Grant Blank
University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute, Faculty Member
- Cultural Sociology, Sociology, Internet Studies, Internet & Society, Internet research methods, Internet Culture, and 15 moreWeb 2.0, Digital Divide, New Media, World Wide Web, Oxford Internet Survey, Ethnography, Statistics, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Social Network Analysis (SNA), Big Data, Research Ethics, Survey Methodology, Standards, Survey Sampling, and The Internetedit
- Grant Blank (Ph.D. University of Chicago) is the Survey Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University ... moreGrant Blank (Ph.D. University of Chicago) is the Survey Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He is a sociologist specializing in the social and cultural impact of the Internet, the digital divide, statistical and qualitative methods, and cultural sociology. He is currently working on a project about the potential influence of search engines on political opinion and voting. His other project examines how cultural hierarchies are constructed in online reviews of London cultural attractions. In 2015 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Communication, Information Technology and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association.edit
This award recognizes a sustained body of research that has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the area of sociology of communications, information technology and media sociology. Awarded by the... more
This award recognizes a sustained body of research that has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the area of sociology of communications, information technology and media sociology. Awarded by the Communication, Information Technology and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association, August 2015.
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Page 1. CRITICS, RATINGS, AND SOCIETY ITHE SOCIOLOGY OF REVIEWS GRANT BLANK Page 2. Page 3. Critics, Ratings, and Society Page 4. Page 5. Critics, Ratings, and Society The Sociology of Reviews Grant Blank ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD... more
Page 1. CRITICS, RATINGS, AND SOCIETY ITHE SOCIOLOGY OF REVIEWS GRANT BLANK Page 2. Page 3. Critics, Ratings, and Society Page 4. Page 5. Critics, Ratings, and Society The Sociology of Reviews Grant Blank ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. ...
Research Interests: Sociology and Credibility
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Objectives of the Paper: Algorithms affect large parts of people’s lives (Diakopoulos, 2014; Gillespie, 2012; Just & Latzer, 2016). Prominent examples are the algorithms that guide search engine results and what social media users see... more
Objectives of the Paper: Algorithms affect large parts of people’s lives (Diakopoulos, 2014; Gillespie, 2012; Just & Latzer, 2016). Prominent examples are the algorithms that guide search engine results and what social media users see in their newsfeed on platforms such as Facebook. After the Brexit vote in Britain and the election of Donald Trump in the US in 2016, much attention was drawn to the potential influence of algorithms that may expose internet users to selective and limited content rather than the diverse information that is generally available online. Although the exact details of how corporate algorithms work are proprietary and therefore somewhat of a “black box”, some of the core factors that influence search results are location, previous search history, and the popularity and user experience (Google, 2017; Kliman-Silver et al., 2015). There is little research about how well Internet users understand algorithms and how this (lack of) knowledge affects their utilization and trust of platforms, such as search engines or social media. This will be the first quantitative study of algorithmic literacy. The paper examines these research questions: What is the effect of algorithmic literacy on Internet use and skills? (How) Does algorithmic literacy affect trust in algorithm-based platforms? (How) Does algorithmic literacy affect amount of use of algorithm-based platforms? Methods and data: We employ multivariate regressions using data from the Quello Search Project, a study of media use and politics collected in January 2017 in the United States. The 2,018 cases are a random sample of the online population. Relevance: Algorithms play an increasingly central role in our lives yet we know little about how much average Internet user understands about algorithms and how they work. The results will further our understanding of algorithmic literacy among Internet users and its consequences for trust and use practices. This has implications for policies regarding platforms that are based on algorithms. Preliminary Results:Preliminary analyses show that algorithmic literacy has a significant positive impact on platform trust for search engines; however the amount of internet use and skill using a search engine have a stronger effect. Socio-demographic factors, such as age and lifestage, have relatively little impact. Further analyses will refine these results. References: Diakopoulos, N. (2014). Algorithmic Accountability Reporting: On the Investigation of Black Boxes. New York, NY: Columbia University Academic Commons. --Gillespie, T. (2012). The relevance of algorithms. In T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski, & K. A. Foot (Eds.), Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society (pp. 167–194). London, England: The MIT Press. --Google (2017). How Search Works: How Search algorithms work. Available online: https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/ --Just, N., & Latzer, M. (2017). Governance by algorithms: reality construction by algorithmic selection on the Internet. Media, Culture & Society, 39(2), 238-258. --Kliman-Silver, C., Hannak, A., Lazer, D., Wilson, C., & Mislove, A. (2015, October). Location, location, location: The impact of geolocation on web search personalization. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Internet Measurement Conference (pp. 121-127). ACM.
