Indicators for Engagement – Thoughts on ICT Assessment in a World of Social Media

Leah A. Lievrouw

ITA manu:scripts from Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA)

Abstract: Media, telecommunications, and computing/information systems (commonly referred to as information and communication technology, or ICT) have long been associated with economic development and social/cultural change. Historically, analyses of ICT and social change have relied on measures of the ownership, availability, access, and use (diffusion and adoption) of various technological systems to evaluate their significance and social impact. However, this approach implicitly equates the use and significance of media and information technologies with the production and consumption of ICT and media ‘products’, consistent with the industrial-era logic of mass media. Technology assessment of today’s new media and ICT requires measures that more closely reflect their fundamentally social, interactive, expressive, and performative character. Here, past studies of ICTs and social change related to development research and technology assessment are briefly reviewed. Contemporary ICTs and digital culture are contrasted with mass media forms and institutions, and tentative directions are suggested for developing indicators for engagement that may be more suitable to the assessment of contemporary social media.

Keywords: Engagement; e-participation; social media; technology assessment; ICT; new media; social network analysis; ITA manu:script; manuscript; manuskript (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-01-26
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