scholarly journals Exploring mindlessness as an explanation for the media equation: Why and when people will treat computers as social actors

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Media Equation ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Media ◽  
Computers As Social Actors

scholarly journals ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Carolus ◽  
Carolin Wienrich ◽  
Anna Törke ◽  
Tobias Friedel ◽  
Christian Schwietering ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Conversational Agent ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Treatment Results ◽  
Media Equation ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Trait Empathy ◽  
The Media ◽  
Single User ◽  
Computers As Social Actors

Conversational agents and smart speakers have grown in popularity offering a variety of options for use, which are available through intuitive speech operation. In contrast to the standard dyad of a single user and a device, voice-controlled operations can be observed by further attendees resulting in new, more social usage scenarios. Referring to the concept of ‘media equation’ and to research on the idea of ‘computers as social actors,’ which describes the potential of technology to trigger emotional reactions in users, this paper asks for the capacity of smart speakers to elicit empathy in observers of interactions. In a 2 × 2 online experiment, 140 participants watched a video of a man talking to an Amazon Echo either rudely or neutrally (factor 1), addressing it as ‘Alexa’ or ‘Computer’ (factor 2). Controlling for participants’ trait empathy, the rude treatment results in participants’ significantly higher ratings of empathy with the device, compared to the neutral treatment. The form of address had no significant effect. Results were independent of the participants’ gender and usage experience indicating a rather universal effect, which confirms the basic idea of the media equation. Implications for users, developers and researchers were discussed in the light of (future) omnipresent voice-based technology interaction scenarios.

“It's okay, honey… shhh…” - The Media Equation and Computers-Are-Social-Actors-Hypothesis in Acute Care

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Hohm ◽  
Oliver Happel ◽  
Jörn Hurtienne ◽  
Tobias Grundgeiger
Keyword(s):  
Acute Care ◽  
Media Equation ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Media

Think Tanks and Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuti Bhatnagar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Policy Frames ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
The Media ◽  
Intellectual Elites

The role of think tanks as policy actors has developed over time and created significant global scholarship. Widely understood as non-state policy actors, think tanks established either with or without the support of government have evolved in various political contexts with varied characteristics. They are avenues for the discussion of new policy ideas as well as used for the consolidation of existing understandings of global and national political issues. As ideational actors think tanks interact with policy frameworks at different levels, either in the framing stage or at the stage of consensus building towards certain policies. Intellectual elites at think tanks allow for the introduction of think tank ideas into the policy frames as well as the creation of public opinion towards foreign policy decisions. Think tank deliberations involve an interaction with policymakers, academic experts, business and social actors, as well as the media to disseminate ideas. Institutionally, think tanks in a wide variety of political contexts play a critical role in the making of foreign policy and bring closer attention to processes of state–society interactions in different political environments.

A Theoretical Justification for Using Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) to Augment Accounting-Related Interviews

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Pickard ◽  
Mary B. Burns ◽  
Kevin C. Moffitt
Keyword(s):  
Business Environment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Embodied Conversational Agents ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Rapport Building ◽  
Computers As Social Actors

ABSTRACT In today's increasingly complex business environment, accounting firms face additional pressures regarding cost reduction, engagement scope, and attention to quality. This paper proposes that embodied conversational agents (ECAs) are particularly well suited to automate and augment accounting interviews to save costs, streamline the interviewing process, and maintain quality. An ECA is an autonomous computer interface capable of human-like interactions such as interviews. This paper describes how an ECA can be used to augment accounting-related interviews and the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. This paper also presents the ECA Self-Disclosure Model with propositions of how self-disclosure can be influenced by an ECA through reciprocal behavior and rapport building. The model and propositions are supported by the computers-as-social-actors (CASA) paradigm (Reeves and Nass 1996). This paper concludes by discussing limitations of ECA use in the real world and by recommending how the model and propositions can be tested empirically in future research.

