a network with more clusters of overlapping connections can better promote that behavior by delivering the same message to an individual multiple times.

Random Digit Dialing (RDD) is a popular research method in which participants are contacted by the random dialing of telephone numbers. As more U.S. residents move to cell phones, however, they are increasingly out of reach of such traditional phone-based surveys. The Internet can also be used to administer surveys, and it has the advantage of allowing researchers to target specific populations (known as a “probability” survey) or random groups (a “non-probability” survey).

As part of our ongoing collaboration with Nieman Journalism Lab, we’ve rounded up the latest in digital- and media-oriented scholarship — picking highlights from disciplines such as computer science, political science, journalism research and communications.