Chapter Outline

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• Chapter Outline
• What is Internet ?
  P.2 3
• Brief History and Development of Internet
  P.4
• The Internet in Research
  P.5 7
• Attitudes toward the Net
  P.8 12
• Individual Aspect of Internet Use
  P.13 16
• Social Aspects of Internet Use
  P.17 22
• Conclusion
  P.23

Thank you in advance for your attention and lets
begin.
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What is Internet ?
Giles The Internet is a global computing network
that connects local computing networks to one
another.
Internet One Medium or Several ?
A mass medium was one that either brought
together technology, culture or mass
communication. The Internet does ALL THREE but
it dose a lot more besides.
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What is Internet ?
Internet is a MULTI-FACETED MEDIUM comprising
a number of discrete functions (Morris and Ogan,
1996)
How Multi-faceted it is ?
1. Primarily it is a communication medium
analogous to telephone or fax machine.
angus.hongkong_at_gmail.com (eMail)

• Synchronous or Asynchronous communication medium.

www.discuss.com.hk (Chat Environments / Usenet)
3. An information Medium like the traditional
media.
www.cityu.edu.hk (World Wide Web)
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Brief History and Development of Internet
Late 50s USSR launched Sputnik, the 1st
artificial satellite, in 4 Oct, 1957.
1960s ARPANET (Advanced Research Project
Agency) set up by the US Government, the biggest
enemy of USSR, in response to the Sputnik.
1969 ARPANET only accessible between 4 US
universities, limited to academia.
1972 Spread to 37 NODES from the 4 nodes in
1969.
1980s Grown out of all recognition and was
being used for discussion groups outside academia.
1989 The creation of the World Wide Web (www)
and set universal standards (eg. HTML,
Hyper-Text Mark-up Language) and allowed users to
link documents through hypertext.
1990s The development of browsers like MOSAIC
in 1992, NETSCAPE in 1994, and INTERNET EXPLORER
in 1996 - Search Engines
- Fibre-Optic Cable (Ultra high speed for data
transmitting communication) -
Chatrooms (Synchronous communication)
- MUDs (Multi User Dungeon, text based virtual
reality game) - Web Cam (Transmit
pictures almost real time online)
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The Internet in Research
Though there is a growth in the research, within
academia, on internet in recent years, findings
are still far behind in compare w/ the research
on other aspects of media communication for the
reasons of -
Media in general are treated with suspicion with
academia because media are developing in sheer
speed VS academic research on media in funereal
pace and
Researchers rather wait for a medium to have a
profound impact on society before investing time
effort into studying.
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The Internet in Research
Positive elements that blossom Internet Research
- Computer science literature has obviously kept
abreast of developments w/in technology. In order
to remain contemporary, there has been a gradual
shift from hard-copy publishing to online
literature. - IT-related social science areas
journals, eg. Journal of Computer Mediated
Communication and such kind began to appear
during the 90s in response to the need for rapid
dissemination of research in this area.
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The Internet in Research
What Mostly Interested Psychology in The Internet
In the early stage, internet has been restricted
to its use as a tool for conducting research and
online surveys. The internet was not in media use
as such, but in the potential of the net as a
mean of facilitating data collection in
conventional psychological projects. It is also
a tendency for internet user to disclose more
information and generally communicate in a less
inhibited fashion than in face-to-face
interaction, this may create confounding factors
for researchers who are just hoping that the
internet can be treated as an unproblematic
vehicle for speeding up research.
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Attitudes toward the Net
As with traditional media, most writers about the
Internet can be broadly classified as either
positive and negative. Generally the former
outweigh the latter in academia, largely because
people who are not excited by the prospect of
cyber-culture or the digital age are much less
inclined to research and write about it.
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Attitudes toward the Net (Continue)
Positive Attitudes Internet enthusiasts see it
as opening up opportunities in the educational
field. It create an information-rich society in
which people can all be educated at the click of
a mouse. The Net as the inspiration for a new
Digital Generation of children who end up
actually teaching their parents how to get the
most out of technology. Rushkoff (1996) and
Tapscott (1998)
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Attitudes toward the Net (Continue)
Negative Attitudes Internet largely focuses on
popular fears about the easy distribution of
unsavory information such as Right-wing
propaganda, Terrorist information (bomb-making
site), Unacceptable forms of pornography,
etc. (Steinberg and Kincheloes, Kinderculture,
1997)
Many of these negative concerns are simply an
updated versions of early fears about radio and
TV content some decades before !!!
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Attitudes toward the Net (Continue)

• Similarities of Attitudes Towards The Net Radio
• Both were developed initially for military
  communication purposes
• Same fears about their use as disseminators of
  unsavory propaganda
• Both one-way communication despite the net can
  perform two way interaction through emails and
  hyperlinks, much material and information
  available on Web is provided by the same
  institutions that provide information in other
  media.

