Closed captioning has not improved since early 1970s, while film and television technology has changed dramatically. Closed captioning only conveys verbatim dialogue to the audience while ignoring music, sound effects and speech prosody. Thus, caption viewers receive limited and often erroneous information. My thesis research attempts to add some of the missing sounds and emotions back into captioning using animated text. The study involved two animated caption styles and one conventional style: enhanced, extreme and closed. All styles were applied to two clips with animations for happiness, sadness, anger, fear and disgust emotions. Twenty-five hard of hearing and hearing participants viewed and commented on the three caption styles and also identified the character’s emotions. The study revealed that participants preferred enhanced, animated captions. Enhanced captions appeared to improve access to the emotive information in the content. Also, the animation for fear appeared to be most easily understood by the participants.

Closed captioning has not improved since early 1970s, while film and television technology has changed dramatically. Closed captioning only conveys verbatim dialogue to the audience while ignoring music, sound effects and speech prosody. Thus, caption viewers receive limited and often erroneous information. My thesis research attempts to add some of the missing sounds and emotions back into captioning using animated text. The study involved two animated caption styles and one conventional style: enhanced, extreme and closed. All styles were applied to two clips with animations for happiness, sadness, anger, fear and disgust emotions. Twenty-five hard of hearing and hearing participants viewed and commented on the three caption styles and also identified the character’s emotions. The study revealed that participants preferred enhanced, animated captions. Enhanced captions appeared to improve access to the emotive information in the content. Also, the animation for fear appeared to be most easily understood by the participants.

Enron is examined as a critical case study to understand the role of information in the Enron’s Board’s decision-making processes. Three major events in the Enron failure were analyzed in detail using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified regarding the communication and use of information in Enron: interdependency of authority relationships, information control, and decision protocol and policies that shaped the information that management sent to the Board during the approval process. The Board was dependent on advisors to provide approvals first, prior to Board approval. The relationships between advisors and management influenced the information sent to the Board and affected controls used to monitor deals. The Board maintained that they were unaware of red flags, such as warnings related to incomplete disclosures and conflict of interest issues. The Board received information for arrangements which required Board approval but it had limited access to information regarding Enron’s operations.