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Sociology has not paid much attention to scholars working on new computer-related applications. A central reason is that sociologists doing computer applications have been content to work in peripheral areas and have not focused on... more
Sociology has not paid much attention to scholars working on new computer-related applications. A central reason is that sociologists doing computer applications have been content to work in peripheral areas and have not focused on applying new computer technology to central problems of the discipline. Particularly little attention has been paid to the development of "killer apps," compelling applications of computer technology that open new areas for empirical and theoretical work, and are so valuable that they overcome the sunk costs that tie researchers to conventional methods. This paper discusses the role of computing in sociology and proposes ways in which computing can become more central. Keywords: sociology, theory, methodology, reward system, killer apps, simulation, Boolean analysis, review articles.
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Abstract Purpose This paper identifies patterns of online stratification based on cultural values and beliefs among internet users in Britain. Methodology/approach Using a nationally representative random sample of respondents from the... more
Abstract Purpose This paper identifies patterns of online stratification based on cultural values and beliefs among internet users in Britain. Methodology/approach Using a nationally representative random sample of respondents from the 2013 Oxford Internet Survey, we identify groups of individuals who share beliefs about the internet. Findings Each group represents a distinctive cultural perspective on the internet: e-mersives are fully at home in and positive about the digital environment; techno-pragmatists use the internet for instrumental and work-related purposes; the cyber-savvy use all aspects of the internet, but are also primed to be aware of online risks; cyber-moderates are blase, neither strongly positive nor negative about the internet; and adigitals harbor overwhelmingly negative beliefs and attitudes about the internet. These cultures are largely unrelated to socio-demographic factors, but appear to be shaped by experience online and general dispositions toward learning, and have major implications for patterns of internet use. Social implications These cultures of the internet are significant because they suggest that stratification online is strongly influenced by cultural values and meaning because they influence social mobility, skill development, and digital choice.
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This article reports the author’s experience teaching sociology graduate students howto analyze qualitative data. The course focused on teaching practical skills of defining coding categories, coding text, analyzing coded text, and... more
This article reports the author’s experience teaching sociology graduate students howto analyze qualitative data. The course focused on teaching practical skills of defining coding categories, coding text, analyzing coded text, and writing up the results of analysis. The assignments used Qualrus software to give students hands-on practice doing all of these. The course was enthusiastically received and will become a permanent part of the sociology methods course offerings at American University.
Research Interests: Information Systems, Sociology, Computer Science, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Qualitative Methods (Sociology), and 13 moreGraduate Education, Mathematics Education, Qualitative methodology, Qualitative Research, Nvivo Based Qualitative Research, Qualitative Research Methods, Teaching, Library and Information Studies, Graduate Students, Graduate Student, Qualitative data analysis, Qualitative Analysis, and Qualrus
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ABSTRACT By simplifying communication, the Internet is causing significant, broad changes. This article describes some effects of the Internet on teaching and research: the use of Web pages in teaching, spread of remote statistical... more
ABSTRACT By simplifying communication, the Internet is causing significant, broad changes. This article describes some effects of the Internet on teaching and research: the use of Web pages in teaching, spread of remote statistical analysis, eliminating journal page constraints, and the impact on activities that benefit from debate and discussion. It describes how congestion on the Internet fosters change in pricing and priorities. The article ends by pointing out that although the technical implications of an innovation are predictable, the major social implications often do not become apparent for years.
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... Page 2. 63 Codebooks in the 1990s; or, Aren't You Embarrassed to Be Running ... This data structure saves space by retaining the information needed to calculate percentages, cumula-tive percentages, and cumulative counts when it... more
... Page 2. 63 Codebooks in the 1990s; or, Aren't You Embarrassed to Be Running ... This data structure saves space by retaining the information needed to calculate percentages, cumula-tive percentages, and cumulative counts when it is printed. It does not need to store them. ...
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Research Interests: Privacy, Political Science, Facebook, Young People and The Internet, Social Networking Sites (SNS), and 9 moreSocial Networking Sites and Teenagers, Social Science Research Network, Social Networking Security and Privacy, Online Privacy, Social Networking & Social Media, Young People and Prison, Internet privacy, Information Privacy, and Privacy-by-design
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During the COVID-19 pandemic information about the transmission of the virus came out slowly and recommended practices changed over time. This made communication media, like the Internet, especially important. Few prior studies have... more
During the COVID-19 pandemic information about the transmission
of the virus came out slowly and recommended practices changed
over time. This made communication media, like the Internet,
especially important. Few prior studies have considered how
digital inequalities influence information flows. Building on three
research streams – vaccine hesitancy, information-seeking, and
digital inequalities – we examine how digital inequalities, health
media, and mass media affect COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Using
representative survey data of US Internet users, our structural
equation model demonstrates the importance of digital
inequalities and media use for vaccine hesitancy. Digital inclusion
plays an important role in public health. It leads to increased
health information-seeking, which reduces vaccine hesitancy. Our
model presents evidence supporting a comprehensive policy
approach to vaccine hesitancy beyond factors like socio-
demographics and prior health beliefs to include broader factors
like digital equity measures and sources of health information.
