COMM 481: Social Networks (Fall 2006)

Readings:

Kronholz , June (2003, February 13). After the Science Fair: Dear World, Please Stop Writing Me: A Girl's E-Mail Experiment Clogs In-Box for Weeks. The Wall Street Journal: A1.

Wellman, Barry and Milena Gulia. 1999. Net-Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. Pp. 331-366 in Networks in the Global Village, edited by Barry Wellman. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Baym, N., Zhang, Y. B., & Lin, M.-C. (2004). Social Interactions Across Media: Interpersonal Communication on the Internet, Telephone and Face-to-Face. New Media & Society, 6(3), 299-318.

Mesch, G., & Talmud, I. (2006). The Quality of Online and Offline Relationships: The Role of Multiplexity and Duration of Social Relationships. The Information Society, 22, 137-148

Hampton, Keith (2004). Networked Sociability On Line, Off Line. In Manuel Castells (Ed.) The Network Society: A Global Perspective. London, UK: Edward Elgar. 217-232.

Readings:

Kleinberg, J., & Lawrence, S. (2001). The Structure of the Web. Science, 294.
Park, H. W. (2003). Hyperlink Network Analysis: A New Method for the Study of Social Structure on the Web Connections, 25(1), 49-61.

Marks, Paul (2006, June 9). Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites. New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025556.200

Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2006). Spatially Bounded Online Social Networks and Social Capital: The Role of Facebook, Annual Conference of the International Communication Association. Dresden, Germany.

Wellman, Barry (2001). Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networking. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25(2), 227-252.

Readings:

Tepperman, Lorne. (1975). Deviance as a Search Process. Canadian Journal of Sociology 1 (3): 277-294.

Rogers, Everett. (2003). Diffusion Networks. Pp. 300-364 in Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press.

Burt, Ronald. (1999). The Social Capital of Opinion Leaders. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 566: 37-54.

Your assignment is to keep a diary of the interactions you have with people using “new media” (i.e. mobile phones and the Internet). You must record every interaction that you have with another person using new media over a full 7 day period. Record your interactions in the diary provided in the assignment handout. Record your interactions shortly after they happen, do not wait and complete the diary retrospectively at the end of the day or week.

For each interaction, record the date and time, the first name and last initial of the person, the type of support exchanged (indicate gave and/or received), the medium of communication used, your location at the time of the interaction, your best guess at how far away the person is (miles), your relationship to the person, the person’s sex and age, how long you have known the person, and your tie strength. See the attached legend for a coding scheme that you can use to record “type of support,” “medium,” location,” “relationship,” and “tie strength”.

After you have recorded your interactions for the full 7 days, analyze your diary and write a blog post answering the questions in the handout. Your blog post should be 1250-1750 words, not including your answer to question 1. For question 2 and 3, be sure to discuss your answer with reference to the course readings. For example, are your observations consistent or inconsistent with the readings? Do they provide new evidence for or against existing hypotheses? Based on your observations can you formulate new hypotheses, theories, or conclusions that build or contrast with the literature you have read?

No class this week.

Readings:

Cohen, S., Brissette, I., Doyle, W. J., & Skoner, D. P. (2000). Social Integration and Health: The Case of the Common Cold. Journal of Social Structure 1(3).

Dickens, C.M., L. McGowen, C. Percival, J. Douglas, B. Tomensen, L. Cotter, A Heagerty, and F.H. Creed. (2004). Lack of Close Confidant, but not Depression, Predicts Further Cardiac Events After Myocardial Infraction. Heart 90(5): 518-522.

Bearman, P. S., Moody, J., & Stovel, K. (2004). Chains of Affection: The Structure of Adolescent Romantic and Sexual Networks. American Journal of Sociology, 110(1), 44-91.

Part II (In class on Nov 16)
Complete the group worksheet. Your group only needs to complete one copy of the worksheet; the completed worksheet will be photocopied and distributed to all members of the class for use during Part III of this assignment. Copies will also be available on Blackboard.

Update: Here are the results of the group worksheet: Target "Tony", Target "Susan".

Part III (due November 30)
Make sure you have a copy of the completed Part II group worksheet for both targets, and that you have your own returned postcards / folder. Copy of assignment handout.

Read the following article:
Stevenson, William B., Barbara Davidson, Ivan Manev and Kate Walsh. 1997. The Small World of the University: A Classroom Exercise in the Study of Networks. Connections 20(2): 23-33.

Taking into account your own experience with this experiment and the aggregate results for both target persons, discuss the findings of the “Small University Experiment” in a blog post of 1000-2000 words. Make sure to explicitly address relevant class readings (including the above article by Stevenson et al.), as well your own questions and hypotheses posted in response to Part I of this assignment. Consider possible causes for the relative success or failure of folder delivery to the two targets based on the aggregate results, as well as possible reasons for your own folder being delivered or not. In addition, try to identify relevant points accounting for the similarities and differences between the class results and that conducted by Stevenson et al.

Within your blog post for this assignment, include a link to your blog post for Part I of the assignment.