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COMM 151 Exam 2

Terms in this set (72)

List two ways in which CMC has changed the ability to create and run groups?
Easier to communicate and coordinate action
Locate group members easier
What was Olson's theory of collective action and how does technology make it irrelevant?
Olson's theory of collective action argued that in larger groups, members will be less likely to contribute to a collective good for a variety of reasons including lower levels of efficiency due to a larger group size, decreased ability to provide selective incentives, and inability to coerce certain behaviors.
To condense his thoughts, Olson used privileged, intermediate, and latent groups. Choose one of those and define it.
Privileged: Some people care so much that they are willing to provide for the good even if others don't help.
Intermediate: No member has enough interest to advance the collective interest on their own but the group is small enough that any contribution made by others is easily recognizable. Makes forming and monitoring groups easier.
Latent: Large groups require more organization to advance shared interests. Individual contributions are not noticeable, therefore the incentive is low to provide for the group.
Why is Facebook subject to distributing more disinformation than Wikipedia?
Facebook is subject to distributing more disinformation than Wiki bc Wiki is not as desperate for clicks (ie: likes, shares). Also, Wikipedia does not distribute different content based on individual users' preferences. Facebook has machine learning Flags which may filter content for users.
Define the Free-riding problem and give an example of this in reality.
When individuals in a collective group understand that their lack of contribution will not adversely harm the effects of their group and therefore do not contribute. This is potentially harmful as it might deter everyone else from contributing leading to a collapse of the system.
An example would be the honor Subway system where they trusted people to buy their own tickets before entering but this resulted in 5.5M of losses.
define selective incentive and describe how they continue to work.
Selective incentives are private goods made available to people depending if they have contributed to the collective good. They continue to work due to in depth monitoring that dole out rewards or punishments.
Where does the term "trolls" come from?
"Trolling with flamebait" or "trolling for newbies"
How does the Web provide new types of collective goods? Provide two examples of this new type of collective good.
Web: HUGE pool of goods are NOT rival (excluding tiny bandwidth costs)
One person's enjoyment of a website doesn't prevent someone else from enjoying it.
Can create text, music, video, recipes for own reasons, but almost instantly give it away to the world (public good).
​​Examples: Open source/free software, discussion forum knowledge, most information
What did the researchers hypothesize in "Can AI Enhance People's Support for Online Moderation and their Openness to Dissimilar Political Views,"(Wojcieszak, 2021)? Did their findings support their hypothesis? Why or why not?
The researchers expect that AI and AI assisted humans will be perceived as more favorable compared to humans in scenarios of content moderation, generation, and recommendation. They also expect AI and AI assisted humans will be more favorable when individuals are exposed to counter-attitudinal information.Their findings did not support this hypothesis because they found that participants viewed human agents as more just than AI across all of the scenarios with the exception of recommendations. Furthermore, participants are not more open to counter-attitudinal information attributed to AI compared to humans or AI assisted humans. These findings suggest that human intervention is preferred online and people reject counter-attinal information regardless of its source.
According to Willer, what are the two factors that contribute to the moral empathy gap?
Information and inclination
This "moral empathy gap" is why it is difficult for those with differing political views to understand each other.
How is Snapchat different from other networks?
Snapchat has an inherently ephemeral nature, whereby any messages are automatically deleted shortly after the receiver has viewed them, allowing an increased experience of perceived privacy and safety online.
Explain how Wikipedia works and what is the key feature of Wikipedia that prevented it from overwhelming inappropriate edits?
Anyone create articles, can change other people's articles.
Other people have higher power of administration.
Lock, revert, delete edits and ban users.
Quickly revert editing prevents it from overwhelming inappropriate edits.
What is "Dunbar's number" and what is its relationship with social network?
Dunbar's number is the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships ... in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.
Computers help us overcome these limits
According to "The Internet Should be More like Wikipedia," what are the three ways Wikipedia avoids the "sludge"?
According to Gossett, Wikipedia avoids "the sludge" (which refers to misinformation and manipulation on the Web) because they prioritize peer production over advertisements and engagement maximization, they have robust editorial oversight, and they do not rely on personalization or amplification algorithms.
According to Alhabash and Ma's article, what are the five major assumptions of the uses and gratification approach?
1. Audience members are active and goal-oriented consumers of media.
2. People ratify certain needs when using media.
3. As media satisfy needs, they become sources of competition to other need-satisfying sources.
4. Media users are aware of their interests and motives and have certain expectations of media that help them with media selections and need gratification.
