Do smartphones equate to more Internet usage on the go? (Revised story)

Smartphone users tend to utilize the internet on their mobile device to a greater degree than users of feature phones with more limited Intenet access, according to a University of Maryland study about the usage of mobile phones.

“It did increase how much people were able to get on the Internet,” Melissa Moore, one of the researchers performing the study, said of smartphones. Moore zeroed in on the relationship between mobile phones and the Internet through a survey crafted by her research group.

While smartphones and feature phones can both have web and e-mail access along with a built-in camera, Moore said that users’ decision to upgrade to a smartphone was affected by the greater ease of e-mailing and social networking on smartphones compared to feature phones. Moore also said that users tend to utilize applications on smartphones once they get an appropriate data plan. Smartphones, unlike feature phones, have application programming interfaces, which allow smartphones to run applications.

Moore found areas of study that were statistically significant, including how often users get on the internet after upgrading from a feature phone to a smartphone. Other statistically significant areas of study included how much a data plan was utilized for receiving mobile news after an upgrade, and how inclined users are to utilize the internet on their phones after an upgrade.

About 81 percent of the respondents said they used the internet on their updated phone often or very often, with about 79 percent of 149 respondents said an updated phone required a new data plan. About 65 percent of 150 respondents said they were more inclined to use the Internet once they upgraded their phone.

Moore expected journalism students would utilize applications on smartphones more often than students from other majors – that didn’t turn out to be the case. Moore found in her survey that a lot of college majors utilized applications; students in one particular major didn’t use applications a lot more than students from other majors.

But the research group’s survey – which totaled 20 questions – didn’t go off without a hitch, as she said there were multiple complications with the survey that led to less than ideal results that leaves the validity of the results in reasonable doubt. Moore said that after first issuing the survey, her research team found problems with the survey and had to re-distribute the survey a second time. But Moore found that participants’ motivation for answering the question may have been skewed – the group offered a $15 gift certificate to a random respondent of the survey, which Moore thought led to some of her questions being skipped by some respondents.

Moore said that there was a lot of previous research done on this topic. One of the big conclusions drawn was by Roger Entner, Senior Vice President of research and Insights at Telecom Practice, who found through a 2010 Nielson study that smartphones will pass feature phones in usage, with the Internet being the main reason why. In fact, a 2010 Mobile Marketer article found that even some smartphones are looking like old devices – including the Blackberry in comparison to Verizon Android – in terms of the ease of Internet and application usage.

However, one last effort by providers of feature phones seems to be underway in order to make feature phones attractive options by giving them smartphone features. Jared Newman of PCWorld discovered that AT&T tried to promote its Quick Messaging phones through features such as enabling the sharing of photos and videos through social networking.

Do smartphones equate to more Internet usage on the go?

Smartphone users tend to utilize the internet on their mobile device more than users of feature phones, according to a University of Maryland study about how mobile phones are used.

“It did increase how much people were able to get on the Internet,” Melissa Moore, one of the researchers performing the study, said of mobile phones. Moore, who zeroed in on the relationship between mobile phones and the Internet through a survey crafted by her research group, said that users’ decision to get a smartphone was affected by their ability to e-mail and engage in social networking on the go. Moore also said that users tend to utilize applications on smartphones once they get an appropriate data plan.

Moore found areas of study that were statistically significant, including how often users get on the internet after a phone upgrade/update, how much users utilize their data plan for receiving mobile news after an upgrade/update, and how inclined users are to utilize the internet on their phones after an update/upgrade. About 81 percent of the respondents said they used the internet on their updated phone often or very often, with about 79 percent of 149 respondents said an updated phone required a new data plan. About 65 percent of 150 respondents said they were more inclined to use the Internet once they upgraded their phone, with about 11 percent saying they were somewhat more inclined to use the Internet.

Moore originally thought journalism students would utilize applications on smartphones more often than students from other majors – that didn’t turn out to be the case. Moore found in her survey that a lot of college majors utilized applications; students one particular major didn’t use applications a lot more than students from other majors.

But the research group’s survey – which totaled 20 questions – didn’t go off without a hitch, as she said there were multiple complications with the survey that led to less than ideal results. Moore said that after first issuing the survey, her research team found problems with the survey and had to re-distribute the survey a second time. But Moore found that participants’ motivation for answering the question may have been skewed – the group offered a $15 gift certificate to a random respondent of the survey, which Moore thought led to some of her questions being skipped by some respondents.

Moore said that there was a lot of previous research done on this topic. One of the big conclusions drawn was by Roger Entner, Senior Vice President of research and Insights at Telecom Practice, who found through a 2010 Nielson study that smartphones will pass feature phones in usage, with the Internet being the main reason why. In fact, a 2010 Mobile Marketer article found that even some smartphones are looking like old devices – including the Blackberry in comparison to Verizon Android – in terms of the ease of Internet and application usage.

