Assignment 2: Preparation for Generating a Policy Proposal
Although some states and cities have passed laws to ban texting and using handheld phones while driving, there is no current law to ban all cell phone use while driving. However, according to the National Safety Council (2009), 28 percent of all crashes—1.6 million per year—are caused by cell phone use and texting by drivers. The mission of a new national nonprofit organization called FocusDriven, patterned after Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is to make phone use while driving as illegal and socially unacceptable as drunk driving. US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood supports FocusDriven and its efforts.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, LaHood said that this movement would become “an army of people traveling the countryside” to push for bans on cell-phone use and tough enforcement (Schmitz, 2010). As a political advocate interested in this issue, you will be writing a policy proposal that utilizes the current research to propose a solution to the issue and submitting it in Module 5.
Annotated Bibliography: Effect of Cell Phone Use
Before you can write this proposal research, you will need to conduct initial research on the science behind this initiative. For this assignment, use the Argosy University online library resources to locate research reports from peer-reviewed journals that discuss the effects of cell phone use on vision, attention, perception, or memory. In selecting at least five research reports from peer-reviewed journals relevant to the topic, make sure they address one or more of the following issues:
- How do texting, handheld phones, and hands-free phones compare with each other in their effects on driving?
- How do other, traditional distractions compare to cell phone use in their effects on driving (such as eating, attending to children, talking to passengers, listening to music/news, etc.)?
- Can cell phone use while driving be compared with drunk driving? Why or why not?
- What other variables (such as age) can affect driving while using a cell phone?
Based on your reading of the five articles, create an annotated bibliography for each of the five sources. Each annotation should consist of the APA reference entry followed by a paragraph-long summary of the articles. In your summary, provide answers for the questions below. For the last question, think about how the research results could be generalized to fit other environments or not be generalized.
- Summarize the main ideas in the reference. What were they investigating?
- How were the studies conducted? What was the sample size? Is it appropriate?
- Were the studies conducted in the real world or was a simulated environment used?
- How might these methodological considerations affect the research findings and the conclusions drawn from them? How does this article fit in with your paper? How did it influence your own ideas about your paper?
Your annotated bibliography should be at 3–4 pages in length. Go to the Doc Sharing area for sample-annotated bibliography. This document will help you complete your paper more successfully.
PA Annotated Bibliography (Haddad)
Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008). This paper follows the style guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. (2010).
Arman Haddad
Professor Andrews
Psychology 101
14 October XXXX
Patterns of Gender-Related Differences in
Online Communication: An Annotated Bibliography
Bruckman, A. S. (1993). Gender swapping on the Internet.
Proceedings of INET ’93. Retrieved from http://www.cc
.gatech.edu/elc/papers/bruckman/gender-swapping
-bruckman.pdf
In this brief analysis, Bruckman investigates the
perceptions of males and females in electronic environments.
She argues that females (or those posing as females) receive
an inordinate amount of unwanted sexual attention and offers
of assistance from males. She also suggests that females (and
sexually unthreatening males) are welcomed more willingly
than dominant males into virtual communities. She concludes
that behavior in electronic forums is an exaggerated reflection
of gender stereotypes in real-life communication. The article
is interesting and accessible, but it is quite old, and it relies
almost entirely on quotations from four anonymous forum
participants.
Crowston, C., & Kammerer, E. (1998). Communicative style and
gender differences in computer-mediated communications.
In B. Ebo (Ed.), Cyberghetto or cybertopia? Race, class,
and gender on the Internet (pp. 185-203). Westport, CT:
Praeger.
This brief study examines how the dominant
Gender and Online Communication 1
Marginal annotations indicate APA-style formatting and effective writing.
In APA style, each entry begins at the left margin; subsequent lines indent 1⁄2″.
The annotation begins on a new line and is indented 1⁄2″.
Summary is followed by a short evaluation of the source that notes its age and questionable research technique.
Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008).
communication style (masculine versus feminine) of an online
discussion group affects men’s and women’s desire to
participate. The findings, while limited, provide evidence that
in fact both women and men were less interested in joining
forums that were dominated by masculine-style language.
These findings seem to contradict the pronounced gender
inequality found in the other sources in this bibliography.
Herring, S. C. (2003). Gender and power in on-line
communication. In J. Holmes & M. Meyerhoff (Eds.), The
handbook of language and gender (pp. 202-228). Oxford,
England: Blackwell.
Herring investigates empowerment opportunities for
women online. She points out that, although more than half
of Web users in the United States are women, men continue
to dominate technical roles such as network administrators,
programmers, and Web masters. Even in anonymous online
settings, males tend to dominate discussions. And online
“anonymity,” argues Herring, may not really be possible:
Writing style and content give off cues about gender.
Herring concludes that “the Internet provides opportunities
for both male and female users, but does not appear to alter
societal gender stereotypes, nor has it (yet) redistributed
power at a fundamental level” (p. 219). The essay is well
written and well researched, and it includes a long list of
useful references.
