Social Psychology of USENET Newsgroups
1) Introduction: xxx
After you finish your first draft, add an introduction here to lead off your report. Tell readers what they're going to find in your report and talk about yourself a little in relation to newsgroups: what did you know about it before you started; what was your initial reaction; what is your current attitude towards it.
2) Method of Study: xxx
Describe how you started reading newsgroups and the methods you followed to keep track of things:
(i) how you selected the groups and what browser you used;
(ii) how you marked or saved messages, and how you tried to keep track of things:
where things are; what you've already seen; what you want to use again; what problems you've had to solve; how you feel about doing all that.
(iii) how you analyzed the messages;
(iv) what new concepts you've acquired and why you find them useful or interesting (e.g., posting, spamming, flaming, follow-up, include-reply-or-not, etc.).
3) Results of the Analysis: xxx
Show how each of the following principles could be observed. Use brief copy/paste selections (with live links to original) to illustrate your observations:
(i) how much of another's message do people quote in their postings? What format is used (e.g., alternating paragraphs with << in between, or message first then the << etc.)
(ii) how well do postings follow the brevity rule or the one-topic-per-message rule?
(iii) what kind of postings elicit flaming? Check out this Page first.
(iv) when do people start a new thread vs. post a follow-up?
(v) what maintains a thread going? Why are some very long, others short?
(vi) what are predictable responses to a message?
(vii) what forms of agreement and disagreement do people use? (how do they express it and do they distinguish between message and messenger?)
(viii) what happens when someone breaks the nor, philosophy, or expectation of the group?
4) What It's Like to Participate: xxx
Describe your experience of the first few weeks as you were learning to adapt to being a member of a newsgroup. What social forces did you experience and how did you handle them?
(i) How long did it take you to post your first message? What type of emotions and thoughts accompanied the process of deciding to post your first message? How did it finally take place?
(ii) Describe how you read the newsgroups. What browser and procedure did you settle on? How did you choose which message to read? What were your reactions to having chosen that one?
(iii) Describe your current posting style. When do you decide to post? What conflicts do you experience? How many have you posted so far (give approximate number).
(iv) What happens after you posted? Is it exciting or depressing, or neither? How do you check for replies? Have you received any follow-ups to your statement? What happened?
(v) what long-term effects are you experiencing with newsgroup participation?
5. Annotated Index to Social Forces in Newsgroups: xxx
Search the Internet for articles that discuss the social or psychological forces in newsgroups. Describe how you found them and what each says in relation to the topics you discussed in your report.
6. Generational Reports on Newsgroups: xxx
Find 6 student reports in prior generations that deal with the topic of Newsgroups. Summarize and describe their effort and link to them. How does yours compare to theirs?
_____ I) Add a centered h1 or h2 heading, calling the document:
Social Psychology of USENET Newsgroups
xxx
Note: the XXX means you have to make up your own sub-title--something that reflects your approach, style, and theme. Do this after you finish your report and you know how it turned out! But don't forget to do it--don't leave the XXX there!!
_____ II) Put this in your HTML [title] field (or use Page Properties command): Gender Differences in Driving by FN/ LN, Gxx/ Year, University of Hawaii
_____ III) Place a Table of Contents at the top of the document with links to all the sub-sections.
_____ Note: Students often forget this item--but it is required: The first item in the Table of Contents MUST be called Instructions for this Report and it must be a live link to this document. Points will be deducted if you forget this requrement! Do it now.
_____ IV) Be sure you add a Navigation Table and e-mail button at the bottom of the document. This is a requirment for all your documents. Check now now to see if you have on in all your documents. Do it now!
_____ V) Using your web browser, check your document screen by screen: no screen should be made of just one paragraph (i.e., no paragraph should exceed one screen full--it's too hard to read that way!) Just look at every screen: it should not be made up of all text--separate using paragraph breaks.
_____ VI) Spell check your document before uploading!!
_____ VII) Check the visibility of your text: patterned backgrounds are not allowed. Darker colors are not allowed. White bgcolor is always excellent, especially if you vary the font face, color, and size to enhance visibility and emphasis (no blinking text allowed). Remember: your text looks different in different browsers and computers, so you need to experiment and ask others. You may also use graphic enhancers such as color bars, color dots, icons. However, animated icons are a problem if they distract attention from the text. Using the Table tag in html allows easy control over the color of each column and the placement of text on the screen. See this example for how to change the color of fonts. See this student's effective use of varied font faces, colors, and sizes.
_____ VIII) Check the way your document loads after it contains everything. How long does it take? Does text appear on the screen while one waits, or is it blank? Slow loads and blank screens are not allowed, so you must choose graphics that are low in memory size!