My work revolves around the intersection of media and society generally. Specifically, I am interested in the role of new media technologies in civic communication processes between organizations and individuals. Supervisors: Johannes Bauer Address: 404 Wilson Rd., Rm 409
Department of Media and Information
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Non-expert computer users regularly need to make security-relevant decisions; however, these deci... more Non-expert computer users regularly need to make security-relevant decisions; however, these decisions tend not to be particularly good or sophisticated. Nevertheless, their choices are not random. Where does the information come from that these non-experts base their decisions upon? We argue that much of this information comes from stories they hear from other people. We conducted a survey to ask open- and closed- ended questions about security stories people hear from others. We found that most people have learned lessons from stories about security incidents informally from family and friends. These stories impact the way people think about security, and their subsequent behavior when making security-relevant decisions. In addition, many people retell these stories to others, indicating that a single story has the potential to influence multiple people. Understanding how non-experts learn from stories, and what kinds of stories they learn from, can help us figure out new methods ...
Transformative ICTs often provoke policy debates about the role of government in technological ev... more Transformative ICTs often provoke policy debates about the role of government in technological evolution. A common early consideration is the extent to which pre-existing legal and regulatory frameworks and institutions are capable of addressing the challenges raised. Should existing frameworks fall short, regulators must then consider whether the transformative nature of the new ICTs should be met by a correspondingly innovative approach.The initial response is often the former, with regulators bending and expanding current law and policy to address the challenges posed. The centrality of stare decisis, or precedence to the American legal system suggests how common this approach can be when legal intervention takes place. As Frieden (2003) notes, “courts often use legacy models to conserve judicial resources and to display restraint based on the view that they interpret law rather than make policy.” (p.111) Government legislators and regulators have also demonstrated repeatedly the...
As more economic, educational, and social interactions occur online, broadband capabilities have ... more As more economic, educational, and social interactions occur online, broadband capabilities have become increasingly important. In the U.S., as in many countries, policy initiatives have targeted the digital divide, and one of the most prominent responses has been the creation or maintenance of public computing centers (PCCs). Building on models of Internet cafes and early community-based efforts such as freenets (which date back to 1990), PCCs comprise one of the program areas of the Obama Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), initiated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The fundamental premise of a PCC is access to computers and the Internet, but the contemporary version also generally includes access to helpful staff and instruction. The targeted users are people who lack broadband in their homes, sometimes for reason of location (a particular problem in rural regions), sometimes for reasons of cost, sometimes because populatio...
ABSTRACT One of the pillars of the Broadband Telecommunication Opportunities Program (BTOP) was e... more ABSTRACT One of the pillars of the Broadband Telecommunication Opportunities Program (BTOP) was expanding broadband utilization in underserved communities through the development of library-based public computing centers (PCCs) and educational outreach. This paper reports the results of two waves of surveys of 400 participants each in spring 2011, before the PCCs were implemented, and fall 2012, at the end of the program. The surveys were conducted in urban communities in Michigan served by libraries participating in a $6 million BTOP grant project to upgrade their public Internet resources. The surveys tracked perceptions of broadband services and their utilization in public libraries, residences, and other community locations. This study focuses on understanding how the utilization of library computers by community members impacted broadband adoption and utilization for upward mobility through education, work experience, and access to technology. Results indicated no changes between our two time-periods with respect to increased broadband awareness, home Internet access through either a computer or smartphone, or high speed home fixed-line broadband. Home fixed-line broadband access was more likely in households with higher incomes, a willingness to pay higher prices, and younger members than the rest of the sample.We discovered clear indications of who considered broadband access and library use the most beneficial. African-Americans and male participants were more likely to indicate an intention to adopt broadband as a means of starting a small business and doing work at home than white or female participants. Gender had no effect on taking courses online, but African-Americans were more likely than whites to see potential in taking online courses over broadband networks. We also found that older participants and participants from Wave 2 were less likely than younger and Wave 1 participants to show intention to take online courses. Further, race, income, and self-efficacy (i.e., belief in one’s ability to use the Internet successfully) interacted to influence the nature of broadband use. Participants who were young, African-Americans, high self-efficacy and low household incomes were more likely to look for employment outside their home city using broadband than participants who were older, white, high income and low self-efficacy. Young African-Americans with high self-efficacy were also more likely than white and low self-efficacy participants to state that the ability to take online courses was an important benefit of broadband Internet. Do library-based PCC facilities promote broadband utilization in urban settings? When controlling for age and point in time, library Internet use was more likely among African-Americans, low-income, and educated participants than white, high income, and less educated participants. PCC participants, defined as participants who reported using PCC facilities, were more likely to be younger, African-American, female, and have higher intentions to adopt broadband than non-PCC participants. Further, PCC participants were more likely than non-PCC participants to have intentions to use broadband to work at home and take courses online. Overall, 33.4% percent of the sample in Wave 2 reported using computers in their local library. Among these, 29.5% percent said they had noticed an improvement in PCC facilities.Our data suggest that, while broadband adoption intentions and home use of Internet connections were unaffected by the PCC intervention, there are ways in which other types of Internet resources are being accessed by marginalized people. Future policy considerations from these analyses suggest that library Internet services can benefit minority, low-income individuals who have also participated in more years of education, who have intentions to utilize these resources for online courses, business endeavors, and employment. We conclude, based on the above evidence, that library Internet access, use and further developments of resources like PCCs will be crucial for future digital literacy programs.
