Communication Infrastructure Theory Research Articles

How communication infrastructure impacted New York City restaurants’ ability to access resources during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants were forced to temporarily close or reduce operations. Drawing on Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this study explored how communication infrastructure helped restaurant owners and chefs in New York City navigate resources and understand the dynamic policy responses to COVID-19 that impacted their industry (e.g. whether indoor dining was allowed, at what capacity, etc.). The results of this study demonstrate that New York City restaurants possess an incredible capacity for resilience, in part due to their communication networks. Even with inadequate relief funds and a mixed bag of regulations and initiatives, most participants’ restaurants were able to adapt their businesses to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Additionally, this work shows how dramatically unsupported the restaurant industry was during the height of the pandemic, and at the same time, how important restaurants can be to the communities they serve.

Multidimensional Internet Connectedness and local civic engagement in the context of post-disaster Fukushima, Japan

ABSTRACT This study examines Internet Connectedness and civic engagement in post-disaster Fukushima, Japan. Internet Connectedness encompasses the post-access digital divide, conceptualized through intensity, activity scope, centrality, and place scope. Guided by communication infrastructure theory, structural equation modeling results indicate that individuals who engage in broader types of online activities and perceive the Internet as more central had stronger connections to their online neighborhood storytelling network (online ICSN). Higher online ICSN and a broader Internet activity scope led to increased civic engagement on social media, subsequently positively affecting offline civic engagement. The study results offer specific measures and guidelines for narrowing the digital divide and fostering residents’ community engagement, which are likely to play essential roles in disaster preparedness and resilience.

Long-term socio-psychological disaster impact after 8 years: Relationships between the persistent impact of the Fukushima disaster and individuals’ media and community connectedness

Residents of Fukushima Prefecture continue to face trauma after Japan's 2011 nuclear disaster. While there remains a substantial presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the prefecture, and the majority of literature tends to view PTSD as an individual psychological disease that can be ameliorated; there is little understanding about how individuals experiencing PTSD influence their communities over time. The present research employs Barton's collective stress theory and Ball-Rokeach et al.'s communication infrastructure theory to examine multilevel effects of individual-level trauma and offers a new term, long-term socio-psychological disaster impact (LTSDI). LTSDI modifies pre-existing notions of persistent PTSD to a neutral understanding of experiences of symptomology and various levels of individuals’ impacts on their communities. Survey research conducted in Fukushima eight years after the disaster and analyses employing structural equation modeling found individuals experiencing LTSDI can positively contribute to their communities through community connectedness, a measure of interpersonal storytelling, collective efficacy, and civic participation. Implications of the study are discussed.

News portals as a gateway to civic engagement: the case of South Korea

Applying the communication mediation model and the communication infrastructure theory in the Korean news media environment, the current study investigates the potential of news portals as a gateway to civic engagement through online discussion. Specifically, this study distinguishes the active use of news portals for information about community issues and public affairs (e.g. commenting, passing along and searching for information) from the passive use of news portals (i.e. simple reception of information). An analysis of a national survey of 1294 Korean adults shows that active, not passive, use of news portals positively predicts online community discussion to subsequently increase cognitive, psychological, and behavioral dimensions of civic engagement: neighborhood belonging, collective efficacy, and civic participation. Importantly, active portal use's indirect positive relationship with civic engagement through online community discussion is stronger among people with higher news portal credibility. Implications are further discussed in the context of Korean news portals.

Community organizations and ethnic media working with foreign household service workers: Applying communication infrastructure theory to migrant health

Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community organizations and ethnic media serve as communicative resources and form into storytelling networks with different health-enhancing purposes for Filipina household service workers (FHSWs) in Hong Kong (HK). Using key informant interviews with print and broadcast media, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based organizations in HK, it found that cancer, stroke, and depression were shared concerns among FHSWs. Community organizations and ethnic media explained these concerns based on work and labor conditions. As communicative resources, they provided health information, offered tangible support, and campaigned to employers and governments. In discussing social media for health, community organizations highlighted accessibility, whereas ethnic media focused on journalistic practices. Overall, this article highlights ethnic media and community organizations as key but often overlooked publics in health communication and the importance of further incorporating temporality in CIT-informed research for migrant health. Implications to public health campaigns and health reporting are discussed.

