China 
Africa 
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Materiality of Technology
Published in Gamel O. Wiredu, Global Software Engineering, 2019
The symbolic and functional relationships between GSS media, messages, communicators, and receivers in global software engineering (GSE) are indicative of an electronic media environment which must be subjected to media ecology analysis. Media ecology is the study of media as environments.15 Media environments in GSE refer to the range of possible coordination actions that GSS technologies enable or disable. This is not technology determinism but rather technology materiality. Determinism assumes a forceful and coercive role of technology in human affairs, while materiality assumes its enabling or disabling role.16 Therefore, the symbolic and functional relationships among media, messages, communicators, and receivers in the GSE environment are explained in terms of the materiality of GSS media therein. Media ecology is the preferred analytical framework for explaining the materiality of GSS media in GSE coordination because it embeds the theories of social presence, media richness, and media synchronicity. All these embedded theories assume that ICT media are material, that they constitute environments, and that they generate psychological effects in users of the media.
A “beyond being there” for VR meetings: envisioning the future of remote work
Published in Human–Computer Interaction, 2022
Joshua McVeigh-Schultz, Katherine Isbister
In order to make the case for this alternative approach, we synthesize a range of material, from extant practices and affordances to emerging research-through-design work. First, acknowledging the current landscape of commercial VR meeting applications, we contrast this landscape with opportunity areas and nascent practices in the broader social VR media ecology. Then, attempting to harness this wild energy more systematically, we ground our approach in well-established HCI research on sociometric tracking and feedback systems for meetings and contrast this work with existing research on social augmentation in VR. From here, we point to emerging Research-through-Design work that illustrates our approach to supporting what we call ‘social superpowers’ in VR meetings. Finally, we reflect on key questions that ground inquiry in this area and frame a research agenda for investigating novel social affordances in social VR. If our reader is convinced that there is a research path forward to making social VR useful even in contexts of physical co-presence, then our work is done.
Social-Mediated Diffusion of Conspiracy Theories about COVID-19: A Study Integrating SMCC and TPB Models
Published in International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 2022
Zitian Li, Hongfeng Qiu, Qianying Zhou
In general, this study can contribute to the communication literature in several aspects. Theoretically, the framework combining the SMCC and the TPB has demonstrated its explanatory power to understand social-mediated diffusion of conspiracy theories, focusing on the mixed influences of the new media ecology and human agency to go beyond technological determinism. This study has also extended the applications of some traditional communication models related to persuasion and civic engagement to the context of conspiracy theory diffusion in public health crises. Moreover, a comparison of the motives for disseminating the CCT and ACT has validated the perspective of political economy in examining social-mediated diffusion of conspiracy theories. Practically, this study can inform the governance of infodemic in general and conspiracy theories in particular, through encouraging face-to-face conversation, targeting key social media publics, increasing institutional trust, addressing the emotion of fear, fighting against racism, and enhancing digital media literacy on a long-term basis. In order to clarify conspiracy theories, public health authorities could include trustworthy sources into their messages, and involve key social media publics to disseminate these messages over social media.