5. Media users are the ones capable of judging the quality of media.
According to Alhabash and Ma's article, which of the four social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) was different when comparing the #1 motivation of specifically using any of the four platforms?
...
According to the reading on Change My View, what are the two factors that contribute to the moral empathy gap? Explain what these two factors mean.
The Two factors that contribute to the moral empathy gap are (1) Information and (2) Inclination. The Information factor connects to the reason as to why individuals who don't have the same political beliefs have a hard time understanding each other. The information gap is the idea that individuals either chose not to or truly can't access the correct information which would allow them to listen to someone with dissimilar views. This is in connection to where they might live (red or blue state) or what source they receive their news from. The Inclination factor connects to the question of how motivated individuals truly are to end the dispute and actually hear each other out.
What are the 3 basic psychological needs according to the self-determination theory (SDT)?
Competence, autonomy, and relatedness
Especially in recent times, Wikipedia has struggled to maintain as many editors as they once had. What are some reasons for that?
There is a large gender gap in the editing body, A lot of English articles are already created, and dramatic arguments can take place over edits on the most controversial wikipedia pages.
Professor Groeling was once quoted as saying that students would likely stop using Facebook once they had graduated. Why was he incorrect?
At the time a student university email was required to make a Facebook account but that requirement was subsequently removed.
Name and briefly explain three of the "lessons learned" about SNS and addiction by Kuss and Griffiths.
1. Social media and social networks are not the same
2. SNS is eclectic
3. Assumption that you must always be "on"
4. Addiction to SNS is like real addiction: mood changes, withdrawals, relapses etc
5. FB is only one type of SNS addiction
6. FOMO is part of SNS addiction
7. Smartphone addiction is part of SNS addciction
8. Nomophobia too
9. Socio demographic differences in whos addicted (mostly generational)
10. Methodological problems to all of these
define social capital and give an example of it
Type of capital where you have people in your social network that you trust and can reach out to. Ex: knowing your neighbors and being able to leave your kids with them in an emergency. Having a friend where you both drive each other to the airport
According to Kuss and Griffiths, what do "FOMO" and "nomophobia" stand for?
fear of missing out, no mobile phone phobia
What two people were celebrities shown to separate themselves into after becoming famous according to a 2009 study?
their true self and their public self
what are the two concepts (words) Wikipedia built from?
Hawaiian word for wiki which means quick, and encyclopedia
explain why Wikipedia survived vandalization compared to Usenet ? (how they were designed differently?
The revert function
What are two differences between Instagram and Snapchat?
Compared to Snapchat, Instagram has permanence and allowance for more words/more text.
What do trolls intend to do?
Trolls intend to get attention, disrupt discussions, or generally increase noise
Why is Facebook less popular with students?
Because Facebook is too open and easy to be viewed by others, students' privacy may be infringed by their parents.
What is the purpose of the Change My View subreddit? Define the notion of "moral reframing" as discussed by Bense.
Discuss topics and issues with people who hold opposite views/perspectives
Moral reframing: "appealing to the morality of the person you are trying to convince rather than your own"
Dunbar argues that social media disaggregates friends into different layers. What are the three layers as mentioned by Dunbar? Generally speaking, how many people can be found in each of these layers? Define the relationship that one may have with individuals from each of these layers.
"Support clique": close friends (around 4 people).
"Sympathy group": people they would consider going to for advice or sympathy in times of great emotional or other distress (around 11-14 people).
Broader friend network between 100-200 people.
What is Wikipedia's self-policed goal?
To accurately convey reliable information in a dispassionate, neutral tone.
What is social media's discrete requirement? (name three of them)
1. Social media are internet-based, disentrained, persistent channels of masspersonal communication facilitating perceptions of interactions among users, deriving value primarily from user-generated content.
2. Social media should be perceived as interactive and user-generated.
3. Social media must be masspersonal and allow its users to broadcast interpersonal communication to large audiences.
How do social networking sites affect social capital?
SNS may increase social capital and foster more diverse weak ties, which can lead to new information and broadened world views. Links, shared values, and understanding within a society enable people to trust and help one another. SNS provides social investment with the expectation of future reciprocity
What is the difference between social networking and social media?
Social media is broader, while social networking is a narrower subset of specific communities and shared interests
To understand such variations in large-scale action networks requires distinguishing between at least two logics that may be in play, point out the two logics and define them.