Mutual aid for local journalism?: A public media collaborative

This study looks at a public media station’s effort to build a “mutual aid journalism collaborative” connecting a cohort of community and ethnic media journalists, podcasters, bloggers, and social media influencers, most of whom had a mission of serving Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities in a U.S. metro region. Using a communication infrastructure theory framework to explore how this initiative affected local “storytelling networks,” this study draws from observations, interviews with project partners and station staff, focus groups and interviews with newsroom staff, and focus groups with community members. The study reflects on how the project conceived of community engagement and how it positioned itself as “mutual aid” from within a mainstream majority white news institution. It examines how the project challenged dominant norms around “objectivity” as it strengthened connections between public media and grassroots influencers, but also the limitations the project faced connecting to broader community constituencies.

Difference-managing and difference-reducing community storytelling in urban neighborhoods: a communication infrastructure theory perspective

AbstractThis study is to understand how urban residents experience and address difference through communicative actions in urban neighborhoods. The first purpose of this study was to test the scales of difference-managing community storytelling (DMCS) and difference-reducing community storytelling (DRCS) as two communicative actions for addressing differences in urban neighborhoods. The second was to identify socioeconomic and community engagement variables correlated with the two scales. We used both qualitative and quantitative data collected in Seoul by adopting a mixed-method research design, and the study was theoretically guided by communication infrastructure theory. Based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we confirmed the two-dimensional model of community storytelling, with DMCS being positively related to integrated connectedness to a community storytelling network (ICSN) and all of the community engagement variables included in the current study. In comparison, DRCS was negatively related to ICSN and neighborhood participation and was positively related to informal social control.

The COVID-19 storytelling narratives of Nigerian social media users

ABSTRACT Studies on the storytelling narratives of social media users have understandably emphasized the typology, interpersonal dynamics, trust, and disinformation that emanate from these virtual communities. This study extends this scholarly conversation by investigating both the storytelling and the narratives generated by Nigerian social media communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Communication Infrastructure Theory served as framework, while a mixed method triangulation was employed. During a 3-month (May 2 to August 3, 2020) digital ethnographic participant-observation, a total of 153 manually purposive samples from social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) were analyzed. Twenty themes emerged from the quantitative content analysis of the COVID-19 storytelling of Nigerian social media users. Findings also showed multilayered digital storytelling narratives that possessed popular validity, debunked disinformation, and provided narratives that mitigated the spread of coronavirus. The findings also suggest that applying journalistic contextual knowledge on the COVID-19 social media storytelling narratives provided credible news sources for media stories.

Examining Vaccine Sentiment on Twitter and Local Vaccine Deployment during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Understanding local public attitudes toward receiving vaccines is vital to successful vaccine campaigns. Social media platforms may help uncover vaccine sentiments during infectious disease outbreaks at the local level, and whether offline local events support vaccine-promotion efforts. Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT) served as a guiding framework for this case study of the San Diego region examining local public sentiment toward vaccines expressed on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic. We performed a sentiment analysis (including positivity and subjectivity) of 187,349 tweets gathered from May 2020 to March 2021, and examined how sentiment corresponded with local vaccine deployment. The months of November and December (52.9%) 2020 saw a majority of tweets expressing positive sentiment and coincided with announcements of offline local events signaling San Diego's imminent deployment of COVID-19 vaccines. Across all months, tweets remained mostly objective (never falling below 63%). In terms of CIT, considering multiple levels of the Story Telling Network in online spaces, and examining sentiment about vaccines on Twitter may help scholars to explore the Communication Action Context, as well as cultivate positive community attitudes to improve the Field of Health Action regarding vaccines. Real-time analysis of local tweets during development and deployment of new vaccines may help monitor local public responses and guide promotion of immunizations in communities.

COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES ON COMMUNICATION DISPARITIES IN LATE OLD AGE AND TACTICS TO CONNECT WITH THE HARDLY REACHED

Abstract Individuals who face the greatest health burdens often have the fewest communication resources to draw from to help them cope. Communication infrastructure theory provides a framework for understanding how communication resources and context constrain and enable connections to health enhancing information. Data collected from 1,609 older adults through in-depth interviews and a random sample survey in one midwestern county in Michigan as part of a multi-year, multi-level community engaged study and a statewide random digit dial telephone survey showed that age influenced integration in a communicative structure. Findings suggest that the dynamics of living into late old age result in communication disparities through diminishing interpersonal resources, activity, and opportunities to congregate. Actionable knowledge and strategies provided to community leaders on how to connect with the hardly reached, individuals age of 75 and older, are presented.

