My research explores communicative processes and their evolution and development in mediated social environments. I am particularly interested in the effects and implications of computer mediation on organizational and collaborative processes.
The scientific approach to human communication phenomena suggests a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, and I have been fortunate to work with and learn from some outstanding research practitioners. My doctoral research has had three major thrusts: collaborative knowledge production via Wikipedia, the social psychology of media use and online communicative behavior, and the motivations and implications of social network site (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) use.
Collaborative Knowledge Production
Wikipedia is one of the flagship products of the current generation of web applications/communities commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Wikipedia is the product of a broadly decentralized group of “editors” who each volunteer their time to develop an encyclopedia. While much Wikipedia research has focused on the accuracy of individual articles, Alex Halavais and I tested the hypothesis that some topical domains were more amenable to collaborative knowledge development than others (Lackaff < Halavais, 2006; Halavais < Lackaff, 2008). We found that article development within Wikipedia is indeed uneven across topical domains, suggesting that Wikipedia may need to consider strategies to help insure that basic social science topics, for example, receive the same attention from editors as the minutiae of the Harry Potter universe. My second research interest in Wikipedia is how information seekers make quality judgments about their findings, especially in the absence of traditional cues to authority (Lackaff < Cheong, 2008a; Lackaff < Cheong, 2008b). Pauline Cheong and I chose to focus on the pedagogical implications of these credibility judgments, and used focus group and survey data to test existing models of informational credibility judgment.
Social Psychology of Mediated Communication
With my advisor Michael Stefanone, I have pursued several studies in the social psychology of new web-based communication platforms such as blogs, photo and video sharing sites, and social network sites (Lackaff < Stefanone, 2008; Stefanone < Lackaff, 2008a; Stefanone < Lackaff, 2008b). Much of the social behavior of Web 2.0 participants (such as the public posting of personal thoughts, photos, and videos, and the public articulation of personal social networks) seems to run counter to traditional norms of privacy and publicity. We have found support for the hypothesis that the interaction of a broad “culture of celebrity” (exemplified in reality television, celebrity magazines, etc.) with certain personality attributes will result in predictable types of social behavior online. Individuals who are heavily exposed to socially-rewarding messages from the celebrity culture are likely to manage their online identities and communications in ways that model celebrity. This modeling includes behavior such as increased personal photo sharing, as well as articulating social networks that are significantly different from those who do not identify with this culture.
Public and Articulated Social Networks
Social network sites have emerged as a “hot topic” among mediated communication researchers, owing to their astonishingly rapid diffusion and banalization within many demographics. The Facebook platform, in particular, represents an enormous opportunity for researchers, especially those interested dynamic communication and social processes. Facebook has opened its interface to externally-developed “Applications” which integrate into users’ personal profiles. I am currently pursuing multiple research protocols that collect data from Facebook users via these integrated Applications. My first protocol was designed to analyze and qualify the types of network ties that are maintained via Facebook (Lackaff < Carcioppolo, 2008). The second protocol, developed in collaboration with Dr. Stefanone and an interdisciplinary research group, is designed to explore several broader themes such as the mobilization of social resources, the sanctioning against antinormative behaviors, and network structure effects on social behavior. As far as I know, this approach to social network site research is completely novel, and I hope to establish it as a valuable and productive method of online social research.
Other Research
Computational social simulation and agent-based modelling are research methods that have grown increasingly accessible, even to social scientists without significant amounts of training in software development. With colleagues Ryan Kozey and Frank Tutzauer, I've developed agent-based simulations of organizational behavior, particularly attrition (Kozey < Lackaff, 2008).
My master's research examined a six-week sample of comments posted to Slashdot, Kuro5hin, and Plastic.com to assess the discursive and social dynamics of distributed comment-rating systems (Lackaff, 2003; 2004; 2005).
Feel free to contact me at lackaff -@- lackaff[dot]net.