[Air-l] Re: UCLA Internet Use Report

[Ed Lamoureux]

In some ways, these tracking studies are like the very "worst" research
that we used to do (and in some cases, still do) about television usuage. 

Sure, knowing that X number of subjects have the television on Y number of
hours and are tuned to Z program,  is interesting. Such knowledge
certainly "works" for some of the commercial interests at hand
(demographic analyses of audiences etc.).

Similar information about the internet is also interesting, especially in
that it encourages appreciation of the increasingly important role of
networked digital communication environments in everyday life.

Unfortunately, usage data of this sort tells us a thing about
(a) what users are DOING while engated in the technology (even when we
know what they say they think they are doing....)
and more importantly
(b) what their use MEANS, both to them and to the industries and practices
at hand.

In some ways, we are back to the old questions about what we can learn via
surveys (quant) vs. field work (qual) . . . . we can make some pretty big
interpretive mistakes based on usage data, alone. 


Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, 
Speech Communication and Multimedia
Editor, Journal of Communication and Religion
Bradley University
Peoria IL 61625
ell at bradley.edu
http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~ell
Fax: 309-677-3446