Temporality of political content exposure via smartphone screens : a computational description of rapidity and idiosyncrasy
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation provides a computational description of the rapid and idiosyncratic nature of exposure to political content in the smartphone environment, in order to critically address implicit conceptual and methodological assumptions common in computational political communication research. The data used are hyper-rich longitudinal screen-recordings collected from 115 Americans' smartphones for up to two weeks each in late 2019, amounting to over four years of natural screen usage. Drawing on theoretical temporal foundations of empirical research, I discuss the importance of timescale explication in political communication research and the temporally fragmented nature of smartphone usage. I then discuss how political content fits into the smartphone environment, in terms of format, sequencing, psychological processing, and especially information retention. Tying together these considerations, I demonstrate measurement validity concerns that arise from (1) aggregating unique encounters with political content as commensurable units, (2) aggregating durations of exposure to political content as commensurable units, and (3) utilizing singular formats or sources (including the news format) as proxies for measuring political content exposure. I also find connections between political content exposure durations and idiosyncratic content sequencing as afforded by the smartphone's flexibility. Throughout, I illustrate and quantify high variance in core measures both across and within subjects, and I show that the risk of ecological fallacy in this domain is similar interindividually and intraindividually. I conclude with an assessment of current research practices, suggestions for the field, reflection on limitations, and directions for future research.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Muise, Daniel Louis |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Reeves, Byron, 1949- |
| Thesis advisor | Reeves, Byron, 1949- |
| Thesis advisor | Hancock, Jeff |
| Thesis advisor | Pan, Jennifer, 1981- |
| Thesis advisor | Willer, Robert Bartley |
| Degree committee member | Hancock, Jeff |
| Degree committee member | Pan, Jennifer, 1981- |
| Degree committee member | Willer, Robert Bartley |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Communication |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Daniel Muise. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Communication. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/zz586xy2575 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Daniel Louis Muise
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...