COMM 481: Social Networks : Course Blog

Week 15 - Catch-up and Discuss Final Papers

2010-04-20T17:30:00Z

Week 14 - Health

2010-04-13T17:30:00Z

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 Infarction. 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.

Christakis, Nicholas, and James Fowler. (2007). The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years. The New England Journal of Medicine, 357: 370-379.

Assignment #4: Network Measures

2010-04-07T20:51:28Z

IMPORTANT NOTE: Assignment #4 is now due on April 30 at 1:30pm

Administer the survey in the course handout to a minimum of 20 people. The survey consists of a small number of demographic questions, a position generator, and a name generator and interpreter. One quarter of your interviews must be with each of the following Penn students: freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Half of your interviews must be with men, the other half with women.

After completing your surveys analyze and discuss your findings in relation to the course readings. It is recommended that you enter your completed survey in a spreadsheet and do some basic statistics (frequencies, averages, crosstabs, etc.). At a minimum, your findings should include a discussion of the following course themes and topics: social support, network size, network density, community, privatization, network diversity, strong ties, weak ties, homophily, the role of new media (i.e. the Internet, mobile phones, and related technologies), and issues of measurement as they pertain to this survey (you must also discuss your sampling strategy). Some of these topics may be overlapping, you may address them point-by-point or you may integrate them into a more holistic or focused analysis. You may find it helpful to conduct your analysis as a comparison between different types of survey participants. For example, comparing men and women, cohorts, big networks vs. small networks, those with diverse networks vs. those who are less diverse, etc. (there are many possibilities for comparison).
You must provide evidence and references from the course readings to substantiate your findings / conclusions.

Submit your findings in the form of a blog post of 1250-2000 words. Print your full name and your blog username on the top of each survey, staple them together and hand in to the course instructor at the end of class.

Week 13 - Search Process and Information Flow

2010-04-06T17:30:00Z

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.

Coleman, James S., Elihu Katz, and H. Menzel. (1957). The Diffusion of an Innovation Among Physicians. Sociometry 20: 253-270.

Ivkovic, Zoran & Weisbenner, Scott (2007). Information Diffusion Effects in Individual Investors' Common Stock Purchases: Covet Thy Neighbors' Investment Choices. The Review of Financial Studies 20(4): 1327-1357.

Week 12 - Small World Assignment Part II (ATTENDANCE MANDITORY!)

2010-03-30T17:30:00Z

The "small world of the university" experiment is now complete. 14 undergraduate students and 8 graduate students started the experiment with packages intended for 2 different targets. Folders started by 7 of the graduate students and 4 of the undergraduates successfully reached the targets.

You can view a graph of the folder paths here. This graph was generated using NodeXL. Additional graphs and the results of the group work (part 2 of the assignment) can be found on blackboard.

The instructions for part 2 (the in class group portion) of this assignment can be found here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The due date for part 3 of this assignment has been moved to April 23 at 1:30pm. The assignment is worth 12% of your final course grade.

Part 3 (handout):
Make sure you have a copy of the completed part 2 group worksheet for both targets.

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 World of the University Experiment" in a blog post of 1250-2000 words. As part of your discussion, refer back to your questions and hypotheses posted in response to Part I of this assignment. Are the findings consistent with your expectations? What would be expected based on the class readings? Make sure to explicitly address and reference relevant class readings (including the article by Stevenson et al.).

Week 11 - Computer Networks as Social Networks II

2010-03-23T17:30:00Z

Hodgkinson, Tom. (2008, January 14). "With Friends Like These...". Guardian.

Steinfield, Charles, Nicole B Ellison, and Cliff Lampe. (2008). Social Capital, Self-esteem, and use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 29:434-445.

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

Hampton, Keith N, Lauren F Sessions, and Eun Ja Her (2010). "Core Networks and New Technology: Internet, Call Phone Use, Network Size, and Diversity." Working Paper. Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

Hampton, Keith N, Oren Livio, and Lauren F Sessions. (in press). The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces: Internet Use, Social Networks, and the Public Realm. Journal of Communication.

Week 10 - Computer Networks as Social Networks I

2010-03-16T17:30:00Z

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.

Haythornthwaite, Caroline. (2002). Strong, Weak and Latent Ties and the Impact of New Media. The Information Society 18:1-17.

Hampton, Keith & Barry Wellman (2003). Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb. City and Community 2(4), 277-311.

Mesch, Gustavo, & Talmud, Ilan. (2007). Similarity and the Quality of Online and Offline Social Relationships Among Adolescents in Israel. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17(2), 455-466.

Week 9 - Centrality

2010-03-09T18:30:00Z

Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Chapter 6: Centrality and Prestige. In Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press.

Freeman, Linton. (1979). Centrality in Social Networks: Conceptual Clarification. Social Networks 1: 215-39.

Krebs, V. (2002). Uncloaking Terrorist Networks. First Monday, 7(4).

Valente, T., Unger, J., & Johnson, A. (2005). Do popular students smoke? The Association Between Popularity and Smoking Among Middle School Students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 37, 323-329.

Week 8 - Spring Break (NO CLASS!)

