Revealing the news: How online news changes without you noticing

This paper describes an ongoing design project relating to online news and how alterations to news stories are hidden from the reader. As the delivery and consumption of news content online continues to overtake other channels in reader numbers and market penetration, so methods of transparency and reliability developed over centuries continue also to be tested by digital media. We have conducted content analysis on existing stories and examined how news organisations and channels handle rapidly evolving news stories. We have proceeded to develop low-fidelity prototypes and an interaction model to test our design approach. The outcomes are in production and will result in a digital artifact that reveals editorial changes to news items (the News Inspector). These changes will be made visible within the browser. The implications of the project relate to the wider question of news truth-telling, trust and online news credibility

The uses and gratifications of the Internet among Arab students in Egypt

Internet use by Arab students in Egypt was examined from a uses and gratifications perspective. An online survey was administered to 502 students at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Principal components factor analysis resulted in five motives for using the Internet among respondents. Those were: information seeking, surveillance, entertainment, personal utility, and social interaction. Several variables were investigated in relation to the five motives, including gender, year in school, type of Internet connection, level of Internet operational skills, Internet exposure, Internet affinity, and Internet satisfaction.Gender was found to be a significant factor, as males were more likely to use the Internet for social interaction, and females were more likely to use it for information. Freshmen were more likely to use the Internet for personal utility than seniors and graduate students. Internet affinity was significantly correlated with all Internet use motives. There was also a significant positive correlation between Internet satisfaction and Internet use motives of entertainment, surveillance, and information. Internet exposure was positively correlated to personal utility, social interaction, and entertainment. Exposure and satisfaction were significantly related to affinity, but not to each other. Regression analysis models were utilized to predict Internet use

Toward a Pan-cultural Typology of Deception Motives

Based on truth-default theory, this research examined accounts of recalled deception to develop a list of deception motives that are general across cultures. Participants from Egypt (N = 29), Guatemala (N = 118), Pakistan (N = 51), Saudi Arabia (N = 169), and the United States (N = 81) were asked, open-ended, to describe an instance of deception or lying either from the perspective of the liar or the target. These descriptions were used to refine and cross-validate a set of deception motives that are applicable across a range of cultures. People lie for a reason, and those reasons include covering a transgression, seeking selfish advantage, avoiding others, seeking to protect others, social politeness, making positive impressions, being malicious, and being funny