Chasing Success: A Cultivated Reality

George Gerbner’s cultivation theory claims that people who consume heavy amounts of media are more likely to be influenced by those messages to believe the media reality as opposed to actual reality. Using cultivation theory as the basis for study, I performed a cultivation analysis examining the intersection of mass media and perceptions of success among college-aged young adults living in the United States. The analysis focused on three main points: (1) How mass media perceives and subsequently demonstrates success. (2) The impact of mass media on young adults living in America. (3) What reality of success is cultivated by these young adults. The top five most-watched music videos from the past five years were analyzed for perceptions of success. Seventy-nine students from Bryant University were surveyed. A message analysis of the music videos revealed that wealth as well as conformity to certain standards of physical perfection and gender-specific behaviors were key elements of success. This study found that college-aged young adults who are heavier consumers of music videos tended to share the perceptions of success as perpetuated by the media over those who are light viewers. However, there were certain elements of success where the intersection of college-aged young adults’ perceptions of success and media were more nuanced and complicated

Acceptance and usage of webcasting among users of selected cyber cafes in Klang Valley

The Malaysian public now has access to the Internet not only at home and the workplace, but also at cyber cafés. This study aims to examine the level of acceptance of webcasting among users of selected cyber cafés in the Klang Valley. The specific objectives of the study are: to determine the profile of webcasting users and its usage; to determine the types of webcasting technology most frequently used, level of knowledge of webcasting and the main source of knowledge in becoming aware of webcasting; to determine the acceptance of webcasting among non-users of webcasting; and to determine the relationship between behavioral intention to use and the actual usage of webcasting among users of webcasting. This study used the survey design, using purposive sampling to select the cyber cafés and visitors of these cafés. The findings indicate that usage of webcasting is still relatively low among users of selected cyber cafés in the Klang Valley. Users of webcasting were found to be mostly male, young and relatively well educated with at least a diploma as the highest level of education obtained

Understanding user experience of mobile video: Framework, measurement, and optimization

Since users have become the focus of product/service design in last decade, the term User eXperience (UX) has been frequently used in the field of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). Research on UX facilitates a better understanding of the various aspects of the user’s interaction with the product or service. Mobile video, as a new and promising service and research field, has attracted great attention. Due to the significance of UX in the success of mobile video (Jordan, 2002), many researchers have centered on this area, examining users’ expectations, motivations, requirements, and usage context. As a result, many influencing factors have been explored (Buchinger, Kriglstein, Brandt & Hlavacs, 2011; Buchinger, Kriglstein & Hlavacs, 2009). However, a general framework for specific mobile video service is lacking for structuring such a great number of factors. To measure user experience of multimedia services such as mobile video, quality of experience (QoE) has recently become a prominent concept. In contrast to the traditionally used concept quality of service (QoS), QoE not only involves objectively measuring the delivered service but also takes into account user’s needs and desires when using the service, emphasizing the user’s overall acceptability on the service. Many QoE metrics are able to estimate the user perceived quality or acceptability of mobile video, but may be not enough accurate for the overall UX prediction due to the complexity of UX. Only a few frameworks of QoE have addressed more aspects of UX for mobile multimedia applications but need be transformed into practical measures. The challenge of optimizing UX remains adaptations to the resource constrains (e.g., network conditions, mobile device capabilities, and heterogeneous usage contexts) as well as meeting complicated user requirements (e.g., usage purposes and personal preferences). In this chapter, we investigate the existing important UX frameworks, compare their similarities and discuss some important features that fit in the mobile video service. Based on the previous research, we propose a simple UX framework for mobile video application by mapping a variety of influencing factors of UX upon a typical mobile video delivery system. Each component and its factors are explored with comprehensive literature reviews. The proposed framework may benefit in user-centred design of mobile video through taking a complete consideration of UX influences and in improvement of mobile videoservice quality by adjusting the values of certain factors to produce a positive user experience. It may also facilitate relative research in the way of locating important issues to study, clarifying research scopes, and setting up proper study procedures. We then review a great deal of research on UX measurement, including QoE metrics and QoE frameworks of mobile multimedia. Finally, we discuss how to achieve an optimal quality of user experience by focusing on the issues of various aspects of UX of mobile video. In the conclusion, we suggest some open issues for future study

On the design of television as a service based on average TV watching

Ten households were interviewed about their TV watching to inform the design of TV services. Our participants were average TV viewers who had Internet access but were not technically advanced or frequent users of the Internet as a source for TV material. We found that the flow of programs that broadcast television brings to viewers was the most important motivation for our participants to turn to the TV on-demand possibilities they had access to. Examples of triggers were social cues from people talking about things seen on TV, or time-shifting issues such as missing all or part of programs in the broadcast flow. Special interests such as sports were also a strong motivation for on-demand behavior. For the viewers, linear and on-demand TV watching was intertwined. We conclude that on-demand services should be integrated with broadcast TV in the design of future TV services

Teens, Video Games, and Civics

Analyzes survey findings on trends in teenagers' video gaming, the social context, the role of parents and monitoring, and the link between specific gaming experiences and civic activities. Explores gaming's potential as civic learning opportunities

Portrayal and Perception: Two Audits of News Media Reporting on African American Men and Boys

The Heinz Endowments' African American Men and Boys Task Force conducted an audit of media reporting on black men and boys in Pittsburgh. Based on content analysis of newspapers and evening newscasts, in addition to a survey and video interviews, the findings highlight a media scene that underrepresents African-Americans males, especially in terms of their positive achievements

You are what you play?: a quantitative study into game design preferences across gender and their interaction with gaming habits

Gaming is rapidly gaining popularity as a pastime among women. One explanation for this could be the industry targeting female gamers through specific ‘girl game’ releases. This could imply that there are a priori differences in game design preferences between female and male gamers. The purpose of the present study is to explore these differences to see whether there is a mediating effect of previous experience with certain game genres on subsequent design preferences of male and female gamers. More particularly, we distinguish between ‘core’ genre players (CP) and ‘non-core’ genre players (NCP). By means of a 2*2 ANOVA design using an online survey, we examine the main effects of gender, core genre players (CP/NCP) and the interaction effects between both independent variables. The results show that game preferences of male CP, female CP and male NCP are generally in line with one another whereas those of female NCP differ significantly