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Communication Research About the Internet: a Thematic Meta-analysis SUNG TAE KIM and DAVID WEAVER New Media Society 2002; 4; 518 DOI: 10.1177/146144402321466796 The online version of this article can be found at: http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/4/4/518

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new media & society Copyright © 2002 SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi Vol4(4):518–538 [1461–4448(200212)4:4,518–538;029419]

ARTICLE

Communication research about the internet: a thematic meta-analysis ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

SUNG TAE KIM De Paul University, USA ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

DAVID WEAVER Indiana University, USA ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Abstract This study presents a theoretical and methodological review of communication research about the internet. Through a thematic meta-analysis of recent research publications about the internet, we identified topical, methodological and theoretical trends of current internet studies. The patterns of the internet research agenda are discussed in relation to a development model of communication research. We hope the findings of this study provide not only an overview of current internet research trends but also new insights for future research directions regarding this new medium.

Key words communication research • internet • meta-analysis • new technology • research trends • world wide web

INTRODUCTION Communication technology development is widely recognized as a salient feature of modern society in the so-called ‘information age’. As more and more people are connected with computers, especially the internet, this new medium is rapidly attracting attention. The G-7 meeting to discuss the Information Society in February 1995 and US President Bill Clinton’s 518 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.

Kim & Weaver: Communication Research about the Internet

rhetoric on the Information Superhighway have probably contributed to increased interest in the internet and its impact on individuals and society. Although many communication scholars have studied computer-mediated communications (CMC) during the last several decades, only fairly recently researchers have begun to make the internet the object of their studies. Each advance of new communication technology brings new opportunities for research. The internet will provide many possibilities for mass communication researchers, especially in the areas of audience and content research (Stempel and Stewart, 2000). During the last few years social scientists, including many communication researchers, have taken various approaches to conceptualizing and analyzing this new medium. The potential of the internet to change traditional communication systems and media has become an important research topic in the communication field. Thus, the question of what kind of research has been done so far about the internet is timely and deserves to be closely examined. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview by reviewing major research trends relating to the internet. In other words, we seek to draw a larger picture of communication research trends on the internet. In doing so, we focus on the topic or subject of each study, the method(s) employed, and the theoretical approach used (if any). THE INTERNET AS A NEW RESEARCH AGENDA The internet came into being about 30 years ago, called ARPANET, as a military experiment by the US Defense Department. Originally this new technology was established to provide a secure and survivable communication network for organizations engaged in defense-related research (Anthes, 1994; Kling, 1996). Because of this, many accounts often focus too heavily on the technical development of this new medium instead of its uses and effects. Recently however, especially in the 1990s, the internet has revolutionized the communications world like nothing before. It has become a new communication medium that is different from most forms of communication that we are used to (Truetzschler, 1998). Along with the rapid development of the internet during the last several years, many social scientists and communication scholars have begun to make this new medium the object of their studies. Thus far, many interdisciplinary studies of this technology present a complex picture of how the internet is used by people or organizations (e.g. Althaus and Tewksbury, 2000; Atkin et al., 1998; Auger and Gallaugher, 1997; Bruce, 1999); how the internet affects traditional media and their usage patterns (e.g. Bromley and Bowles, 1995; Coffey and Stipp, 1997; Garrison, 1995); how the internet has been used in such areas as politics, 519 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.

New Media & Society 4(4)

education, research activities, and marketing (e.g. Bimber, 1999; Dreze and Zufryden, 1998; Johnson and Kaye, 1998; Li and Bukovac, 1999); the necessary legal or economic settlements for internet use (e.g. Beams, 1999; McChesney, 1996; Melone, 1997); and advancements in technology (e.g. Barab et al., 1996; Mason, 1998). In addition to a growing number of internet-related studies, the questions of why and how communication researchers study this new medium have also been discussed. Several years ago, for example, the Journal of Communication (1996, 46: 1) published a special symposium about the internet. It included articles such as ‘Why Communication Researchers Should Study the Internet’, ‘The Internet as Mass Medium’, and ‘Units of Analysis for Internet Communication’. As an example of one answer to the question of why communication researchers should study the internet, Rafaeli stated: All forms of content are congregating on line. So are people. The rates of growth, conservatively estimated at over 5% a month several years going, are astounding. Big business, as well as garden variety entrepreneurs, are not blind to this. None of these – novelty, volume, head counts, or prospects of future profits – are distinct communication phenomena, nor do they serve to set the Net apart from communication as we have known it. Instead, we should search for the communication dimensions in our inquiry, with an eye to finding less ephemeral, more robust concepts. Those, I believe, are the things we would want to study. (Newhagen and Rafaeli, 1996: 4)

