Content analysis of web sites from 2000 to 2004: a thematic meta-analysis

The rise of the World Wide Web attracted concerns among social science scholars, especially those in the communication school who studied it by various methods like content analysis. However, the dynamic environment of the World Wide Web challenged this traditional research method, and, in turn, scholars tried to figure out valid solutions, which were summarized in the literature review section. After 2000, few studies focused on the content analysis of Web sites, while the World Wide Web developed rapidly and affected people??s everyday life. This study conducted a thematic meta-analysis to examine how researchers apply content analysis to the World Wide Web after 2000. A total of 39 studies that used content analysis to study Web sites were identified from three sources. Then data were collected and analyzed. This study found that, from 2000 to 2004, content analysis of the World Wide Web proliferated. The content analytical scholars had created new strategies to cope with challenges posed by the WWW. The suggestions made in this study forms some guidelines in the steps of content analysis research design, potentially aiding the future research of content analysis to Web sites in developing their own valid methods to study the rapid-paced WWW

Content analysis of web sites from 2000 to 2004: a thematic meta-analysis

The rise of the World Wide Web attracted concerns among social science scholars, especially those in the communication school who studied it by various methods like content analysis. However, the dynamic environment of the World Wide Web challenged this traditional research method, and, in turn, scholars tried to figure out valid solutions, which were summarized in the literature review section. After 2000, few studies focused on the content analysis of Web sites, while the World Wide Web developed rapidly and affected people??s everyday life. This study conducted a thematic meta-analysis to examine how researchers apply content analysis to the World Wide Web after 2000. A total of 39 studies that used content analysis to study Web sites were identified from three sources. Then data were collected and analyzed. This study found that, from 2000 to 2004, content analysis of the World Wide Web proliferated. The content analytical scholars had created new strategies to cope with challenges posed by the WWW. The suggestions made in this study forms some guidelines in the steps of content analysis research design, potentially aiding the future research of content analysis to Web sites in developing their own valid methods to study the rapid-paced WWW

Formal cybermetic indicators of the positioning of arab universities

Los indicadores webmétricos constituyen una potente herramienta para evaluar recursos de información en la Web pertenecientes a dominios muy específicos. Ante la subjetividad subyacente en la mayor parte de los indicadores cualitativos de análisis tratados en la actualidad, el objetivo del presente trabajo es aplicar indicadores de calidad de carácter exclusivamente formal con el fin de calcular objetivamente el posicionamiento de los sitios web de las universidades árabes de la zona MENA (Middle East and North Africa) (Oriente Medio y Norte de África). Los resultados obtenidos revelan que es posible usar indicadores formales para identificar la calidad y el posicionamiento de los sitios web universitarios, y que la correlación entre el análisis de enlaces y el análisis de indicadores formales no es suficientemente alta como para afirmar que aquellos sitios web mejor posicionados en el análisis de enlaces también lo sean en el análisis de sus indicadores formales. De esta manera, se establece un precedente para investigaciones futuras en el ámbito de la educación y, en concreto, de las universidades, más preocupadas hoy en día por descubrir su posicionamiento a través del entramado de enlaces que se establecen entre ellas que por valorar los aspectos formales de sus webs.Cybermetric indicators are powerful tools for assessing internet information resources of specific domains. In response to the underlying subjectivity of most qualitative analysis indicators currently in use, the purpose of this paper is to apply structural quality indicators exclusively in order to objectively assess the Web Ranking of Arab Universities of the Middle East and North African region (MENA). The results obtained show that is possible to use structural indicators to assess the quality and rank of university websites. Moreover, the correlation between link analysis and structural analysis indicator is not sufficiently significant to assert that those universities with high rankings also were ranked highest in terms of structural indicators. This paper serves as a precedent for further research on universities that are currently more concerned with discovering their ranking as a function of the link networks existing between the universities themselves, than assessing ranking in terms of the structural features of their websites

Web manifestations of knowledge-based innovation systems in the UK

Innovation is widely recognised as essential to the modern economy. The term knowledgebased innovation system has been used to refer to innovation systems which recognise the importance of an economy’s knowledge base and the efficient interactions between important actors from the different sectors of society. Such interactions are thought to enable greater innovation by the system as a whole. Whilst it may not be possible to fully understand all the complex relationships involved within knowledge-based innovation systems, within the field of informetrics bibliometric methodologies have emerged that allows us to analyse some of the relationships that contribute to the innovation process. However, due to the limitations in traditional bibliometric sources it is important to investigate new potential sources of information. The web is one such source. This thesis documents an investigation into the potential of the web to provide information about knowledge-based innovation systems in the United Kingdom. Within this thesis the link analysis methodologies that have previously been successfully applied to investigations of the academic community (Thelwall, 2004a) are applied to organisations from different sections of society to determine whether link analysis of the web can provide a new source of information about knowledge-based innovation systems in the UK. This study makes the case that data may be collected ethically to provide information about the interconnections between web sites of various different sizes and from within different sectors of society, that there are significant differences in the linking practices of web sites within different sectors, and that reciprocal links provide a better indication of collaboration than uni-directional web links. Most importantly the study shows that the web provides new information about the relationships between organisations, rather than just a repetition of the same information from an alternative source. Whilst the study has shown that there is a lot of potential for the web as a source of information on knowledge-based innovation systems, the same richness that makes it such a potentially useful source makes applications of large scale studies very labour intensive.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo