TV in the Age of the Internet: Information Quality of Science Fiction TV Fansites

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Information Science, 2011Communally created Web 2.0 content on the Internet has begun to compete with information provided by traditional gatekeeper institutions, such as academic journals, medical professionals, and large corporations. On the one hand, such gatekeepers need to understand the nature of this competition, as well as to try to ensure that the general public are not endangered by poor quality information. On the other hand, advocates of free and universal access to basic social services have argued that communal efforts can provide as good or better-quality versions of commonly needed resources. This dissertation arises from these needs to understand the nature and quality of information being produced on such websites. Website-oriented information quality (IQ) literature spans at least 15 different academic fields, a survey of which identified two types of IQ: perceptual and artifactual fitness-related, and representational accuracy and completeness-related. The current project studied websites in terms of all of these, except perceptual fitness. This study may be the only of its kind to have targeted fansites: websites made by fans of a mass media franchise. Despite the Internet's becoming a primary means by which millions of people consume and co-produce their entertainment, little academic attention has been paid to the IQ of sites about the mass media. For this study, the four central non-studio-affiliated sites about a highly popular and fan-engaging science fiction television franchise, Stargate, were chosen, and their IQ examined across sites having different sizes as well as editorial and business models. As exhaustive of samples as possible were collected from each site. Based on 21 relevant variables from the IQ literature, four qualitative and 17 exploratory statistical analyses were conducted. Key findings include: five possibly new IQ criteria; smaller sites concerned more with pleasing connoisseuring fans than the general public; larger sites being targeted towards older users; professional editors serving their own interests more than users'; wikis' greater user freedom attracting more invested and balanced writers; for-profit sites being more imposing upon, and less protecting of, users than non-profit sites; and the emergence of common writing styles, themes, data fields, advertisement types, linking strategies, and page types

Cardiovascular risk prediction: how useful are web-based tools and do risk representation formats matter?

Cardiovascular risk prediction tools are becoming increasing available on the web for people to use at home. However, research into the most effective ways of communicating cardiovascular risk has been limited. This thesis examined how well web-based cardiovascular risk prediction tools present cardiovascular risk and encourage risk reduction. Variation was found in both the quality of the risk communication and the number of features incorporated into the tools to facilitate decisions about lifestyle change and treatment. Additionally, past literature into the effectiveness of cardiovascular risk representation formats was systematically reviewed. This highlighted the need for more methodologically sound studies, using actual risk assessment rather than hypothetical risk scenarios. This thesis also described a four-armed web-based randomised controlled trial (RCT) conducted to examine the effects of different cardiovascular risk representation formats on patient-based outcomes. It comprised a cardiovascular risk formatter that presented risk in one of three formats: bar graph, pictogram and metonym (e.g. image depicting the seriousness of having a myocardial infarction). There were two control groups to examine the Hawthorne effect. In total, 903 respondents took part in the trial. The most successful recruitment methods were web-based, including staff electronic noticeboards and social networking sites. The RCT found that viewing cardiovascular risk significantly reduces negative emotions in the 'worried well', thus helping to correct inaccurate risk perceptions. There were no main effects of risk representation formats, suggesting that the way risk is presented had little influence on the population that were recruited, in terms of motivating behaviour change, facilitating understanding of risk information or altering emotion. However, a possible type II error occurred as the sample was unrepresentative, highly educated and biased towards those of low cardiovascular risk. Further research is needed to reach target audiences and engage those who would benefit the most from using risk assessment tools