Moreover, many claims have been made regarding the question of how we study the internet as a medium. Regarding the difficulties of internet research, for example, Morris and Ogan (1996) argued that theoretical models in the mass communication field, especially effects theories and the basic assumptions behind them, have constrained internet research. But they also argued that because the internet is a mass medium, communication scholars should examine the internet, rather than CMC in general, in the context of other traditional mass media. They classified internet research into four different categories: one-to-one asynchronous communication (e.g. emails); many-to-many asynchronous communication (e.g. usenets, online bulletin boards and listservers); synchronous communication that can be one-to-one, one-to-few, or one-to-many (e.g. multi-user dungeons); and asynchronous communication characterized by the receiver’s need (e.g. web pages and FTP files) (Morris and Ogan, 1996). More recently, regarding the increasing use of the internet for communication research, Stempel and Stewart (2000: 541) wrote: ‘The internet appears to be a mixed blessing. It offers new opportunities for both audience research and content analysis, yet old problems researchers have encountered over the years remain’. They argue that this new technology provides both opportunities and challenges for communication researchers. 520 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


Based on their historical analysis of technological development and the agenda of media studies, Shaw et al. (2000) argued that as the internet provides more opportunity to connect people, the era of mass communication will be over. Hence, traditional mass communication theories should be redefined to effectively explain new communication technology and social system interactions. Weaver (2000) made a similar plea in a recent review of mass communication research: Methods alone won’t make our research more interesting or insightful. We still need to develop useful new concepts and theoretical approaches to build on those that presently exist. To be sure, many of our existing concepts and theories are still useful in spite of the rapid changes in communication technologies and patterns. Agenda-setting, cultivation, dependency theory, framing, indexing, information processing, knowledge gap, priming, the spiral of silence, the third-person effect and others can still be useful approaches in our new computerized communication environment, but to remain useful these ideas must be refined and supplemented by other new concepts and theories. (Weaver, 2000: 14)

Research about communication research trends, thus far, has mainly examined medium, research focus, research methods and use of theory (Cooper et al., 1994; Perloff, 1976; Riffe and Freitag, 1997; Schramm, 1957; Weaver, 1988, 1993, 2000; Weaver and Gray, 1980; Wimmer and Haynes, 1978). For example, the comparison of quantitative and qualitative methods in communication research articles has been done by several metaanalysis researchers (e.g., Cooper et al., 1994; Perloff, 1976). Among major previous findings were more quantitative research articles (particularly survey and content analysis) and few theory-driven or hypothesis-testing studies. As mentioned earlier, this article attempts to present a theoretical and methodological review of communication research on the internet. The patterns of internet research found in this review will also be discussed in relation to Wimmer and Dominick’s four-phase development model of communication research as described later. We agree with other scholars that it is important to examine research patterns from one medium to another (Morris and Ogan, 1996; Wartella and Reeves, 1985; Wimmer and Dominick, 2000) and to draw upon past research patterns in order to think about more productive directions for future communication research. We hope to reveal some of these patterns in past internet research here and to stimulate thought about future research on this new medium. METHOD Sample Unlike many previous meta-analysis studies analyzing empirical findings on a given topic, this study is limited to patterns of methods and theories used in recent internet-related studies by communication scholars. Given the fact 521 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


• Table 1

Number of publications of communication and internet-related studies

YEAR (COMMUNICATION ABSTRACTS)

Communications in general Internet-related Percentages

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

1500 34 2.3%

1500 75 5.0%

1935 139 7.2%

2003 162 8.4%

1984 151 7.5%

Note: Numbers of communications and internet-related studies were based on the indexes of Communication Abstracts. The year and numbers of articles are based on the index, not on date of publication of the articles.