Enron is examined as a critical case study to understand the role of information in the Enron’s Board’s decision-making processes. Three major events in the Enron failure were analyzed in detail using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified regarding the communication and use of information in Enron: interdependency of authority relationships, information control, and decision protocol and policies that shaped the information that management sent to the Board during the approval process. The Board was dependent on advisors to provide approvals first, prior to Board approval. The relationships between advisors and management influenced the information sent to the Board and affected controls used to monitor deals. The Board maintained that they were unaware of red flags, such as warnings related to incomplete disclosures and conflict of interest issues. The Board received information for arrangements which required Board approval but it had limited access to information regarding Enron’s operations.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how women seek health information on the Web in relation to information source characteristics, situational characteristics, and socio-demographic characteristics. The Web is conceptualized as three facets that reflect the three main modes of seeking health information on the Web: websites; Web-based bulletin boards and chatrooms; and Web-based listservs and newsgroups. The lack of analytical research on this gendered online activity prompted this study. The conceptual framework is based primarily on theoretical foundations from two academic disciplines: information science and health sciences. The independent variables in the conceptual framework are health information need, family caregiving, perceived Web self efficacy, perceptions of the quality and accessibility of the Web as a source of health information, and socio-demographic variables. The dependent variable is intensity (frequency) of seeking health information on the Web (FSHIW). Data was collected from 264 women from November 2000 until April 2001 using a Web survey questionnaire. The participants were predominantly well educated, English-speaking Canadians. A subset of 27 survey respondents completed at least one additional component of this multi-method study. Perception of the reliability of the Web as a source of health information was identified as the key variable influencing frequency of seeking health information on the Web (FSHIW). As well, perceived information source reliability was correlated with two information source characteristics, perceived information source relevance and cognitive access. Two situational variables, health information need and family caregiving, were weakly correlated with FSHIW. Three socio-demographic variables – racial identity, household income, and occupation – affected FSHIW. Qualitative interview data, Web use journals, and recordings of Web use sessions provided a contextualized understanding of the survey data. In particular, they highlighted the importance of situational and affective relevance. To-date, very few empirical research studies have been conducted on how women seek health information on the Web. This unique multi-method study contributes to a better understanding of women’s use of the Web as a source of health information for resolving personal health problems and caring for family members by identifying key variables that affect the frequency of this online behaviour and contextualizing these variables.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how women seek health information on the Web in relation to information source characteristics, situational characteristics, and socio-demographic characteristics. The Web is conceptualized as three facets that reflect the three main modes of seeking health information on the Web: websites; Web-based bulletin boards and chatrooms; and Web-based listservs and newsgroups. The lack of analytical research on this gendered online activity prompted this study. The conceptual framework is based primarily on theoretical foundations from two academic disciplines: information science and health sciences. The independent variables in the conceptual framework are health information need, family caregiving, perceived Web self efficacy, perceptions of the quality and accessibility of the Web as a source of health information, and socio-demographic variables. The dependent variable is intensity (frequency) of seeking health information on the Web (FSHIW). Data was collected from 264 women from November 2000 until April 2001 using a Web survey questionnaire. The participants were predominantly well educated, English-speaking Canadians. A subset of 27 survey respondents completed at least one additional component of this multi-method study. Perception of the reliability of the Web as a source of health information was identified as the key variable influencing frequency of seeking health information on the Web (FSHIW). As well, perceived information source reliability was correlated with two information source characteristics, perceived information source relevance and cognitive access. Two situational variables, health information need and family caregiving, were weakly correlated with FSHIW. Three socio-demographic variables – racial identity, household income, and occupation – affected FSHIW. Qualitative interview data, Web use journals, and recordings of Web use sessions provided a contextualized understanding of the survey data. In particular, they highlighted the importance of situational and affective relevance. To-date, very few empirical research studies have been conducted on how women seek health information on the Web. This unique multi-method study contributes to a better understanding of women’s use of the Web as a source of health information for resolving personal health problems and caring for family members by identifying key variables that affect the frequency of this online behaviour and contextualizing these variables.

This thesis describes and analyses the ways in which employees in two front line call centre settings report their experience of qualitative and quantitative monitoring in the workplace, and its impact on their work and work life. I conducted ethnographically informed fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews, in two financial service call centre sites. Emerging from the rich descriptions participants shared about their work life, identity and accountability stood out as key themes. The sites, which use similar methods of monitoring and performance measurement, had quite different management strategies in place which affected staff perceptions of identity and accountability. I modified an activity theory framework to create a model of organisational, professional and peer identities and accountabilities, and to examine the ways these connect, interact, and sometimes disconnect, with one another. Call centres are contentious workplaces in the literature, generating ongoing debate about the extent to which electronic monitoring is effective as a method of control and about the way monitoring and surveillance affects workers. Using this framework allows me to look at common call centre issues, such as the quality/quantity dichotomy, through a different and potentially helpful lens, one that is novel in the call centre literature. My findings suggest that when the various facets of identities and accountabilities are poorly aligned, workers are forced to prioritize one over the other, often to the detriment of both. In the financial service call centres I studied, workers often chose to prioritize professional and peer identity over organisational accountability when organisational requirements were strongly felt to conflict with the ways in which a professional banker should behave towards customers and colleagues. Workers made these choices despite clearly understanding the potential consequences to themselves in terms of achieving performance metric targets and supervisory approval. Conceptualizing call centre workers’ responses to monitoring and measurement from an identity and accountability perspective offers new insights into the reasons why financial service call centre workers are often dissatisfied or frustrated with standard call centre measurement practices, leading to potential practical solutions.