There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantag... more There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantage people in developing social capital. Specifically, SES affects the access individuals have to beneficial resources that indirectly affects the social capital benefits individuals receive from personal and group social networks. With the advent of social network sites like Facebook, the ability to quantify and measure the effects of SES on social capital benefits is possible to a much greater degree than ever before. This study of undergraduate students focuses on the relationship between SES and social capital. We examine the relationship between SES and three structural measures of students' social capital using online social network data: general social capital (network size), bridging social capital (number of clusters), and bonding social capital (average degree). According to our results, higher SES relates to larger and denser networks, but not to networks with more clusters....
Research in computer-mediated communication has consistently asserted that Facebook use is positi... more Research in computer-mediated communication has consistently asserted that Facebook use is positively correlated with social capital. This research has drawn primarily on Williams’ (2006) bridging and bonding scales as well as behavioral attributes such as civic engagement. Yet, as social capital is inherently a structural construct, it is surprising that so little work has been done relating social capital to social structure as captured by social network site (SNS) Friendship networks. Facebook is particularly well-suited to support the examination of structure at the ego level since the networks articulated on Facebook tend to be large, dense, and indicative of many offline foci (e.g., coworkers, friends from high school). Assuming that each one of these foci only partially overlap, we initially present two hypotheses related to Facebook social networks and social capital: more foci are associated with perceptions of greater bridging social capital and more closure is associated with greater bonding social capital. Using a study of 235 employees at a Midwestern American university, we test these hypotheses alongside self-reported measures of activity on the site. Our results only partially confirm these hypotheses. In particular, using a widely used measure of closure (transitivity) we observe a strong and persistent negative relationship to bonding social capital. Although this finding is initially counter-intuitive it is easily explained by considering the topology of Facebook personal networks: networks with primarily closed triads tend to be networks with tightly bound foci (such as everyone from high school knowing each other) and few connections between foci. Networks with primarily open triads signify many crosscutting friendships across foci. Therefore, bonding social capital appears to be less tied to local clustering than to global cohesion.
There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantag... more There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantage people in developing social capital. Specifically, SES affects the access individuals have to beneficial resources that indirectly affects the social capital benefits individuals receive from personal and group social networks. With the advent of social network sites like Facebook, the ability to quantify and measure the effects of SES on social capital benefits is possible to a much greater degree than ever before. This study of undergraduate students focuses on the relationship between SES and social capital. We examine the relationship between SES and three structural measures of students' social capital using online social network data: general social capital (network size), bridging social capital (number of clusters), and bonding social capital (average degree). According to our results, higher SES relates to larger and denser networks, but not to networks with more clusters. These findings suggest that SES is not related to greater opportunities for networking, but better capitalization of existing network contexts. In addition to the novel substantive contribution, this paper offers a methodological advance in the structural study of social capital, which has previously been limited in size or complexity due to recall.
What factors shape the growth of social networks among contemporary college students? This study ... more What factors shape the growth of social networks among contemporary college students? This study samples first year college students through an online survey and an innovative application that collects degree 1.5 ego networks via Facebook friend relationships. Our research ...
Non-expert computer users regularly need to make security-relevant decisions; however, these deci... more Non-expert computer users regularly need to make security-relevant decisions; however, these decisions tend not to be particularly good or sophisticated. Nevertheless, their choices are not random. Where does the information come from that these non-experts base their decisions upon? We argue that much of this information comes from stories they hear from other people. We conducted a survey to ask open- and closed- ended questions about security stories people hear from others. We found that most people have learned lessons from stories about security incidents informally from family and friends. These stories impact the way people think about security, and their subsequent behavior when making security-relevant decisions. In addition, many people retell these stories to others, indicating that a single story has the potential to influence multiple people. Understanding how non-experts learn from stories, and what kinds of stories they learn from, can help us figure out new methods ...