that mass media researchers traditionally tend to focus on a certain communication medium, we looked at research about the internet or world wide web, rather than CMC as a whole. The data for the study were gathered by searching Communication Abstracts using the key words ‘internet’ and ‘World Wide Web’ in the subject index. Communication Abstracts, published six times annually, includes studies broadly related to communication from more than 200 journals. According to Communication Abstracts, it ‘covers major communication-related articles, reports, and books from a variety of publishers, research institutions, and information sources – providing coverage of recent literature in the area [field]’. Table 1 provides the numbers of communications and internet-related publications indexed in Communication Abstracts during the five years from 1996–2000. These publications increased rapidly from a mere 34 in 1996 to 139 in 1998, and to 151 in 2000. In addition to the number of publications, the percentage of internet studies in the communication field also increased from only 2.3% in 1996 to 8.4% in 1999. For this study, convention papers were excluded. We limited our analysis to research articles published in academic journals or books, because we assumed that these studies would be more carefully reviewed and widely distributed than papers, and we wanted to keep the number of studies manageable. A total of 561 articles published in 86 communication-related journals and internet-related books were analyzed for the study (for the list of journals, see the Appendix). For the intercoder reliability test, 30 randomly-selected articles were coded by the second coder. The Scott’s pi coefficients were .83 for research focus, .93 for developmental phases of research agenda, .91 for research method and .89 for theoretical application. Overall intercoder agreement was .88. Units of analysis The unit of analysis was the research publication. Each publication was coded for year of publication, name of journal, research focus (subject), development of research agendas, research method and communication 522 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


theories (if any) used in the study. The category systems for this study were generated inductively as the analysis proceeded. They were also modeled along similar lines of analysis as those of Cooper et al. (1994) and Wimmer and Dominick (2000). The variables are operationally defined below. Journal and Year: in order to examine the scope of academic journals concerning internet research, the name of the publication was identified. The year when the research was published is also important for measuring how much attention was paid to the internet over time. Research Focus (Subject): the research focus refers to the main topic or subject of the internet or internet-related phenomenon that the article authors attempted to describe or explain. As the analysis proceeded, each article was classified into one of 52 possible subjects. Then the 52 specific research subjects were grouped into 12 broad categories: • • • • • • • • • • • •

law and policy issues in general; uses and perceptions of the internet; economic, advertising and marketing issues; politics, democracy and development issues; cultural and social issues; historical or philosophical discussion; effects of the internet on individuals or organizations; technical issues in general; education and instructional application; evaluation of websites; issues about internet research; and ‘other issues.’

For the research with more than one focus, multiple subjects were coded. A total of 118 studies of 561 examined (21%) had multiple subjects. A Developmental Model of Research Agendas: regarding the development of communication research on each new medium, Wimmer and Dominick (2000: 7–8) propose a four-phase evolutionary model. In the first phase, there is usually research interest in the medium itself, illustrated by questions such as: what is this medium? How does it work? What does the medium involve? How is it similar to or different from existing media? How much will it cost? In Phase 2, once the medium is developed to a certain level, research interest about the uses and the users of the medium increases, as illustrated by such questions as: how do people use this medium? Who are the major users? Phase 3 includes research about various effects of the 523 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


medium, to answer such questions as: how does the medium affect people’s lives, organizations and society? Does it change people’s perspectives or opinions? Are there any harmful effects related to using this medium? Lastly, research interests in Phase 4 mostly concern improvements in the medium and development of new concepts or theories for the new medium to answer such questions as: is there a way to change the structure or content of the new medium to make it more useful or effective? Based on the Wimmer and Dominick’s research model, the four phases were operationally defined as follows. • Issues for the internet itself (Phase 1): technical problems and applications, interactivity issues, functions and services, economic conditions, law and policy conditions, historical and philosophical issues. • Uses and users of the internet (Phase 2): who uses the internet? How do people use it? What does the internet provide? diffusion and adoption, user perceptions, user surveys, and educational or political uses. • Effects of the internet (Phase 3): the internet’s influences on individuals, organizations, communities or national development, the internet and people’s behavioral changes, new social or cultural activities, and the internet’s impact on traditional media. • How can the internet be improved? (Phase 4): new technological developments, advanced applications, web TV, international technical standards, building internet-related concepts or models. Research Methods: Each publication was analyzed in terms of the research method used in the study. Briefly, quantitative research tends to involve numerical or counting procedures. Thus, quantitative research usually includes articles that report data in means and percentages as well as articles using statistics that make it possible to generalize to a larger population (Wimmer and Dominick, 2000). Following Cooper et al. (1994), this study categorized the following methods that used empirical procedures in gathering or analyzing data as quantitative research: survey, content analysis, experiment, and empirical secondary data analysis. Other methods (e.g. analysis of issues and problems, historical or philosophical analysis, legal analysis, textual analysis) were categorized as non-quantitative research. Theoretical Application: In their analyses of communication research trends, several previous studies investigated whether there was an explicit ‘theoretical linkage’ (Riffe and Freitag, 1997) or a ‘theory-driven . . . hypotheticodeductive sense’ (Cooper et al., 1994) in journal articles. Cooper et al. (1994) found that less than 1 in 10 studies tested a theory in general (8.1%), 524 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


and 97.4 percent of the qualitative studies did not name a theory or state at least one hypothesis. Similarly, based on their content analysis of research articles in Journalism Quarterly, Riffe and Freitag (1997) found that only onefourth of the articles employing content analysis had an explicit theoretical framework over the last three decades. Generally, communication researchers lack theoretical application in their studies, regardless of research methods (quantitative or qualitative). For this variable of theoretical application, we examined whether the research articles included any mention of specific theories or explicit hypotheses and research questions (derived from a named theory). If so, specific theories were also identified (e.g. uses and gratifications, information processing, knowledge gap). RESULTS Subjects of internet research What subjects or topics were most frequently studied? Table 2 provides the frequencies of subjects and specific examples. As shown, law and policy issues were the most common topic of communication research about the internet (153 studies; 22.5%). The next most frequent topic of studies was the uses and perceptions of the internet (128 studies; 18.9%). A total of 93 studies (13.7%) dealt with economic issues, such as e-commerce, advertising and marketing, and 69 (10.2%) were about politics, democracy and development issues. Other less common subjects of communication research about the internet included cultural or social issues (6.0%), historical or philosophical discussions (5.9%), effects of the internet on individuals and organizations (4.9%), technical issues (4.6%), education applications such as distancelearning and integration of internet resources into the curriculum (4.6%: e.g. Friedland and Webb, 1996; Gunaratne and Lee, 1996; Selwyn, 1999) and evaluation of websites (3.1%; e.g. Li, 1998). The second part of Table 2 provides more specific topics and study examples. Development of the research agenda To assess the development of communication research about the internet, we grouped specific subject categories into the four different research phases originally suggested by Wimmer and Dominick (2000). Figure 1 shows that during the years 1995–2000, the first two phases of research dominated the internet research agenda. There was far more research on the internet itself, and on the uses and users of the internet, than on its effects or its improvement. However, as Wimmer and Dominick (2000) also mentioned, Figure 1 indicates that in spite of much more research in the first two phases, some research has been conducted in the third and fourth phases at the same time 525 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


• Table 2 Classification of communication and internet-related studies by subject (percentages over 2%)

SUBJECT

PERCENTAGES

Law and policy issues in general Uses and perceptions of the internet Economic, advertising and marketing issues Politics, democracy and development issues Cultural and social issues Historical or philosophical discussion of the internet Effects of the internet on individuals or organizations Technical issues in general Education and instructional applications Evaluation of websites Issues in internet research Other issues/not clear Total