However, one last effort by providers of feature phones seems to be underway in order to make feature phones attractive options by giving them smartphone features. Jared Newman of PCWorld discovered that AT&T tried to promote its Quick Messaging phones through features such as enabling the sharing of photos and videos through social networking.

Hamas' political involvement likely a cause of violence

By Luke Jackson

The Middle Eastern terrorist organization Hamas committed suicide bombings in every year that the group was involved in the Palestinian electoral process, according to a 2008 University of Maryland study about Hamas’ behavior.

“The single biggest finding was in years Hamas was involved in the formal Palestinian political process, they were likely to carry out violent attacks,” Aaron Mannes, one of four researchers involved with the study, said of the results. Mannes specializes in the study of terrorism at the University of Maryland.

But the data doesn’t signify that Hamas’ involvement in the Palestinian political process will always be a precursor for suicide attacks by the terrorist organization. The group carries out suicide attacks when not involved in the electoral process, too. Therefore, the risk for suicide attacks by Hamas doesn’t necessarily rise when the Palestinian political process is involved.

The study was performed by Amy Silva, V.S. Subrahmanian, Jonathan Wilkenfeld and Mannes. The information gleaned by Hamas’ behavior for the study was collected by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) at the University of Maryland. The information was then processed by Stochastic Opponent Modeling Agents (SOMA), which is also on the campus.

Hamas was founded in 1987 as a Muslim organization whose aim was to gain political power and govern by the tenets of Islamic fundamentalism. Hamas won the Palestinian elections in January 2007 and essentially took control of the Gaza Strip in the middle of 2007. The Gaza Strip borders Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. One of the main goals of Hamas is to abolish Israel. “Palestinians feel [Israel] should be their state,” said Mannes.

Hamas consistently partakes in violence as a means to achieve their goals, most of which involve trying to extinguish Israel – Hamas has a long history of violence towards Israel. The study examined the behavior involved in five violent activities by Hamas – suicide attacks, bombings, kidnappings, domestic civilian infrastructure destruction, and participation in criminal activity.

Hamas’ social services played a significant role in suicide attacks, bombings and kidnappings. Providing social services was a major strategy in 91 percent of suicide attacks. Hamas performed bombings in all of the years which they provided social services, while the study found Hamas to be 83 percent likely to carry out a kidnapping at times in which they provided social services while involved in a conflict with another organization.

Probability that Hamas Carries Out Violent Attacks

(SS: Social Services)

"They run schools, they run community centers, they run sports leagues," said Mannes. Hamas is also known to administer medical assistance to people living on the West Bank and Gaza. According to Mannes, this helps build support for their world view and makes recruiting much more effective due to a positive image. These social services help as a practical matter, too, as the services help the families involved in attacks, while the families involved in the social services have been known to be safe havens for violence.

Conflict with other organizations also seems to be a cause of violence for Hamas. Kidnappings and the targeting of civilian infrastructure were very likely to occur as the result of Hamas conflicting with other organizations. Hamas has conflicted with Fatah (the other major Palestinian organization), as well as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Israel. Kidnappings conducted by Hamas can be tactics in negotiations between groups, while damaging civilian infrastructure can send a message to Palestinians not to reach out to Israel.

Inter-Palestinian politics matters a lot to Hamas, according to Mannes, because Hamas and Fatah are constantly jockeying for power over control of Gaza and the West Bank. For instance, if Fatah is trying to negotiate with Israel, Hamas might jump in with violent actions to assert their power.

But should America fear Hamas? “Directly? Not much,” said Mannes. “Hamas does not really have the capacity to carry out long-distance attacks.

“Their focus is on Israel.”

Introducing Myself -- Blog 1

My name is William Jackson, but I go by my middle name, Luke. I'm a junior journalism major mainly interested in becoming involved in a branch of sports journalism – probably some sort of online format (although I'm also intrigued by radio). I've been interested in journalism since high school and I am currently a part of WMUC Sports, and I enjoy that very much.

One of the things that are obviously of interest to journalists in the relatively new age of online journalism is the audiences that read stories that are published by credible news outlets online. One result of these online audiences is the reader comment sections after stories; the comments can range anywhere from thought-provoking to completely ridiculous. Sometimes the comments actually add to the conversation intelligently and other times it may make readers not want to return to that particular website.

My question is: How far is too far with certain comments? Part of the nature of the Internet is that people can log onto completely anonymous accounts in these settings and post whatever they please. What they post can be hurtful to others reading it and derail the entire piece for some folks, but there’s nothing to stop them. Commenting also makes for plausible scenarios where people could cite a usually reliable news source in connection with what someone wrote in the comment section. To some it may seem that the news site is affiliated with that comment, no matter how bizarre the comment may be.

I’d like to learn about the effect that user comments can have on a particular site. Can it drive readers away from the site, henceforth lowering the amount of traffic? Or does the ability to leave comments and converse usually keep people coming to the site?

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/060126crosbie/

http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/03/19/bbc-news-tries-adding-reader-comments-to-stories-but-should-it-bother/