Transformative ICTs often provoke policy debates about the role of government in technological ev... more Transformative ICTs often provoke policy debates about the role of government in technological evolution. A common early consideration is the extent to which pre-existing legal and regulatory frameworks and institutions are capable of addressing the challenges raised. Should existing frameworks fall short, regulators must then consider whether the transformative nature of the new ICTs should be met by a correspondingly innovative approach.The initial response is often the former, with regulators bending and expanding current law and policy to address the challenges posed. The centrality of stare decisis, or precedence to the American legal system suggests how common this approach can be when legal intervention takes place. As Frieden (2003) notes, “courts often use legacy models to conserve judicial resources and to display restraint based on the view that they interpret law rather than make policy.” (p.111) Government legislators and regulators have also demonstrated repeatedly the...
As more economic, educational, and social interactions occur online, broadband capabilities have ... more As more economic, educational, and social interactions occur online, broadband capabilities have become increasingly important. In the U.S., as in many countries, policy initiatives have targeted the digital divide, and one of the most prominent responses has been the creation or maintenance of public computing centers (PCCs). Building on models of Internet cafes and early community-based efforts such as freenets (which date back to 1990), PCCs comprise one of the program areas of the Obama Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), initiated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The fundamental premise of a PCC is access to computers and the Internet, but the contemporary version also generally includes access to helpful staff and instruction. The targeted users are people who lack broadband in their homes, sometimes for reason of location (a particular problem in rural regions), sometimes for reasons of cost, sometimes because populatio...
ABSTRACT One of the pillars of the Broadband Telecommunication Opportunities Program (BTOP) was e... more ABSTRACT One of the pillars of the Broadband Telecommunication Opportunities Program (BTOP) was expanding broadband utilization in underserved communities through the development of library-based public computing centers (PCCs) and educational outreach. This paper reports the results of two waves of surveys of 400 participants each in spring 2011, before the PCCs were implemented, and fall 2012, at the end of the program. The surveys were conducted in urban communities in Michigan served by libraries participating in a $6 million BTOP grant project to upgrade their public Internet resources. The surveys tracked perceptions of broadband services and their utilization in public libraries, residences, and other community locations. This study focuses on understanding how the utilization of library computers by community members impacted broadband adoption and utilization for upward mobility through education, work experience, and access to technology. Results indicated no changes between our two time-periods with respect to increased broadband awareness, home Internet access through either a computer or smartphone, or high speed home fixed-line broadband. Home fixed-line broadband access was more likely in households with higher incomes, a willingness to pay higher prices, and younger members than the rest of the sample.We discovered clear indications of who considered broadband access and library use the most beneficial. African-Americans and male participants were more likely to indicate an intention to adopt broadband as a means of starting a small business and doing work at home than white or female participants. Gender had no effect on taking courses online, but African-Americans were more likely than whites to see potential in taking online courses over broadband networks. We also found that older participants and participants from Wave 2 were less likely than younger and Wave 1 participants to show intention to take online courses. Further, race, income, and self-efficacy (i.e., belief in one’s ability to use the Internet successfully) interacted to influence the nature of broadband use. Participants who were young, African-Americans, high self-efficacy and low household incomes were more likely to look for employment outside their home city using broadband than participants who were older, white, high income and low self-efficacy. Young African-Americans with high self-efficacy were also more likely than white and low self-efficacy participants to state that the ability to take online courses was an important benefit of broadband Internet. Do library-based PCC facilities promote broadband utilization in urban settings? When controlling for age and point in time, library Internet use was more likely among African-Americans, low-income, and educated participants than white, high income, and less educated participants. PCC participants, defined as participants who reported using PCC facilities, were more likely to be younger, African-American, female, and have higher intentions to adopt broadband than non-PCC participants. Further, PCC participants were more likely than non-PCC participants to have intentions to use broadband to work at home and take courses online. Overall, 33.4% percent of the sample in Wave 2 reported using computers in their local library. Among these, 29.5% percent said they had noticed an improvement in PCC facilities.Our data suggest that, while broadband adoption intentions and home use of Internet connections were unaffected by the PCC intervention, there are ways in which other types of Internet resources are being accessed by marginalized people. Future policy considerations from these analyses suggest that library Internet services can benefit minority, low-income individuals who have also participated in more years of education, who have intentions to utilize these resources for online courses, business endeavors, and employment. We conclude, based on the above evidence, that library Internet access, use and further developments of resources like PCCs will be crucial for future digital literacy programs.
