Factors Associated with Use of Interactive Cancer Communication System: An Application of the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking

In order to provide insights about cancer patients' online information seeking behaviors, the present study analyzes individuals' transaction log data and reports on how demographics, disease‐related factors, and psychosocial needs predict patterns of service use within a particular Interactive Cancer Communication System (ICCS). Study sample included 294 recently diagnosed breast cancer patients. Data included pretest survey scores of demographic, disease‐related, and psychosocial factors and automatically collected ICCS use data over the 4‐month intervention. Statistical analyses correlated pre‐test survey scores with subsequent, specific types of ICCS service usage. Patterns of online cancer information seeking differed according to the patients' characteristics, suggesting that lower income, less educated women and those lacking in information‐seeking competence use the computer and online services to the same or a greater degree if those services are made available to them. Results of this study can inform more effective resource development for future eHealth applications.     

News Recommendations from Social Media Opinion Leaders: Effects on Media Trust and Information Seeking

Polls show a strong decline in public trust of traditional news outlets; however, social media offers new avenues for receiving news content. This experiment used the Facebook API to manipulate whether a news story appeared to have been posted on Facebook by one of the respondent's real‐life Facebook friends. Results show that social media recommendations improve levels of media trust, and also make people want to follow more news from that particular media outlet in the future. Moreover, these effects are amplified when the real‐life friend sharing the story on social media is perceived as an opinion leader. Implications for democracy and the news business are discussed.     

Effects of Media Criticism on Gatekeeping Trust and Implications for Agenda Setting

This study explores causes and consequences of gatekeeping trust, a new media trust construct defined as trust that the news media selects stories based on judgments of the importance of problems. If this form of trust—rooted in a misunderstanding of news story selection practices—is what drives agenda setting effects, these effects can be seen as a miscommunication between the media and the public, and perhaps a correctable one. An experiment manipulating exposure to and expression of media criticism finds gatekeeping trust can be reduced without also affecting more desirable forms of media trust. Gatekeeping trust is also the only media trust construct to positively predict an indicator of agenda cueing and negatively predict an indicator of agenda reasoning.     

Nanoscale impedance microscopy-a characterization tool for nanoelectronic devices and circuits

A recently developed conductive atomic force microscopy (cAFM) technique, nanoscale impedance microscopy (NIM), is presented as a characterization strategy for nanoelectronic devices and circuits. NIM concurrently monitors the amplitude and phase response of the current through a cAFM tip in response to a temporally periodic applied bias. By varying the frequency of the driving potential, the resistance and reactance of conductive pathways can be quantitatively determined. Proof-of-principle experiments show 10-nm spatial resolution and ideal frequency-dependent impedance spectroscopy behavior for test circuits connected to electron beam lithographically patterned electrode arrays. Possible applications of NIM include defect detection and failure analysis testing for nanoscale integrated circuits.     

Effects of Unresolved Factual Disputes in the News on Epistemic Political Efficacy

This experiment tests effects of passive, neutral reporting of contradictory factual claims on audiences. Exposure to such reporting is found to affect a new self‐efficacy construct developed in this study called epistemic political efficacy (EPE), which taps confidence in one's own ability to determine truth in politics. Measurement of EPE is found to be reliable and valid, and effects of neutral reporting on it are found to be conditional on prior interest in the issues under dispute. Implications of this effect and of EPE are discussed. Self‐efficacy theory ( Bandura, 1982 ) suggests these short‐term effects may accumulate over time. EPE may affect outcomes related to political understanding, opinion formation, and information seeking.     

Differentiating Cueing From Reasoning in Agenda‐Setting Effects

This study differentiates two explanations of agenda‐setting effects: agenda cueing (the influence of the mere fact of news coverage) and agenda reasoning (the influence of reasons for problem importance in the content of news stories). We isolate the two using a report summarizing recent news coverage as the experimental stimulus, instead of actual news coverage, allowing independent manipulation of agenda cue exposure and agenda reason exposure. A key moderator in both processes is gatekeeping trust, or trust in the media to base coverage decisions on problem importance judgments. Specifically, pure cues (without agenda reasons) are more influential on those with higher gatekeeping trust, and among those with low gatekeeping trust, cues are more influential when backed by agenda reasons.     

Interactivity and presence of three eHealth interventions

A number of researchers have identified interactivity and presence as potentially important attributes of eHealth applications, because they are believed to influence users to interact with systems in ways that increase commitment, learning, and other desirable responses. This paper reports on the development of brief scales to assess the two concepts, and on use of them with participants in six conditions of a large-scale trial of interventions for breast cancer patients. Overall, the Internet scored very low on both measures. Versions of an integrated system of services (CHESS) scored higher, particularly as conditions added features to different versions of the system. Interventions involving a human Cancer Information Mentor scored highest, though even the Mentor was perceived as more interactive and having more presence when combined with the integrated eHealth system.     

Internet‐Based Interactive Support for Cancer Patients: Are Integrated Systems Better?

To compare the benefits of the Internet generally versus a focused system of services, 257 breast cancer patients were randomly assigned to a control group, access to the Internet with links to high-quality breast cancer sites, or access to an eHealth system (Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System, CHESS) that integrated information, support, and decision and analysis tools. The intervention lasted 5 months, and self-report data on quality of life, health-care competence, and social support were collected at pretest and at 2-, 4-, and 9-month posttests. CHESS subjects logged on more overall than Internet subjects and accessed more health resources, but the latter used non health-related sites more. Subjects with access to the Internet alone experienced no better outcomes than controls at any of the 3 time points, compared to pretest levels. Subjects with CHESS experienced greater social support during the intervention period and had higher scores on all 3 outcomes at 9 months, 4 months after the intervention ended. CHESS subjects also scored higher than those with Internet access during the intervention period but not significantly after the intervention ended. Thus, CHESS (with one simple interface and integrated information, communication, and skills services) helped newly diagnosed breast cancer patients even after computers were removed. In contrast, patients received little benefit from Internet access, despite having links to a variety of high-quality sites.