The Concept of Web 2.0 has not yet be
presented in 2003 (latest edition of this
book)
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Attitudes toward the Net (Continue)
More Pro Con Attitudes Toward The Net

• Pros
• - More Democratic
• Descriptions as Liberating Emancipatory
• A global meeting place
• - No geographical or spatial bounds

• Cons
• - Economically control by software and hardware
  manufacturers
• Phase out media of old technology gradually
• Create unemployment to society (eg. ETC vs
  Teller)

Giles It is not the technology that is driving
change, but the market itself !!!
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Individual Aspect of Internet Use WHO? Findings
from survey conducted in Midwest of U.S. in 1996
showing Innovative Internet Subscribers /
Internet User Young, Affluent, Educated and
mostly Male (Atkin, Jeffres Neuendorf,
1998) WHERE? Internet Adoption at home or at
work is still a question
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Individual Aspect of Internet Use
(continue) HOW? Internet comes under the control
of user that differs sharply from traditional
media like TV, radio and newspapers. It is likely
to have a major impact on the Effects of its
content by the user. (Morris Ogan, 1996) It
was also found that Web could not be compete
w/television for entertainment purpose, it was
unable to meet all functions of television,
notably on relaxation value and its use as a tool
for passing the time. Teenagers were found that
they did not use internet for informational or
educational purposes. (Ferguson and Perse, 2000)
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Individual Aspect of Internet Use
(continue) Aspect of News Selecting by
Individual Net User Findings suggested that
individual internet user attribute news gatherers
and editors. Similar like the Agenda Setting
process on internet. If Agenda setting is left to
the user, many of the functions of news are
potentially lost and doubt creeps in. Over
involvement of users with medium !!!
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Individual Aspect of Internet Use
(continue) Internet Dependent Average
weekly online time gt 38 Hours (Young, 1998) It
was found that those excessive internet use is
for social communication rather that
informational, most of the case studies reported
by Griffiths and Young concerned users of online
chatting facilities, dating agencies and MUDs
rather than idle browsing. For some
individuals, cyber-communication has distinct
advantages over Face-To-Face communication, but
some studies show that Internet user producing
conflict in users social relationships.
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Social Aspects of Internet Use Online
Relationships The Media Equation
Anthropomorphize machines and media, treating
them as though HUMAN. (Reeves Nass,
1996) Online communication is profoundly
different from face-to-face interaction, no
gestural and other non-verbal cues that convey
paralinguistic information to supplement the
verbal content of communication. Gestures or
non-verbal cues A shrug of shoulders, a head
nod, a wink Emotion Substitutions -) , -_-
! , _lt , um, ah, etc.
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Social Aspects of Internet Use (continue)
Elements that usually taken into account in
communication

• Online Communication
• To Present a version of self that is confident
  eloquent
• Without being hampered by shyness
• No articulation
• No prejudices from appearance, physical
  disabilities, ethnicity or obesity

• Face-To-Face Communication
• Appearance
• Body (age, gender, ethnicity, attractiveness,
  fashion sense)
• Manner of speaking
• Social class and cultural background through
  accents
• Social competence confidence through
  articulation
• Personality characteristics through immediate
  real-time answers to questions.

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• Social Aspects of Internet Use (continue)
• Online Empowering It was particularly helpful
  for users who felt marginalized in face-to-face
  interaction, either for concealed reasons
  (sexuality) or conspicuous reasons (ethnicity or
  obesity). Sense of belongings and even
  self-esteem through group membership could be
  found from members of the online society.
• (Mckenna and Bargh, 1998)
• Case of Empowerment through online
  communication
• The Gay Society
• Society of Indian in Australia, UK, US, India
  Pakistan (Mira, 1997)

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Social Aspects of Internet Use (continue) Is
this the Human Nature for Making Friends In the
Reality ? Through the text-base
nature of online communication, eg. Newsgroup,
how far can cyber-relationship really the real
thing ? Park (1996) found that 1/3 of his
newsgroup members had made actual contact
another 1/3 had communicated via other media, eg.
telephone letter. Drees (1998) also found that
large numbers of his users had gone-on to form
romantic social relationship after internet
meetings. The findings of Parks and Drees
suggest that most Internet users feel a need to
meet their cyber-friends in person at some point.
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Social Aspects of Internet Use (continue) Multipl
e Internet Identities and Identity Laboratory
Cyberspace offer the potential for a completely
new concept of SELF. As we have done the
similar thing in reality world just like
recording an ansaphone message (Gergen, 1991)
setting loose to interact without our physical
presence in a job application form (Rom Harre,
1983) Chat-rooms MUDs are not the only best
place for Internet users to represent their ideal
self, personal home pages are also a good
opportunity for differing presentations of SELF.
(Cheung, 2000)
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Social Aspects of Internet Use (continue) It
was found that a personal home page actually
create the reverse effect instead of fragmenting
the individual self, they glorify or exaggerate
it.
(Wallace, 1999) The
Fragmented Self is a contentious issue in
social psychology. Although the liberating
potential of cyberspace may offer hopes to those
users who feel hampered from personal histories,
it raises again the question of how far this
potential is simply compensatory how many of
them are really content with invisible ? Batman
Super Heroes?
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Conclusion Cyberspace, nowadays, is rather less
glamorous and mysterious, Internet is no longer
something that will change the future but instead
is a phenomenon that is very much a part of the
present. The speed of technological change makes
research redundant very quickly, and even some of
the studies conducted during the late 1990s are
beginning to look dated. It seems likely that
the future of the Internet will depend on which
bit of it we are discussing. E-mail has
established itself as a commun-ication medium par
excellence alongside the telephone. User groups,
chat rooms, and MUDs still exist, but among
todays Internet users they are exotica rather
than typical activities. In either case, it
seems that it is the Web and its various
interactive offshoots that hold the most interest
for media psychologists.
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Q A Session
Thank you for your extraordinary patience and
you are welcomed togive me your advices about my
presentation.
Thank You
Presented by Angus Chan / MACNM