FREQUENCY (N = 679) PERCENTAGES 153 128 93 69 41 40 33 31 31 21 13 26 679

22.5 18.9 13.7 10.2 6.0 5.9 4.9 4.6 4.6 3.1 1.9 3.8 100.1

Selected specific topics and studies about the internet (percents and study examples) Legal and policy issues in general • legal, statutory and regulatory status of the internet and implications (8.5%: e.g. McChesney, 1996; Samoriski, 1999; Wu, 1996); • internet and copyright or intellectual property rights issues (3.3%: e.g. Beams, 1999; Melone, 1997); • pornography, gambling, hacking and regulations (3.1%: e.g. Weinberg, 1998); • privacy issues in general (1.6%: e.g. Dorney, 1997); and • pricing policy in general (.6%: e.g. Lehr and Weiss, 1996; Pospischil, 1998). Uses and perceptions of the internet • people’s (including journalists’ and researchers’) uses and perceptions of this technology (9.0%: e.g. Bruce, 1999; Maule, 1998; Stafford et al., 1999; Schierhorn et al., 1999); • adoption or diffusion of the internet and predicting variables (4.1%: e.g. Atkin et al., 1998; Auger and Gallaugher, 1997; Tanner, 1999); • traditional media use of the internet (3.0%: e.g. Bromley and Bowles, 1995; Garrison, 1995); • Usenet or user groups and interactivity (1.7%: e.g. Benson, 1996; Hill, 1997); and • internet and information gathering, management and delivery (1.1%: e.g. Kole, 1998; Singh et al., 1998). Economic, advertising and marketing issues • internet advertising or marketing, e-commerce (7.2%: e.g. Dreze and Zufryden, 1998; Li and Bukovac, 1999); • economic efficiency or online banking, business issues (1.5%: e.g. Chuang and Sirbu, 1999); and • publication, particularly newspapers, industry or market issues (1.5%: e.g. Borwein and Smith, 1997). 526 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


• Table 2 continued

Politics, democracy and development issues • internet’s impact on political participation or democracy (3.6%: e.g. Bimber, 1999; Johnson and Kaye, 1998; Tambini, 1999); • internet’s influence on government activities, especially presidential elections (2.4%: e.g. Johnson et al., 1999; Margolis et al., 1999); • community or national development issues (2.2%: e.g. Mont, 1999); and • freedom of speech or First Amendment issues (2.0%: e.g. Dutton, 1996; Shade, 1996). Cultural and social issues • new culture brought by the internet (1.9%: e.g. Parks, 1996); • gender, family and religious activity issues (1.9%: e.g. Sheehan, 1999; Thomas, 1999); • ethical issues in general (1.3%: e.g. King, 1996); and • internet and health issues in general (0.9%: e.g. McMillan, 1999). Effects of the internet on individuals and organizations • internet’s impact on personal relations or organizations (2.4%: e.g. Kent and Taylor, 1998; Parks, 1996); • internet’s impact on working environments (2.0%: e.g. Walsh and Bayma, 1996). Technical issues in general • technical applications in general (2.4%: e.g. Barab et al., 1996); • internet and traffic or congestion problems (1.1%: e.g. Staple, 1996); and • international standards of technology (1.1%: e.g. Mason, 1998). Note: Because multiple subjects were coded (mostly one or two subjects), the total number of studies in this table is 679. A total of 118 studies of 561 examined (21%) had multiple subjects. Because of rounding, the total percentage does not equal 100%. For the full citations of study examples, see the references for this study.

(12% for phase 3 and 11% for phase 4), suggesting that this model is not linear and cumulative. A review of methods As mentioned earlier, previous studies have found that more quantitative than qualitative research articles have been published in the communication field. For example, based on his analysis of communication research between 1955 and 1974, Perloff (1976) reported that the proportion of quantitative research had increased from 51 percent during 1955–1964 to 60 percent in the next 10 years. More recently, Cooper et al. (1994) also reported that since the 1970s quantitative research articles outnumbered qualitative articles (57.8% vs. 35.1%). Table 3 shows the frequency of use of different methods employed in internet-related communication studies. Contrary to previous findings, this study found that non-quantitative research methods were more frequently 527 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


Note: The four phase model of Wimmer and Dominick (2000) was used for organizing our findings. • Figure 1 A developmental model of internet research: four phases (N = 672, multiple coding allowed) • Table 3 Classification of communication and internet-related studies by methods employed (N = 561)

METHOD

EMPLOYED

FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

Quantitative methods Survey (mail, telephone, email and online) Content analysis (including website analysis) Experiment Empirical secondary data analysis Multi-quantitative methods