Advancing Communication Infrastructure Theory: The Moderating Roles of Citizen Journalism Practice and Political Trust on Online Civic Participation

ABSTRACT The study integrates multiple theoretical perspectives of communication infrastructure, social capital, and citizen journalism to examine the interplay of interconnected community storytelling networks, social trust, and citizen contribution to the public sphere on civic participation. An analysis of nationwide survey data indicates that citizens’ integration into community storytelling network and citizen journalism practice alike contribute significantly to their civic activity. The findings reveal significant interactions between one’s integrated connection to storytelling network, their citizen journalism practice, and their political trust on online civic participation. Most notably, the three-way interactions suggest that the positive interaction between the integrated connection to storytelling network and citizen journalism practice is more pronounced among those who hold a high-level of political trust.

Online Neighborhood Networks: The Relationship Between Online Communication Practices and Neighborhood Dynamics

This article builds upon communication infrastructure theory and investigates how communication practices on online neighborhood networks (ONNs) relate to the social cohesion of neighborhood communities. Specifically, we study the hyperlocal social media platform Hoplr, which provides ad-free ONNs in which neighbors can communicate with one another. Local governments can subscribe to Hoplr to communicate with their residents and engage them for community and public participation purposes. This study is based on an online survey of Hoplr members (N = 3,055) from 150 randomly selected ONNs. Social cohesion is disentangled as a combination of social support, a sense of community, reciprocal exchange, and social trust. We investigated social cohesion differences at the neighborhood level in relation to self-reported types of ONN communication practices (shared interest, supportive communication, and both tangible and informational support mobilization). The results reveal the limited value of quantified behavioral data to explain differences in neighborhood social cohesion. However, interesting patterns are revealed between different communication practices and neighborhood social cohesion, such as the importance of trivial storytelling and information exchange practices for enhancing trust, reciprocal support, and a sense of community. At the same time, a reversed relation appears when ONNs are considered explicit information exchange platforms. With these insights, we enhance the theoretical understanding of ONNs in relation to neighborhood social cohesion and within a broader repertoire of neighborhood communication infrastructures.

Storytelling Networks that Build Community Power: Urban Equity Advocacy From a Communication Infrastructure Lens

Urban scholars suggest that communication can be key to equity advocacy and organizing for social justice in cities, but a gap exists in studies grounded in communication theory. This article theorizes everyday urban equity advocacy through communication infrastructure theory (CIT), an ecological framework grounded in the notion that communities are discursively constructed. Sourced from 34 semi-structured interviews in Chicago, this article examines how organizers from social change-focused organizations activate community storytelling network actors (residents, community organizations, and local media) to advocate for equity. I find that organizers activate this network to cultivate consciousness, build capacity, and amplify equity work for marginalized communities. The study is important in demonstrating how advocating for equity is best when it is an intentional process that activates multi-stakeholder engagement in urban neighborhoods year-round.

Catalyzing Storytelling in Communication Infrastructure Theory: A Study of Local Ethnic Media

ABSTRACT Communication infrastructure theory (CIT) suggests that an ethnic enclave’s communication infrastructure (CI) shapes the community’s unique social processes that give rise to social determinants of health. A well-integrated CI in ethnic enclaves that includes community-based organizations (CBOs), local ethnic media, and resident networks is positively associated with residents’ health outcomes. Through storytelling, CBOs and other community actors obtain and disseminate information, develop a sense of belonging to the community, and participate in problem-solving activities, including health-related ones. Local ethnic media can play an important role in building a network of neighborhood storytellers by catalyzing storytelling about local resources and problems. We propose three main categories of “catalyzing storytelling” by local ethnic media: 1) CBO stories, 2) geo-ethnic stories, and 3) presentation of root causes and solutions for community problems. This study examines the content of Boston Chinatown’s local ethnic news media outlet, Sampan, to assess the three categories of catalyzing stories. We analyzed a total of 340 news articles and one interview with the editor. The findings showed that Sampan tells stories in all three categories. Based on our findings, we further develop the concept of catalyzing as a communication process in CIT. This new concept in CIT has practical implications for public health communication as it demonstrates a process through which local ethnic media can foster community engagement and health. Health communicators should seek opportunities to work collaboratively with local ethnic media in ways that will serve to catalyze community.

Civic Life in Rural America Revisited: The Role of Social and Mobile News on Civic Participation

ABSTRACT Rural America has been suffering from insufficient civic resources and is often characterized as a “civic desert.” Drawing upon the Communication Infrastructure Theory, this study surveys residents in Oregon (N = 564) and explores the ways in which social and mobile news use, along with other traditional storytelling networks, relate to rural and non-rural residents’ civic participation. Results showed that the types of communities moderated the effects of social and mobile news usage on online civic participation. This study expands upon scholarly concerns about the possible side effects of emerging media storytelling networks on civic life in local community contexts.