Where and how people fi nd information on public health issues
seems to be as important as demographics.
of the virus came out slowly and recommended practices changed
over time. This made communication media, like the Internet,
especially important. Few prior studies have considered how
digital inequalities influence information flows. Building on three
research streams – vaccine hesitancy, information-seeking, and
digital inequalities – we examine how digital inequalities, health
media, and mass media affect COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Using
representative survey data of US Internet users, our structural
equation model demonstrates the importance of digital
inequalities and media use for vaccine hesitancy. Digital inclusion
plays an important role in public health. It leads to increased
health information-seeking, which reduces vaccine hesitancy. Our
model presents evidence supporting a comprehensive policy
approach to vaccine hesitancy beyond factors like socio-
demographics and prior health beliefs to include broader factors
like digital equity measures and sources of health information.
Where and how people fi nd information on public health issues
seems to be as important as demographics.
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This is the questionnaire used for the 2019 wave of the Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS).
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Research on Internet use typically has been concerned with issues of access or activities people do online. This research has been fruitful, but it has not been fully linked to larger theories of stratification. Although Max Weber says... more
Research on Internet use typically has been concerned with issues of access or activities people do online. This research has been fruitful, but it has not been fully linked to larger theories of stratification. Although Max Weber says little about technology, his general approach to studying society suggests concepts other than access and demographics will be important. From his perspective, the primary sources of social stratification are class, status, and power. As the Internet has become more important, it has moved to a steadily more central position in the stratification system. Thus, it is important to look at Internet use through a Weberian lens, asking how class, status, and power help explain who participates in what online activities.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged many activities, from healthcare to education, to substantially increase their reliance in online media. Even a decade ago, this would have been unthinkable. This move has been remarkably successful,... more
The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged many activities, from healthcare to education, to substantially increase their reliance in online media. Even a decade ago, this would have been unthinkable. This move has been remarkably successful, despite major issues, such as around those without access to online services in their household. But this success has not only been a function of access but also the degree to which the Internet and related online services had already been embedded in everyday life and work. This paper documents the embedded nature of the Internet in the case of the many countries and the UK – where going online had become a habit rather than a new thing. This is one of a series of reports on the 2019 Oxford Internet Survey, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. The authors thank the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport;Google Inc., and BT, for their support of this survey. This report is the fourth in the series of reports on OxIS 2019. The first report provided an overview of key themes, see: <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3493763">https://ssrn.com/abstract=3493763</a> The second focused on the narrowing but deepening digital divides across the nation, see: <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3522083">https://ssrn.com/abstract=3522083</a> The third focused on the rise of mobile Internet use, see: <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3538301">https://ssrn.com/abstract=3538301</a> All the reports in this series are available through the Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) blog: https://oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/.
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Cultural organizations are categorized by cultural products (high or popular culture) and by organizational form (nonprofit or commercial). In sociology, these classifications are understood predominantly through a Bourdieusian lens,... more
Cultural organizations are categorized by cultural products (high or popular culture) and by organizational form (nonprofit or commercial). In sociology, these classifications are understood predominantly through a Bourdieusian lens, which links cultural consumption to habitus and a class-based struggle for distinction. However, people’s engagement with institutionalized cultural classifications may be expressed differently on the Internet, where a culture of hierarchy-free equality is (sometimes) idealized. Using digital trace data from a representative sample of 280 user-generated reviews of four London cultural organizations, we find that reviewers are concerned with practical issues over cultural content, displaying a popular orientation to cultural consumption (an “audience-focus” or an “embodied” approach). A very small minority of reviewers claim status honor on a variety of bases, including symbolic mastery of traditional cultural capital. Overall, we find an online space in...
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Research on Internet use typically has been concerned with issues of access or activities people do online. This research has been fruitful, but it has not been fully linked to larger theories of stratification. Although Max Weber says... more
Research on Internet use typically has been concerned with issues of access or activities people do online. This research has been fruitful, but it has not been fully linked to larger theories of stratification. Although Max Weber says little about technology, his general approach to studying society suggests concepts other than access and demographics will be important. From his perspective, the primary sources of social stratification are class, status, and power. As the Internet has become more important, it has moved to a steadily more central position in the stratification system. Thus, it is important to look at Internet use through a Weberian lens, asking how class, status, and power help explain who participates in what online activities.