149 59 39 20 20 11

26.7% 10.5 7.0 3.6 3.6 2.0

Non-quantitative methods Analysis of issues and problems Historical or philosophical analysis Legal analysis Discourse (textual) analysis Cultural analysis Observation Focus group Multi-non-qualitative methods Others (e.g. ethnographies)

409 276 45 26 12 12 6 5 13 15

72.9% 49.2 8.0 4.6 2.1 2.1 1.1 0.9 2.3 2.6

Not clear Total

3 561

0.5 100.1%

Note: ‘Other’ includes in-depth interviews, ethnographies, Q-methodology, anecdotal statements, systematic rational choice analyses and critiques of previously published articles. Because of rounding, the total percentage does not equal 100%. 528 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


used than quantitative methods in internet-related studies. There were 149 quantitative articles (26.7%) and 409 non-quantitative articles (72.9%). Quantitative methods used fairly often were surveys (10.5% in total; 8.8% for mail or telephone and 1.7% for online or email: e.g. Bromley and Bowles, 1995; Johnson and Kaye, 1998), content analysis (7.0%: e.g. Li, 1998; McLaughlin, 1996), experiment (3.6%) and empirical secondary data analysis (3.6%). Only one out of five studies relied on one of the three major quantitative methods of survey, content analysis and experiment. Among non-quantitative methods, almost half of all the studies (49.2%) employed analyzed issues and problems, such as summary and systematic analysis of internet-related issues (34%: e.g. Chuang and Sirbu, 1999; Falk, 1998), concept or model building (8.8%: e.g. Melody, 1996; Rogerson and Thomas, 1998), comparative analysis (4.0%: e.g. Margolis et al., 1999), and comprehensive literature reviews or bibliographies (0.9%: e.g. Poulin, 1998). Other non-quantitative methods included historical or philosophical analyses (8.0%: e.g. Guice, 1998; McChesney, 1996), legal analysis (4.6%), discourse analysis (2.1%: e.g. Connell and Galasinksi, 1995) and observation (1.1%: e.g. Borwein and Smith, 1997). Multi-methodological studies, such as survey and content analysis (e.g. Hampton and Wellman, 1999), were a small percentage of the internetrelated communication studies (2.0% of the quantitative studies and 2.3% of the non-quantitative). Theoretical applications in internet research Based on eight US-based highly circulated communication journals: Communication Monographs, Communication Research, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Human Communication Research, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Communication, Journalism Quarterly, and Quarterly Journal of Speech Communication, Cooper et al. (1994) reported that 27.6 percent of communication research attempted to test theories or hypotheses. Similarly, our analysis found that the test of a theory was relatively rare. Table 4 shows that, on the average, only 96 out of a total of 561 internetrelated studies (17.1%) tested a specific communication theory or relied on communication theories for their primary arguments. In other words, not many internet studies were explicitly theoretical in nature. Theories mentioned or applied most frequently in those few studies included uses and perceptions of the internet or its information drawing on uses and gratifications theory (21.9%: e.g. Kaye, 1998), democratic theory (15.6%: e.g. Bimber, 1999), including political participation and electronic democracy, and information processing (13.5%: e.g. Maule, 1998; Schierhorn et al., 1999). Other theories used fairly often in internet research included diffusion or adoption (8.3%: e.g. Atkin et al., 1998; Tanner, 1999), development or 529 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


dependency (8.3%: e.g. Mont, 1999; Musso et al., 2000), and hegemony or power approaches (6.3%: e.g. Bimber, 1999; Hill and Hughes, 1997). Many established communication effects theories, such as knowledge gap (3.1%: e.g. Speight, 1999) and agenda setting (2.1%: e.g. Esrock and Leichty, 1998), have been rarely tested or applied in communication research about the internet. The same is true for the communication concept of interactivity. Only five studies (5.2%) tested empirically the interactivity of the internet (e.g. Owen et al., 1999). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Previous thematic meta-analyses of communication research trends and directions have focused on the field more broadly (Danielson and Wilhoit, 1967; Gaunt, 1993; Weaver, 1988, 1993, 2000; Weaver and Gray, 1980). In contrast, this study looked at communication research trends regarding one specific new medium. Through a thematic meta-analysis of recent research publications about the internet, we identified topical, methodological, and theoretical trends. We hope the findings of this study provide not only an overview of recent internet research trends but also some new insights for future research about this medium. In brief, the key findings of this study include increasing interest by communication researchers in the internet (as shown in Table 1); an • Table 4 Classification of communication and internet-related studies by communication theories (N = 561)

THEORY APPLIED?

FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

No Yes Total

465 96 561

82.9 17.1 100%

21 15 13 8 8 6 5 5 5 3 2 2 3 96

21.9 15.6 13.5 8.3 8.3 6.3 5.2 5.2 5.2 3.1 2.1 2.1 3.1 99.9%

(Among theory-driven papers) Uses and gratifications Democratic theory Information processing Diffusion or adoption Development or dependency Hegemony theory Interactivity (only for empirical tests) Media use patterns Personal relations Knowledge gap Agenda setting Persuasion Others Total

Note: ‘Others’ include sourcing patterns, gatekeeping theory and social responsibility theory. 530 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


emphasis on research about the internet itself, especially law and policy issues and uses of it (as shown in Table 2 and Figure 1); a relative lack of quantitative studies (as shown in Table 3); and a paucity of theoretical applications in internet research, especially traditional mass media effects theories (as shown in Table 4). Although these findings are based on only a brief time period (1996–2000), we think it is likely that more empirical studies of the various effects of the internet and the improvement of the internet as a medium are needed in the future. Along with developing new concepts and theories for internet research, we still need to use many of our existing communication concepts and theories to explain and predict the rapid changes in this new communication technology. This study also compared research methods and theoretical applications between major communication-related journals (with more than 1500 circulation) and less circulated journals over time. Table 5 reveals that compared to other less-circulated communication journals, internet research published in 17 journals with more than 1500 circulation was more likely to be quantitative (38.2% vs. 23.7%) and theory-based (22.7% vs. 16.0%). Although studies based on non-empirical and non-theoretical approaches have prevailed in internet research thus far, more quantitative studies emphasizing theory testing and building have been conducted in the second • Table 5 Comparison of research methods and theoretical application between major journals with more than 1500 circulation and less circulated journals, 1995–2000 (percentage)

MAJOR JOURNALS (1500+) (N = 110)

OTHER JOURNALS (1500–) (N = 451)

95/97

98/00

TOTAL

95/97

98/00

TOTAL

Methods** Quantitative Non-quantitative

34.3 65.7

40.0 60.0

38.2 61.8

17.6 82.4

27.4 72.6

23.7 76.3

Theoretical application* Yes No

17.1 82.9

25.3 74.7

22.7 77.3

8.8 91.2

20.3 79.7

16.0 84.0

Note: Chi-square tests were conducted for the comparison of major and other journals: *p < 0.1; ** p < 0.01. The Iowa Guide (Dyer, 1999) was used as the source of the circulation figures for the journals. Among 86 journals used for this study, ‘Major Journals’ included 17 journals with more than 1500 circulation: Journal of Communication (6000), Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (6000), Federal Communications Law Journal (4000), Journalism & Mass Communication Educator (3800), Communication Education (3500), Journal of Popular Culture (3500), Human Communication Research (3000), Communication Quarterly (2700), Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (2600), Journal of Radio Studies (2500), Technical Communication (2100), Media Development (2000), Public Relations Review (2000), Cultural Studies (1750), Communication Research (1700), Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal (1500), and The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics (1500). 531 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