Mindful tutors

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Fischer ◽  
Kilian Foth ◽  
Katharina J. Rohlfing ◽  
Britta Wrede
Keyword(s):  
Social Communication ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Computers As Social Actors ◽  
Keywords Child ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
Almost All ◽  
High Degree

It has been proposed that the design of robots might benefit from interactions that are similar to caregiver–child interactions, which is tailored to children’s respective capacities to a high degree. However, so far little is known about how people adapt their tutoring behaviour to robots and whether robots can evoke input that is similar to child-directed interaction. The paper presents detailed analyses of speakers’ linguistic behaviour and non-linguistic behaviour, such as action demonstration, in two comparable situations: In one experiment, parents described and explained to their nonverbal infants the use of certain everyday objects; in the other experiment, participants tutored a simulated robot on the same objects. The results, which show considerable differences between the two situations on almost all measures, are discussed in the light of the computer-as-social-actor paradigm and the register hypothesis. Keywords: child-directed speech (CDS); motherese; robotese; motionese; register theory; social communication; human–robot interaction (HRI); computers-as-social-actors; mindless transfer

Politically Driven

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Boda ◽  
Gabriella Szabó ◽  
Attila Bartha ◽  
Gergő Medve-Bálint ◽  
Zsuzsanna Vidra
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Media ◽  
Severe Punishment ◽  
The Right ◽  
Tabloid Press

Penal populism, advocating severe punishment of criminals, has greatly influenced justice policy measures in Eastern Europe over the last decade. This article takes Hungary as a typical case in the region and based on a recent criminal policy reform it investigates the roots of the penal populist discourse, which legitimizes and supports punitive measures. The research assumes that policy discourses need specific social actors that construct and promote them. Accordingly, the article explores whether the right-wing political parties and the tabloid media have taken a leading role in constructing the discourse of penal populism as a response to public concerns about crime. Content analysis and frame analysis of political communication and media was conducted to identify the discursive positions of major political parties and selected national media sources. The research found that penal populism was dominant in Hungarian political discourse while most of the media, including the tabloid press, have been rather reluctant to adopt punitive tones. The results thus contradict previous findings and offer a more nuanced view on how penal populism is being constructed and promoted in Eastern Europe.

Self-media as a model for monetization of knowledge code

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-91
Author(s):  
Svetlana L. Urazova
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Masses ◽  
And Behavior

The accelerated development, convergence and integration of information and communication technologies open up great opportunities for social actors to express themselves, motivating amateur artists to produce media products. The essay discusses the principles of the functioning of "self-media", a new type of media model in individual entrepreneurship which is developing in China and analyzes its advantages and disadvantages in the testing of innovative business models. The essay explores the problem of the importance of screen communications for civilizational development and their possible influence on the processes of collective cognition, mentality and behavior patterns of social actors, groups, communities and cultures. Screen communications demonstrate the inextricability of the linking of the media and social systems which undergo fluctuations (unstable fluctuations) in digital time at the stage of digital reforming. The author notes that this development of a social system is most often built not on collectively-consolidated but on individualized solutions resorted to by people forced to rely on their own choices in difficult situations, on their intuition and imagination. Social actors master digital technologies and create various kinds of projects that encourage the masses to acquire new knowledge. The self-media project began to be implemented in China in 2010-2013 on the basis of the new WeChat platform, both a social network and a messaging application. In a convergent-integration form, a functional of differing target technology platforms was implemented, providing typological signs of self-media. This attracted a large number of consumers to media projects. Self-media are based on the idea of learning new things - in other words, a knowledge code (a set of signs / symbols and a system of certain rules that define a process of cognition) which is implemented by the creators. Initially, it is presented in the form of informative and historical texts, illustrations and videos dedicated to art, a chosen topic complemented by the attributes of material symbolic things and various kinds of organizational services. Materially embodied ideas motivate the media consumer to replenish knowledge of the unknown.

scholarly journals Experience as a moderator of the media equation: the impact of flattery and praise

2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Johnson ◽  
John Gardner ◽  
Janet Wiles
Keyword(s):  
Media Equation ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact
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