HCI in the press: Online public reactions to mass media portrayals of HCI research

Vines, John, Thieme, Anja, Comber, Rob, Blythe, Mark, Wright, Peter and Olivier, Patrick (2013) HCI in the press: Online public reactions to mass media portrayals of HCI research. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, pp. 1873-1882. ISBN 9781450318990

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Abstract

HCI researchers working in publically funded institutions are increasingly encouraged to engage the public in their research. Mass media is often seen as an effective medium with which to communicate research to large parts of the population. We present an account of three HCI projects that have used engagements with mass media in order to communicate research to the public. We describe the motivations for working with mass media and the mechanics of writing press releases. A grounded theory analysis of online public responses to the projects in the mass media leads us to identify a number of concerns about how research is portrayed by news outlets and thus interpreted by the public. Tensions about technologies and wider societal issues were revealed that might normally be hidden when using traditional user-centred methods. We critically reflect on the efficacy of using the mass media in research and provide guidance for HCI researchers wishing to engage in dialogues with the public in the future.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Digital banking, mass media, navigation systems, older people, public engagement, sustainability
Subjects:	P300 Media studies
Department:	Faculties > Arts, Design and Social Sciences > Design
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	20 Jan 2015 15:58
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 20:48
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/20778

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