three years compared to the first time period, as Wimmer and Dominick’s developmental model of media research would predict. The comparison of research focus between major journals and other journals revealed that while major journals were more likely to focus on ‘law and policy issues in general’, ‘uses and perceptions of the internet’, and ‘education and instructional application’, other less-circulated journals published more research about ‘economic, advertising and marketing issues’, ‘politics, democracy and development issues’, ‘cultural and social issues’, and ‘technical issues’. In addition to these notable differences in research methods and theoretical applications between the two different groups of journals, given that many previous research trends studies were mostly based on highly circulated communication journals (e.g. Cooper et al., 1994; Perloff, 1976; Riffe and Freitag, 1997), this finding suggests that research trends studies could be influenced by journal selection. As another encouraging trend, based on the comparison of research focus between the first (1995–1997) and the second three years (1998–2000), we found that while initial research interests have focused on the characteristics of the medium itself and the historical and philosophical discussion of its development, more recently communication researchers have begun to give more attention to people’s uses of the internet and its effects. Lastly, regarding the development of a communication research agenda about the internet over time, the findings of this study (Figure 1) suggest that the development model is not linear – that ‘when one phase is over, it is never considered again’ (Wimmer and Dominick, 2000: 5). Instead, as mentioned earlier, this study found that once a new medium emerges, research is often conducted simultaneously on all four phases. Considering our finding that there was a notable difference in research method and focus between journals, journal selection in research trends studies is crucial. For example, if we had examined only highly circulated major journals for this study, we would have found more attention to the uses and effects of the internet (phases 2 and 3). At the same time, the internet studies of these major communication journals rarely examined the phase 4 research topics, such as technical developments and model building. Finally, considering that this analysis provides a general overview of communication research on the internet, further work remains in exploring more specific areas of internet research, such as a meta-analysis of communication research about the uses and effects of the internet. Appendix: Names of 86 journals including internet-related research (listed in alphabetical order) 1. Administration & Society 2. American Behavioral Scientist 532 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


3. Augmentation 4. Behavior & Information Technology 5. Canadian Journal of Communication 6. College & University Media Review 7. Communicare 8. Communication Education 9. Communication Law and Policy 10. Communication Quarterly 11. Communication Research 12. Communication Review 13. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 14. Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15. Cultural Studies 16. Development 17. Development Dialogue 18. Discourse & Society 19. European Journal of Communication 20. Federal Communications Law Journal 21. Feedback 22. Gazette 23. Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal 24. Health Communication 25. Human Communication Research 26. Information Economics and Policy 27. Information Society 28. Instructional Science 29. International Journal of Advertising 30. Internet Reference Services Quarterly 31. Internet Research 32. Javnost – The Public 33. Journal of Advertising Research 34. Journal of Brand Management 35. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 36. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 37. Journal of Business Ethics 38. Journal of Communication 39. Journal of Communication Inquiry 40. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 41. Journal of Direct Marketing 42. Journal of Educational Media 43. Journal of Interactive Marketing 44. Journal of Internet Cataloging 45. Journal of Mass Media Ethics 46. Journal of Media Economics 47. Journal of Popular Culture 48. Journal of Product Innovation Management 49. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 50. Journal of Public Relations Research 51. Journal of Radio Studies 52. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy 533 Downloaded from http://nms.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on February 8, 2008 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.


53. Journal of Sex Research 54. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 55. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 56. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 57. Mass Communication & Society 58. Media Asia 59. Media Development 60. Media, Culture & Society 61. New Jersey Journal of Communication 62. new media & society 63. New Telecom Quarterly 64. Newspaper Research Journal 65. Nordicom Review 66. Political Communication 67. Press/Politics 68. Psychology & Marketing 69. Public Culture 70. Public Relation Quarterly 71. Public Relations Review 72. Public Understanding of Science 73. Reading Research Quarterly 74. Services Quarterly 75. Sexualities 76. Simulation and Gaming 77. Space Policy 78. Technical Communication 79. Technology and Society 80. Technology in Society 81. Telecommunications Policy 82. Telematics and Informatics 83. The French Journal of Communication 84. Women and Politics 85. Written Communication 86. Zer

Acknowledgements The authors appreciate the support of the Roy W. Howard Chair for this research.

Note An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2000 annual conference of MAPOR (Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research), Chicago, November 17–18.

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Address: Department of Communication, De Paul University, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60614-3250, USA [email: [email protected]] DAVID WEAVER is Roy W. Howard Research Professor in the School of Journalism at Indiana University-Bloomington. His recent research interests include studies of journals in the U.S. and other countries, mass media and public opinion, and the agenda-setting role of journalism in public affairs and politics. Address: School of Journalism, Indiana University, Ernie Pyle Hall 200, 940 E. 7th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405–7108, USA. [email: [email protected]]

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