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Until the Internet arrived, content creation and distribution was always an expens- ive, difficult process. With the Internet it is dramatically easier, faster, and cheaper. Some argue that this will move creation out of the hands of... more
Until the Internet arrived, content creation and distribution was always an expens-
ive, difficult process. With the Internet it is dramatically easier, faster, and cheaper.
Some argue that this will move creation out of the hands of elites and lead to wider
participation in the public sphere and to enhanced democracy. This paper makes
three contributions to this debate. First, it uses a national random sample of the
British population. This is much broader than most prior work. Second, it
creates the first evidence-based typology of Internet content creation, identifying
three types named ‘skilled content’, ‘social and entertainment content’, and ‘pol-
itical content’. The implicit assumption of many researchers that only one type
of content exists is not accurate. Third, using multivariate logistic regression it
shows the characteristics of different populations that produce each type of
content. Elites have no impact on creation of skilled content. Social and entertain-
ment content is more likely to be created by non-elites. Only creation of political
content is significantly and positively associated with elite status. These results
clarify inconsistencies in prior studies. Each type of content is produced by a differ-
ent kind of creator. Thus, type is more than just content; it also describes differences
in who creates the content. The varying relationships between elite status and
content creation suggest that it is important for future research to pay close attention
to the type of content under study when considering possible democratization of
creation.
ive, difficult process. With the Internet it is dramatically easier, faster, and cheaper.
Some argue that this will move creation out of the hands of elites and lead to wider
participation in the public sphere and to enhanced democracy. This paper makes
three contributions to this debate. First, it uses a national random sample of the
British population. This is much broader than most prior work. Second, it
creates the first evidence-based typology of Internet content creation, identifying
three types named ‘skilled content’, ‘social and entertainment content’, and ‘pol-
itical content’. The implicit assumption of many researchers that only one type
of content exists is not accurate. Third, using multivariate logistic regression it
shows the characteristics of different populations that produce each type of
content. Elites have no impact on creation of skilled content. Social and entertain-
ment content is more likely to be created by non-elites. Only creation of political
content is significantly and positively associated with elite status. These results
clarify inconsistencies in prior studies. Each type of content is produced by a differ-
ent kind of creator. Thus, type is more than just content; it also describes differences
in who creates the content. The varying relationships between elite status and
content creation suggest that it is important for future research to pay close attention
to the type of content under study when considering possible democratization of
creation.
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Recent studies have enhanced our understanding of digital divides by investigating outcomes of Internet use. We extend this research to analyse positive and negative outcomes of Internet use in the United Kingdom. We apply structural... more
Recent studies have enhanced our understanding of digital divides by investigating outcomes of Internet use. We extend this research to analyse positive and negative outcomes of Internet use in the United Kingdom. We apply structural equation modelling to data from a large Internet survey to compare the social structuration of Internet benefits with harms. We find that highly educated users benefit most from using the web. Elderly individuals benefit more than younger ones. Next to demographic characteristics, technology attitudes are the strongest predictors of online benefits. The harms from using the Internet are structured differently, with educated users and those with high levels of privacy concerns being most susceptible to harm. This runs counter to intuitions based on prior digital divide research, where those at the margins should be most at risk. While previous research on digital inequality has only looked at benefits, the inclusion of harms draws a more differentiated p...
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Recent studies have enhanced our understanding of digital divides by investigating outcomes of Internet use. We extend this research to analyse positive and negative outcomes of Internet use in the United Kingdom. We apply structural... more
Recent studies have enhanced our understanding of digital divides by investigating outcomes of Internet use. We extend this research to analyse positive and negative outcomes of Internet use in the United Kingdom. We apply structural equation modelling to data from a large Internet survey to compare the social structuration of Internet benefits with harms. We find that highly educated users benefit most from using the web. Elderly individuals benefit more than younger ones. Next to demographic characteristics, technology attitudes are the strongest predictors of online benefits. The harms from using the Internet are structured differently, with educated users and those with high levels of privacy concerns being most susceptible to harm. This runs counter to intuitions based on prior digital divide research, where those at the margins should be most at risk. While previous research on digital inequality has only looked at benefits, the inclusion of harms draws a more differentiated p...
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Effective secondary analysis of social science data requires good documentation. Especially because Internet access has become standard, the problems of reading and understanding the contents of data files have become acute. Resolving... more
Effective secondary analysis of social science data requires good documentation. Especially because Internet access has become standard, the problems of reading and understanding the contents of data files have become acute. Resolving these problems requires standards for documenting data, as well as standard formats for both data and documentation that can be read and displayed by computers and software anywhere in the world. To define a documentation standard, representatives of North Ameri-can and European survey research and data archive organizations have created a Data Documentation Initiative (DDI). This article discusses the value and significance of that effort for the social sciences.