The familiar logic of collective action associated with high levels of organizational resources and the formation of collective identities, and the less familiar logic of connective action based on personalized content sharing across media networks
What does Instagram do to limit sensitive content?
giving users some control over how much content is filtered out of their explore tabs, where the app recommends content from accounts they do not already follow.
Discuss three different motivations for using social media platforms and why motivations vary across platforms.
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1. What is the difference between a privileged group and a latent group?
Privileged: ppl care so much, willing to provide for the good even when others don't help
Intermediate: no member interested enough to advance collective interest on their own, group is small enough that any contribution = recognizable -> forming and monitoring groups EZ
Latent: large groups require more organization, individual contributions are not noticeable = low incentive to provide for the group
What is a social selective incentive and why did Olson believe this type of incentive only works in small groups?
...
What are shills? And what are they becoming synonymous with?
A shill is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with that person or organization.
According to "A Farewell to Free Journalism", why couldn't journalism without a paywall work? Be sure to address the structure of the traditional media business and changes brought by the open Internet in your answer.
- Magazines and newspapers were what's known as a "two-sided market": We sold subscriptions to you, our readers, and once you'd subscribed, we sold your eyeballs to our advertisers.
- The companies that are winning — mostly Google and Facebook — get content for free from their users, or other people on the Internet.
- Traditional media can survive competition for readers just fine. It's competition for advertisers that's killing us.
Briefly explain what media literacy is and why it might save humanity. Please make references to "Making Media Literacy Great Again" in your answer and be sure to address the issues of confirmation bias and critical loyalty while answering the second part of this question.
- Those with media literacy training can still be fiercely committed to their world view, but they can also successfully question flimsy claims. They can call bullshit. Maybe they can even stop spreading it.
- Students are taught how to look up domain name registration records.
- Image searches. To track down a photo's origins, simply drop the questionable image into the search bar on Google Image.
- Definite warning signs: poor grammar and cheap-looking design
Name one potential and one limitation of automated journalism.
Algorithms can use the same data to tell stories in multiple languages and from different angles, thus personalizing them to an individual reader's preferences.
Algorithms can't ask questions explain new phenomena, or establish causality
Why is social capital important in a society?
-Links, shared values, understanding within a society that enable people to trust & help one another.
- Social investment with expectation of future reciprocity.
What does West tell CJR about media literacy ?
There's information warfare going on right now."
How is Wikipedia funded without monetizing ads and how much money did they obtain in 2013?
Donations and they raised over 50 million dollars!
According to professor Groeling, are we experiencing a technology revolution? If so, what kind?
Yes, it is a information revolution and communication innovations are leading to societal revolution.
Describe the experiment conducted by Kramer et al. in 2014. What results did they find?
Experiment - Test whether emotional states can be transmitted through online networks of communication without their awareness (massive experiment: N = 689,003).
Two experiments: reduce probability that 1) positive or 2) negative posts by friends were
shown in feed (not wall or timeline). Both had randomly-omitted friend posts as control
group.
Result - Can't measure recipient's emotions directly, so look at positive & negative words (as proportion of all words) posted during study.
Find significant evidence of contagion from both treatments. Small effects
sizes, but argue large when mapped onto massive FB activity.
According to Bayer et al., what is the definition of social media?
"Internet-based, disentrained, and persistent channels of masspersonal communication facilitating perceptions of interactions among users, deriving value primarily from user-generated content."
Name three possible subsidizers for news on social media?
attention-seekers/hobbyist, loss-leader for another business, donors, commissions on referrals,
native advertising
What is the main reason people block others on their feed?
Offensive Political content
Explain why it is difficult to directly apply the model of online discourse in the Change My View subreddit to a wider context.
The main reason mentioned in the article is that members of the Change My View subreddit are those who are looking to engage in reasoned debate, such as aspiring lawyers, and those who may even look to change their own views by visiting the subreddit
What does it mean when a Wikipedia page is under "extended confirmed protection" and give one example of a page that is under that category.
When a Wikipedia page is under "extended confirmed protection", changes to the page must be made by senior editors who can then be overridden by administrators. Donald Trump's Wikipedia page is an example of a page that falls under this category.
How do factors such as political knowledge and media literacy affect a person's ability to discern fake news?
Political knowledge does not affect a person's accuracy to discern fake news but media literacy improved accuracy.
According to the reading "Guide to Automated Journalism" by Andreas Graefe, automated journalism has been used in three areas/topics of reporting so far. What are they and why does it work well with this type of news?
Used in reporting weather, financial news, and in newsrooms (homicides/earthquakes).