Building a bridge between civic agriculture and civic engagement: farmers’ markets as communication infrastructure

PurposeThis work aimed to show how farmers’ markets can act as communication infrastructure, and by doing so, facilitate civic engagement. We used communication infrastructure theory (CIT) as a guide.Design/methodology/approachWe integrated findings from two surveys that took place in the US state of Wisconsin. In a survey of Wisconsin farmers’ market leaders, we considered what features farmers’ markets have that may help them act as communication infrastructure. Using data from a survey of Wisconsin residents, we ran a regression model to demonstrate the relationship between farmers’ market attendance and micro-level storytelling about local food.FindingsWe found that farmers’ markets can act as meso-level storytellers and provide a communication action context supportive of civic engagement. Through the farmers’ market leader survey, we found that over half of the markets noted existing partnerships with media outlets. Furthermore, farmers’ markets may connect residents to important organizations in the community. Many farmers’ markets had features to make them more physically and financially accessible, such as accepting food assistance benefits. With the Wisconsin resident survey, we found that farmers’ market attendance predicted storytelling about local food better than overall local food purchasing, further suggesting that markets can facilitate social interactions.Originality/valueWe document an important benefit that farmers’ markets can offer communities: they have the potential to act as communication infrastructure. As stronger communication infrastructure can facilitate civic engagement, this work provides a mechanism by which to connect civic agriculture activities and increased levels of civic engagement.

Local Storytelling, Collective Efficacy, and Civic Participation in Fukushima, Japan: An Ecological Approach

ABSTRACT The present study examines how media connectedness influences collective efficacy and civic participation in post-disaster Fukushima. The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in March 2011 permanently changed the lives of Fukushima residents by altering their physical and social environments. The majority of Fukushima residents have been dealing with a new, negative identity related to “Fukushima” imposed upon them. In such a context, the study takes an ecological perspective to examine how people’s connectedness to macro- and meso-level media are related to their collective efficacy and civic participation. Based on communication infrastructure theory, the study found that traditional and social media local storytelling have direct effects on collective efficacy, while mainstream media connectedness has indirect effects on collective efficacy via local storytelling. Mainstream media connectedness and local storytelling have indirect effects on offline civic participation via collective efficacy. This study is one of the few that examined how storytelling on different levels and platforms directly or indirectly affects community outcomes. Implications of the results in the context of Fukushima and other disaster situations are discussed.

Communication and difference in urban neighborhoods: A communication infrastructure theory perspective

ABSTRACT Based on communication infrastructure theory (CIT), this study developed and assessed communication concepts to understand the various ways in which residents in a metropolitan city experience and manage differences through their neighborhood communicative actions. We investigated three urban communities in Seoul with in-depth interviews (n = 30) and 12 focus group interview meetings (n = 120). We conceptualized two types of community storytelling actions to address differences – difference-reducing community storytelling (DRCS) and difference-managing community storytelling (DMCS). We also identified four neighborhood relational types – denial, rivalry, cohabitation, and coexistence – in the study areas as interacting in various forms with community storytelling to address the issue of difference in urban neighborhoods.

Soliciting Social Support from Migrant Domestic Workers’ Connections to Storytelling Networks during a Public Health Crisis

ABSTRACT Guided by communication infrastructure theory and social support theory, this study scrutinizes how the storytelling networks of marginalized communities, particularly migrant domestic workers (MDWs), provided social support amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Data obtained from in-depth interviews with 32 Indonesian MDWs in Hong Kong revealed that the community storytelling networks, comprising interpersonal relationships, community organizations, and media outlets, played an essential role in assisting the coping efforts of MDWs during the pandemic. These storytelling networks offered various types of social support, including informational, emotional, and instrumental or tangible assistance. However, these connections to the storytelling networks were also sources of the spread of misinformation. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.

Neighborhood hotspot and community awareness: The double role of social network sites in local communities

Abstract There is a tendency in the literature on local digital media use and neighborhood outcomes to conceptualize Social Network Sites (SNSs) as mere transmission channels, thereby ignoring SNSs’ dynamics and limiting the understanding of their role in neighborhood life. Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory and social media literature, we propose and test a model to investigate the association between the use of SNSs, appropriated as online neighborhood networks, and neighborhood sense of community. We administered a survey to Flemish online neighborhood network users (n = 590) and found that active localized SNS use brings about an online sense of community and community awareness, which both independently lead to a neighborhood sense of community. Based on these findings, we argue that SNSs, appropriated as online neighborhood networks, function simultaneously as neighborhood hotspots in a neighborhood’s communication action context as well as community awareness media in a neighborhood’s storytelling network.