This thesis describes and analyses the ways in which employees in two front line call centre settings report their experience of qualitative and quantitative monitoring in the workplace, and its impact on their work and work life. I conducted ethnographically informed fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews, in two financial service call centre sites. Emerging from the rich descriptions participants shared about their work life, identity and accountability stood out as key themes. The sites, which use similar methods of monitoring and performance measurement, had quite different management strategies in place which affected staff perceptions of identity and accountability. I modified an activity theory framework to create a model of organisational, professional and peer identities and accountabilities, and to examine the ways these connect, interact, and sometimes disconnect, with one another. Call centres are contentious workplaces in the literature, generating ongoing debate about the extent to which electronic monitoring is effective as a method of control and about the way monitoring and surveillance affects workers. Using this framework allows me to look at common call centre issues, such as the quality/quantity dichotomy, through a different and potentially helpful lens, one that is novel in the call centre literature. My findings suggest that when the various facets of identities and accountabilities are poorly aligned, workers are forced to prioritize one over the other, often to the detriment of both. In the financial service call centres I studied, workers often chose to prioritize professional and peer identity over organisational accountability when organisational requirements were strongly felt to conflict with the ways in which a professional banker should behave towards customers and colleagues. Workers made these choices despite clearly understanding the potential consequences to themselves in terms of achieving performance metric targets and supervisory approval. Conceptualizing call centre workers’ responses to monitoring and measurement from an identity and accountability perspective offers new insights into the reasons why financial service call centre workers are often dissatisfied or frustrated with standard call centre measurement practices, leading to potential practical solutions.

In the mid to late 1990s, many states developed eGovernment programs that included the use of consultation technologies. More recently, the social characteristics of the web have emerged as offering an alternative means for citizen participation, promising more openness and inclusion. In this dissertation I draw upon studies of the policy-making process and media design, to examine the implications of citizen-led production of infrastructures for public participation in policy-making through the social web and within the context of open government discourse. My research methods for this research project were ethnographically informed. I participated in the design and use of social web infrastructures for participation in policy-making as a contributor to open government communities in Ontario, Canada. I also analyzed Hansard records as well as the popular press, and interviewed 15 citizen designers who created social web based infrastructures for public participation in the policy-making of four bills in Ontario. In my research, I develop and use the term citizen designer drawing on the more common phrase of citizen journalist. Both terms suggest that citizens can engage in creative practices to encourage institutions such as government or the mass media to become more participatory. The citizen designers in my project were found to act as policy entrepreneurs, sometimes for particular bills, but more generally for the broader ideal of open government that includes citizen participation. The major finding of this work is that citizens are using an integrated mix of social web tools across multiple policy windows to promote openness and participation. This work contributes to the policy, information and the internet studies literatures on the roles and experiences of internet-savvy policy entrepreneurs who are situated in civil society networks, which are not always tied to formal organizations. This work also expands our understandings of citizenship to include the design and use of the social web in everyday political life.

In the mid to late 1990s, many states developed eGovernment programs that included the use of consultation technologies. More recently, the social characteristics of the web have emerged as offering an alternative means for citizen participation, promising more openness and inclusion. In this dissertation I draw upon studies of the policy-making process and media design, to examine the implications of citizen-led production of infrastructures for public participation in policy-making through the social web and within the context of open government discourse. My research methods for this research project were ethnographically informed. I participated in the design and use of social web infrastructures for participation in policy-making as a contributor to open government communities in Ontario, Canada. I also analyzed Hansard records as well as the popular press, and interviewed 15 citizen designers who created social web based infrastructures for public participation in the policy-making of four bills in Ontario. In my research, I develop and use the term citizen designer drawing on the more common phrase of citizen journalist. Both terms suggest that citizens can engage in creative practices to encourage institutions such as government or the mass media to become more participatory. The citizen designers in my project were found to act as policy entrepreneurs, sometimes for particular bills, but more generally for the broader ideal of open government that includes citizen participation. The major finding of this work is that citizens are using an integrated mix of social web tools across multiple policy windows to promote openness and participation. This work contributes to the policy, information and the internet studies literatures on the roles and experiences of internet-savvy policy entrepreneurs who are situated in civil society networks, which are not always tied to formal organizations. This work also expands our understandings of citizenship to include the design and use of the social web in everyday political life.