2010-03-02T18:30:00Z

Assignment 3: Communication Diary

2010-02-23T18:31:00Z

Your assignment is to keep a record of every contact that you make with people over a continuous and "typical" seven day period (must be 7 days in a row; cannot be over spring break). Include all kinds of contacts, such as saying hello, chatting, talking, meeting, or sending and receiving a message, including those that take place in-person, over the phone, on the Internet, or using any other medium of communication. Note: You may exclude interactions that take place in the classroom or as part of a course assignment (our class and others).

Record your interactions shortly after they happen. Do not wait and complete the diary retrospectively at the end of the day or week (make additional copies of the diary sheets as necessary).

Each person that you interact with should be listed individually in a column on the attached worksheet. You should record the date of the first time you interact during the seven day diary period, and circle the day of the week for each day that you have an interaction. The first time a person is added to your worksheet, complete the information on personal and tie characteristics. Record each interaction by medium of communication over the duration of the seven day diary period. You do not need to add a new column for each interaction, you do need a column for each person, keep a running tally in each column (each interaction is scored as one, regardless of length). You should also update the "Content" field after each interaction.

After you have recorded your interactions for the full seven days, analyze your diary and write a blog post answering the questions in the assignment handout. Your blog post should be 1250-1750 words, not including your answer to question 1. For questions 2 and 3, be sure to discuss your answer with reference to the course readings.

Week 7 - Measurement

2010-02-23T18:30:00Z

Updates:

1) The readings on the course outline for Week 12 are now moved up to March 30. We will hold the mandatory "Small World" class meeting on April 6.

2) A required reading by Fu has been added to next week's readings.

Next week's readings:

Zwijze-Koning, K., and Jong, M. D. T. d. (2005). Auditing Information Structures in Organizations. Organizational Research methods, 8(4), 429-453.

Marin, Alexandra, and Keith Hampton (2007). Simplifying the Personal Network Name Generator: Alternatives to Traditional Multiple and Single Name Generators. Field Methods 19(2), 163-193.

Fu, Yang-chih (2007). Contact Diaries: Building Archives of Actual and Comprehensive Personal Networks. Field Methods, 19: 194-217

van der Gaag, Martin, Tom .A.B. Snijders, and Henk Flap (2008). Position Generator Measures and Their Relationship to Other Capital Measures. Pp 27-48 in Social Capital: An International Research Program, edited by Nan Lin and Bonnie Erickson: Oxford, UK: Oxford.

Week 6 - Network Size and Homophily

2010-02-16T18:30:00Z

McPherson, Miller, Lynn Smith-Lovin and James Cook. (2001). Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks. Annual Review of Sociology 27: 415-444.

Goel, Sharad, Winter Mason, and Duncan Watts. (2010). "Real and Perceived Attitude Homophily in Social Networks." New York: Yahoo! Research.

Hill, R. A., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2003). Social Network Size in Humans. Human Nature, 14(1), 53-72.

Killworth, Peter, Eugene Johnsen, H Russell Bernard, Gene Ann Shelley, and Christopher McCarthy. 1990. Estimating the Size of Personal Networks. Social Networks 12: 289-312.

Assignment 2 : Important Matters

2010-02-09T18:31:00Z

Listen to Prof. Lynn Smith-Lovin (Duke University) and Prof. Robert Putnam (Harvard University) on WUNC "State of Things" (June 27, 2006). [the MP3 audio file can be found on Blackboard under "Assignments"]

This interview discusses this article:

McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Brashears, M. E. (2006). Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades. American Sociological Review, 71, 353-375.

Based on the article, interview, and course readings, write a blog post (500-750 words) answering the questions in the handout. Be sure to provide evidence based on the course readings.

Week 5 - Weak Ties

2010-02-09T18:30:00Z

Granovetter, Mark. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology 78(6): 1360-1380.

Burt, Ronald. (1993). The Social Structure of Competition. Pp. 65-103 in Explorations in Economic Sociology, edited by Richard Swedberg. New York: Sage.

Cote, Rochelle and Bonnie Erickson (2009). Untangling the Roots of Tolerance. American Behavioral Scientist 52(12): 1664-1689.

Magee, Marc (2008). Civic Participation and Social Capital: A Social Network Analysis in Two American Counties. Pp 308-327 in Social Capital: An International Research Program, edited by Nan Lin and Bonnie Erickson: Oxford, UK: Oxford.

Assignment 1 (Part 1): The Small University Experiment

2010-02-02T18:31:00Z

Your assignment is to get your small university folder to the target person through the shortest chain of intermediaries. Start the chain by passing your folder to a member of the University of Pennsylvania community (faculty, staff, or student) that you have had at least several conversations with outside the classroom and who is more likely than you to reach the target person. Each intermediary is instructed to complete an online survey describing themselves. Write a blog post (500-700 words) answering the questions in the assignment handout. When possible, provide references from the course readings to support your answers.

Important points to remember:

You cannot start the chain by giving the folder to a classmate, or to the course instructor.
Your assignment blog post is due before the start of next week's class on February 9.