an article by Timothy Graham (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia) and Paul Henman (The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) published in Information, Communication & Society Volume 22 Issue 13 (2019)
Abstract
Nowadays, the web offers a world of choice, providing millions of options at the click of a button.
Web-based platforms such as Amazon.com and Yelp.com provide users with a range of tools and functionalities to navigate and compare options within a complex and bewildering landscape of choice. Whilst such websites afford users the feeling of objective and ‘free’ choice, it is also clear that the design features and architecture of websites have strategic affordances for structuring choice in different ways and for particular aims and objectives.
Based on a study of 500 top-ranking websites, in this paper, we argue for a re-evaluation of the relationship between choice and the web, through an examination of the affordances of websites for shaping and governing choice.
Using illustrative examples and drawing on a conceptual framework from previous work, we examine four interconnected aspects of how choice is structured through the affordances of websites.
We discuss the role of algorithms in governing choice through websites, including their role in drawing users into a political economy of choice-making that appears to ‘nudge’ them in particular directions. Websites not only constitute and structure choice, but also presuppose, deploy, and potentially (re)produce the characteristics and capacities of ‘choosers’, and as choosers are not equals this in turn may reproduce and reinforce social inequalities and fissures.
The paper concludes with a reflection on the entangled trajectories of choice and web technologies, and how this might impact our understanding of choice in contemporary society.
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Monday, 18 November 2019
Wednesday, 11 September 2019
National borders don't stop in the physical world – they're in cyberspace too Virtual borders have also been subtly dividing the wo
a post by Meicen Sun for the Big Think blog
Virtual borders have also been subtly dividing the world
Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images
Murals and graffitis to protest against the regime in Cairo during the Revolution of 2011, which was organized on the internet.
To the globalists' dismay, recent years have seen the strengthening of national borders. State sovereignty rages on with each vehicle returned and each visa revoked.
But in case you thought the divisions were just physical, virtual borders have also been subtly dividing the world. You land in Country A with every hope for a romantic getaway, only to find that the dating app you had just used at the airport now no longer works on your phone. That's fine. But minutes before your big business meeting in Country C, you fall into a total panic when the cloud drive on which you'd stored all your files in Country B somehow won't open on your laptop. This is bad.
The state's power to disrupt and exclude goes far beyond the flow of people, goods and money. In erecting virtual borders, states are asserting an even more formidable type of power through controlling the flow of information on the internet. Unlike physical borders, virtual borders are at once everywhere and nowhere, and one may never even know for certain whether they exist.
Continue reading
Virtual borders have also been subtly dividing the world
Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images
Murals and graffitis to protest against the regime in Cairo during the Revolution of 2011, which was organized on the internet.
To the globalists' dismay, recent years have seen the strengthening of national borders. State sovereignty rages on with each vehicle returned and each visa revoked.
But in case you thought the divisions were just physical, virtual borders have also been subtly dividing the world. You land in Country A with every hope for a romantic getaway, only to find that the dating app you had just used at the airport now no longer works on your phone. That's fine. But minutes before your big business meeting in Country C, you fall into a total panic when the cloud drive on which you'd stored all your files in Country B somehow won't open on your laptop. This is bad.
The state's power to disrupt and exclude goes far beyond the flow of people, goods and money. In erecting virtual borders, states are asserting an even more formidable type of power through controlling the flow of information on the internet. Unlike physical borders, virtual borders are at once everywhere and nowhere, and one may never even know for certain whether they exist.
Continue reading
Monday, 3 December 2012
Web-based recruitment in the Millennial generation: Work-life balance, website usability, and organizational attraction
an article by Karen Holcombe Ehrhart (San Diego State University, USA), David M. Mayer (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA) and Jonathan C. Ziegert (Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA) published in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 21 Number 6 (December 2012)
Abstract
In this digital era, traditional recruitment efforts have increasingly been supplemented with or replaced by recruiting applicants on the Web.
Concurrently, organisations are increasingly adapting to younger individuals from the Millennial generation as they enter the workforce.
We combine these salient issues to examine Web-based recruitment of the Millennial generation by assessing predictors of organisational attraction. Using a sample of Millennials (N = 493), we found that perceptions of both work-life balance and website usability incrementally predicted attraction, when controlling for perceptions of other organisation characteristics.
In addition, person-organisation fit mediated these relationships. These findings speak to the importance of examining how aspects of Web-based recruitment influence Millennial applicants.
Abstract
In this digital era, traditional recruitment efforts have increasingly been supplemented with or replaced by recruiting applicants on the Web.
Concurrently, organisations are increasingly adapting to younger individuals from the Millennial generation as they enter the workforce.
We combine these salient issues to examine Web-based recruitment of the Millennial generation by assessing predictors of organisational attraction. Using a sample of Millennials (N = 493), we found that perceptions of both work-life balance and website usability incrementally predicted attraction, when controlling for perceptions of other organisation characteristics.
In addition, person-organisation fit mediated these relationships. These findings speak to the importance of examining how aspects of Web-based recruitment influence Millennial applicants.
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