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The relationship between social media use and youth's political participation has been extensively studied. However, explanations for youth's online collective political activism have been less explored. Previous studies have used the concept of internal political efficacy to examine the relationship between social media and political participation. However, this concept only explains individual political participation, while many political actions are performed collectively. Based on Social Cognitive theory this study propounds the concepts of online political self- and collective efficacy and explores their relationship to online collective political activism. Findings of a survey of members of three activist groups of a US Mid-Western university ( n = 222) suggest that a correspondence exists between efficacy perceptions and the level of agency at which the political activities are performed online. Also, online collective efficacy perceptions influence individuals' participation in online collective actions, but this relationship is moderated by the perceived interdependence of the actions.

Privacy seals were developed to address concerns about online privacy. However, seals are widely misinterpreted by consumers as privacy protection. This research assessed how well privacy policies matched the standards promised by the seal authorities and compared the privacy protection practices of participating and non-participating sites. Privacy policy statements were interpreted as a form of persuasive communication that attempts to minimize the risks of providing personal information while emphasizing the benefits of personal disclosure. There were few differences in the privacy practices between seal authorities: TRUSTe and BBBOnLine participants offered about the same degree of privacy protection assurances and they were equal with regard to the amount or depth of personal information they requested. Notably, unsealed sites offered nearly equal privacy assurances and made fewer personal information requests than the sealed sites. However, seal program participants did provide superior access to information and assurances of data security.

The telephone has a long history as a communication medium, but until recently played only a minor role in the electronic media environment. That was before 800 and 900 numbers became available. This study found support for the proposition that people adopt information technologies functionally similar to services they use already. People who use teller machines, for example, are willing to share personal codes; they are also willing to use certain telephone services. There is evidence found for what Everett Rogers and his colleagues call an innovation cluster in how people use audiotext services.

About six of every 10 community cable systems have at least one community access channel, this survey of channel systems reveals. About one of six cable viewers reports watching a community channel during the past week, making these channels perform as well or better than such general offerings as C-SPAN and the Financial News Network. There is a pretty high level of satisfaction among viewers who tend to be older and better educated, but not necessarily always richer.

Collaborative mass media are a new type of mass communications medium in which the audience acts both as the source and the receiver of the message. Theories of discretionary data base contributions and critical mass theory offer parallel explanations for the success of collaborative media. The present research integrated the predictions of these two perspectives in the context of a national survey of public electronic bulletin board systems. The study documented the nature and extent of electronic bulletin board use and compared predictions about the success of collaborative media based on the two theoretical perspectives. File contribution levels and system adoption rates were both found to be directly related to a measure of symmetry in user participation. Content diversity was directly related to contribution levels, but not to overall adoption levels. The results provided limited support for discretionary data base theory.