What is the 'interesting paradox' at the beginning of the Gossett (2020) article?
the paradox is about how low budget sites have done better against the malign disinformation than the wealthy sites like Facebook.
What is required for real relationships (as opposed to casual) to be maintained?
At least occasional face-to-face interaction.
According to the article "It's not easy for ordinary citizens to identify fake news ", why respondents seemed to have more trouble deciding what to think about false covid-19 stories? What are the possible effect brought by covid-related fake news?
It is because finding suggests that it may be particularly difficult to identify misinformation in newly emerging topics. Covid-related misinformation can undermine social distancing efforts, to lead people to hoard supplies, or to promote the adoption of potentially dangerous fake cures.
What is a "moving target" and how does this concept apply to the evolution of TikTok?
NYT previously called tiktok refreshing because they didnt have ads, news or aspiring model. But now it has all of the above.
What is the social brain hypothesis? How does Dunbar explore social networking's impact on this? What does he find?
Social brain hypothesis -there is a cognitive constraint on the size of social networks that even the communication advantages of online media are unable to overcome. In practical terms, it may reflect the fact that real (as opposed to casual) relationships require at least occasional face-to-face interaction to maintain them
Why did Wikipedia succeed over Usenet?
Wikipedia succeeded over usenet because the revert function allowed for the original content to be re introduced without second thought, versus a forum like usenet, where anyone can say anything and it could **** up the initial point. Also because there was less robust moderation.
What is a downside to having moderators in large group discussions?
groups with fairly homogenous views might upvote based on those views & suppress other views
In large groups, why don't people act in the group's best interests?
Because in large groups, tempted to free ride and individual efforts are too small to noticeably affect outcome.
Because in large groups, tempted to free ride and individual efforts are too small to effectively monitor and punish/reward (related to above).
3 point question: Describe and explain the two main ways in which CMC has made discussion easier?
1.Easier to gather interested people together than face to face, especially with obscure topics, due to virtually limitless range of communication ("Many to many" discussion).
2. Scales very well (can communicate with thousands or even millions) for very little money, in contrast to face to face
where communicating with large groups is expensive and difficult to manage. In this sense its easy for tons of people
To simultaneously enjoy the benefits (or harms) of the discussion
What are the characteristics of Postwar "mainstream" Media?
Limited number of providers (gatekeepers)
Largely insulated from competition (high startup costs)
Common values and norms; "professionals"
Paid for by mass advertising (VERY profitable)
Relatively passive audience
Limited access to mass comm tools
Limited provider competition meant hard to influence content
Describe and explain the two main ways in which CMC has changed the ability to create and run groups?
1. Locating group members is MUCH easier. This is because the internet may connect people of common or homogenous interests regardless of geography. This is particularly relevant for uncommon or socially unacceptable interests (Ex:pro-anorexia support group)]
2.MUCH easier for people to communicate and coordinate their actions. People may instantaneously communicate to
groups of virtually unlimited size, with far greater noticeability and Cheaper organizational costs than the conventions
And news letters of generations prior
What are three questions the "Calling Bullshit" professors at the University of Washington encourage students to ask when approaching any type of media?
Who is telling me this? How do they know it? What's in it for them?
Rosenwald refers to "glittering generalities" in his article "Making Media Literacy Great Again." What are they and what is their effect in media?
[a]n attempt to sway emotions through the use of shining ideals or virtues, such
as freedom, justice, truth, education, democracy in a large, general way." - basically, propaganda
Describe weak links and strong links. Identify which type of link is supported by social networking sites and how.
-Prior research: SNS might be especially good at fostering: "bridging" social capital: more diverse "weak ties" might foster novel information and broadened worldviews
-Bad at fostering: "bonding" social capital: stronger, more developed ties of trust, support, and intimacy
Why does wikipedia tend to do better in fighting misinformation than large sites like Facebook?
- not as desperate for clicks/engagement
-no investor pressure
-easy to reverse edits to discourage trolls
-community governance helps keep a basic level of civility and content quality
-doesn't give different content based on preferred content
-editorial commitment to systematic review, neutrality and reliable citations
machine learning flags suspicious edits
core values of deliberation, stewardship, and common ownership and common good
What are Finstagrams and why do people have a Finstagram?
Finstagrams are intimate online spaces intended for an audience of friends with the number of followers purposely kept in the low double digits.
People usually have Finstagram to post things that you wouldn't want people other than your friends to see, such as unattractive pictures or random stories about your day.
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