Suchergebnisse

This article explores users' attitudes, perceptions, views, and emotions toward car automation and robotization, two processes increasingly affecting society in different ways––namely, the rise of autonomous and robotized cars (and vehicles in general) and the increasing level of robotization of current cars. To address these questions, we investigated the feeling of trust and comfort toward driverless cars among Europeans using two Eurobarometer surveys. Making use of two representative samples of the European population, we aimed to explore citizens' attitudes and opinions about automation and digitization. The two surveys involved, respectively, 27,801 and 27,901 participants from all EU-28 countries. Furthermore, we investigated, in Northern Italy, the perception of robotization of cars and other technologies of everyday use, as well as the attitudes and opinions of children and preteens (n = 740), and adolescents (n = 801)—relevant social groups not covered in the Eurobarometer surveys.

This article aims to contribute to the debate on citizen participation by illustrating, with an operational example, how it may be more effectively achieved using a combination of survey and online social data. We focus on a project the purpose of which was to arrive at a formulation of planning policies based on a sharing process between the council and citizens of the small municipality of Peccioli in Tuscany, Italy. The aim was to increase participation by collecting opinions on long-term projects. The combination of survey and online social data enabled the collection of more accurate insights on participation, providing the municipality with a reliable representation of citizens' sentiments and opinions. This article, although locally rooted, demonstrates how planning authorities more widely can enhance participation by taking advantage of both analog and digital methods.

In robotics, a field of research still populated by prototypes, much of the research is made through videos and pictures of robots. We study how the highly human-like robot Sophia is perceived through a YouTube video. Often researchers take for granted in their experiments that people perceive humanoids as such. With this study we wanted to understand to what extent a convenience sample of university students perceive Sophia's human-likeness; second, we investigated which mental capabilities and emotions they attribute to her; and third, we explored the possible uses of Sophia they imagine. Our findings suggest that the morphological human-likeness of Sophia, through the video, is not salient in the Sophia's representations of these participants. Only some mental functions are attributed to Sophia and no emotions. Finally, uses of Sophia turned out to be connected to the gender stereotypes that characterize stereotyped women's professions and occupations but not completely.

Given that today 60% of Internet traffic is generated by bots, 'CAPTCHA' (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) tests that are supposedly impossible to be done by robots have been introduced. What are the cognitive and emotional effects of these tests on Internet users? Does this request to demonstrate they are not a robot affect users' identity as human beings? To answer these questions, we selected two groups (117 and 116 respondents, respectively). An online questionnaire that differed only in the task was proposed: we asked the first group to complete some CAPTCHA tests, and the second group to complete some logic tests. In addition to other questions in both versions, we introduced the TLX scale (NASA). Preliminary results show that CAPTCHA execution is associated with feelings of alienation and that the user's self-perception of humanity is influenced by the execution of the two different types of test.

Mainly, the scholarly debate on Alexa has focused on sexist/anti-woman gender representations in the everyday life of many families, on a cluster of themes such as privacy, insecurity, and trust, and on the world of education and health. This paper takes another stance and explores via online survey methodology how university student respondents in two countries (the United States, n = 333; and Italy, n = 322) perceive Alexa's image and gender, what they expect from this voice-based assistant, and how they would like Alexa to be. Results of a free association exercise showed that Alexa's image was scarcely embodied or explicitly gendered. Rather, Alexa was associated with a distinct category of being—the VBA, virtual assistant, or digital helper—with which one talks, and which possesses praiseworthy technical and social traits. Expectations of Alexa and desires regarding Alexa's ideal performance are presented and compared across the two country samples.

Mobile communication has dramatically changed over the past decade with the diffusion of smartphones. Unlike the basic 2G mobile phones, which 'merely' facilitated communication between individuals on the move, smartphones allow individuals to communicate, to entertain and inform themselves, to transact, to navigate, to take photos, and countless other things. Mobile communication has thus transformed society by allowing new forms of coordination, communication, consumption, social interaction, and access to news/entertainment. All of this is regardless of the space in which users are immersed. Set in the context of the developed and the developing world, The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society updates current scholarship surrounding mobile media and communication. Chapters examine the communal benefits, social consequences, theoretical perspectives, and future consequences of mobile communication.

Mobile communication's embedding throughout social life has generated new directions in research and theory to understand changes in how people engage with others, the physical environment, and media content. As an early home for mobile communication research, New Media & Society is well-positioned to host this special issue, including eight articles themed around Futures in Mobile Communication Research. Although diverse in research traditions, the articles come together to reflect a shared historical influence as well as coherent themes around theory, methods, and ethics to help guide these and other futures in mobile communication research.