There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantag... more There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantage people in developing social capital. Specifically, SES affects the access individuals have to beneficial resources that indirectly affects the social capital benefits individuals receive from personal and group social networks. With the advent of social network sites like Facebook, the ability to quantify and measure the effects of SES on social capital benefits is possible to a much greater degree than ever before. This study of undergraduate students focuses on the relationship between SES and social capital. We examine the relationship between SES and three structural measures of students' social capital using online social network data: general social capital (network size), bridging social capital (number of clusters), and bonding social capital (average degree). According to our results, higher SES relates to larger and denser networks, but not to networks with more clusters....
Research in computer-mediated communication has consistently asserted that Facebook use is positi... more Research in computer-mediated communication has consistently asserted that Facebook use is positively correlated with social capital. This research has drawn primarily on Williams’ (2006) bridging and bonding scales as well as behavioral attributes such as civic engagement. Yet, as social capital is inherently a structural construct, it is surprising that so little work has been done relating social capital to social structure as captured by social network site (SNS) Friendship networks. Facebook is particularly well-suited to support the examination of structure at the ego level since the networks articulated on Facebook tend to be large, dense, and indicative of many offline foci (e.g., coworkers, friends from high school). Assuming that each one of these foci only partially overlap, we initially present two hypotheses related to Facebook social networks and social capital: more foci are associated with perceptions of greater bridging social capital and more closure is associated with greater bonding social capital. Using a study of 235 employees at a Midwestern American university, we test these hypotheses alongside self-reported measures of activity on the site. Our results only partially confirm these hypotheses. In particular, using a widely used measure of closure (transitivity) we observe a strong and persistent negative relationship to bonding social capital. Although this finding is initially counter-intuitive it is easily explained by considering the topology of Facebook personal networks: networks with primarily closed triads tend to be networks with tightly bound foci (such as everyone from high school knowing each other) and few connections between foci. Networks with primarily open triads signify many crosscutting friendships across foci. Therefore, bonding social capital appears to be less tied to local clustering than to global cohesion.
There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantag... more There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantage people in developing social capital. Specifically, SES affects the access individuals have to beneficial resources that indirectly affects the social capital benefits individuals receive from personal and group social networks. With the advent of social network sites like Facebook, the ability to quantify and measure the effects of SES on social capital benefits is possible to a much greater degree than ever before. This study of undergraduate students focuses on the relationship between SES and social capital. We examine the relationship between SES and three structural measures of students' social capital using online social network data: general social capital (network size), bridging social capital (number of clusters), and bonding social capital (average degree). According to our results, higher SES relates to larger and denser networks, but not to networks with more clusters. These findings suggest that SES is not related to greater opportunities for networking, but better capitalization of existing network contexts. In addition to the novel substantive contribution, this paper offers a methodological advance in the structural study of social capital, which has previously been limited in size or complexity due to recall.
What factors shape the growth of social networks among contemporary college students? This study ... more What factors shape the growth of social networks among contemporary college students? This study samples first year college students through an online survey and an innovative application that collects degree 1.5 ego networks via Facebook friend relationships. Our research ...
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Papers by Brandon Brooks
Facebook tend to be large, dense, and indicative of many offline foci (e.g., coworkers, friends from high school). Assuming that each one of these foci only partially overlap, we initially present two hypotheses related to Facebook social networks and social capital: more foci are associated with perceptions of greater bridging social capital and more closure is associated with greater bonding social capital. Using a study of 235 employees at a Midwestern American university, we test these hypotheses alongside self-reported measures of activity on the site. Our results only partially confirm these hypotheses. In particular, using a widely used measure of closure (transitivity) we observe a strong and persistent negative relationship to bonding social capital. Although this finding is initially counter-intuitive it is easily explained by considering the topology of Facebook personal networks: networks with primarily closed triads tend to be networks with tightly bound foci (such as everyone from high school knowing each other) and few connections between foci. Networks with primarily open triads signify many crosscutting friendships across foci. Therefore, bonding social capital appears to be less tied to local clustering than to global cohesion.
Facebook tend to be large, dense, and indicative of many offline foci (e.g., coworkers, friends from high school). Assuming that each one of these foci only partially overlap, we initially present two hypotheses related to Facebook social networks and social capital: more foci are associated with perceptions of greater bridging social capital and more closure is associated with greater bonding social capital. Using a study of 235 employees at a Midwestern American university, we test these hypotheses alongside self-reported measures of activity on the site. Our results only partially confirm these hypotheses. In particular, using a widely used measure of closure (transitivity) we observe a strong and persistent negative relationship to bonding social capital. Although this finding is initially counter-intuitive it is easily explained by considering the topology of Facebook personal networks: networks with primarily closed triads tend to be networks with tightly bound foci (such as everyone from high school knowing each other) and few connections between foci. Networks with primarily open triads signify many crosscutting friendships across foci. Therefore, bonding social capital appears to be less tied to local clustering than to global cohesion.