Herring, S. C. (1994, June 27). Gender differences in computer-
mediated communication: Bringing familiar baggage to the
Gender and Online Communication 2
Haddad interprets the authors’ findings in relation to other sources in the bibliography.
A quotation from the author of the source captures the essay’s main point.
Annotations are roughly three to seven sentences long.
Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008).
new frontier. Address at the annual convention of the
American Library Association, Miami, FL. Retrieved from
http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/gender/herring.txt
Herring asserts that men and women have different
Internet posting styles and that the difference typically
results in online environments that are inhospitable toward
women. Herring uses mainly personal experience and her own
survey as evidence for her theories. This source is somewhat
narrowly focused on the issues of Netiquette and flaming,
but the topic is deeply analyzed, and the author is careful to
back up her claims with supporting evidence.
Jaffe, J. M., Lee, Y., Huang, L., & Oshagan, H. (1999). Gender
identification, interdependence, and pseudonyms in CMC:
Language patterns in an electronic conference. The
Information Society, 15. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu
/~tisj/
This study examines the male and female communication
patterns in two CMC (computer-mediated communication)
environments: one that used real names and one that used
pseudonyms. The authors found that women are more likely
than men to disguise their gender when given the opportunity
and to display patterns of “social interdependence” (such as
self-references and references to previous posts) in their
language (p. 221). In addition, when using pseudonyms, men
are more likely to show social interdependence than they are
in real-name groups. This excellent source is fairly recent,
documents a scientific study, and includes many references.
Gender and Online Communication 3
Haddad includes both positive and negative comments about the source.
Double-spacing is used throughout, with no extra space between entries and no extra space between entries and their annotations.
Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008).
The composition of the team of authors—two males and two
females—suggests they were seeking gender balance among
themselves to avoid bias.
Savicki, V., & Kelley, M. (2000). Computer mediated communication:
Gender and group composition. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 3,
817-826.
The goal of this study was to examine rigorously the
question of whether men and women communicate differently
online. The authors found context variables such as gender
composition, task type, and expectations of group etiquette
to be major factors in shaping online communication styles.
The communication patterns that arise in female-only
discussion groups, for example, are quite different from those
in male-only groups. And differences between both female
and male communication styles are far less pronounced
in mixed-gender groups. The authors are clear and thorough
in documenting their carefully planned and executed
experiments.
Savicki, V., Lingenfelter, D., & Kelley, M. (1996). Gender language
style and group composition in Internet discussion groups.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 2(3). Retrieved
from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/
The authors examined the effects of gender composition
on group communications online. After defining “masculine”
and “feminine” communication styles, the authors find
evidence—with some cautions—for their theories that (1)
the higher the proportion of males in the group, the more
Gender and Online Communication 4
URL for the jour- nal’s home page is provided for an online source.
The writer found additional information about the source (the genders of the authors) by conducting an online search.
Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008).
masculine the communication style, and (2) the higher the
proportion of females in the group, the more feminine the
communication style. However, the authors did not study
any groups that had a majority of women, and in some
cases groups had a higher number of unknown gender
participants than of women. The underrepresentation of
women, along with the study’s age, diminishes this source’s
credibility.
Soukup, C. (1999). The gendered interactional patterns of
computer-mediated chatrooms: A critical ethnographic
study. The Information Society, 15, 169-176. doi:10.1080
/019722499128475
The author participated in two chatrooms (a sports
forum and a “female-based” forum) for eight months and
observed discourse styles. He focused not on the “physiological
sex” of participants but on their “gendered discourse”—the
feminine versus masculine quality of their language and
interactions. From his observations and examples of online
chatting, the author found “stereotypical and traditional”
patterns: In both forums, masculine styles of discourse
(“aggressive, argumentative, and power oriented”) dominated
the feminine discourse (based on “cooperation, emotionality,
and relationship building”). In particular, the female forum
was dominated by masculine discourse when participants with
male screen names or personas entered the space. Although
intriguing, the findings of this small-scale, uncontrolled study
are not definitive.
Gender and Online Communication 5
If an online source has a DOI (digital object identifier), no URL is given.
Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008).
Thomson, R., & Murachver, T. (2001). Predicting gender from
electronic discourse. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40,
193-208. Retrieved from http://www.bpsjournals.co.uk
/journals/bjsp/
In three experiments, the authors tested their
assumptions about male and female communication in online
settings. They found that, as with face-to-face communication,
men and women have identifiable differences in their online
language style. They note that the individual differences
are small but that, when they are taken as a whole, clear
male/female patterns emerge. They also note that humans
are very sensitive to minor variables in language style and
can make accurate predictions as to whether an anonymous
communication was written by a male or a female. This report
uses dense, scientific language, but it provides strong evidence
to support the theory that there is a real, identifiable gender
difference in online communication.
Witmer, D. F., & Katzman, S. L. (1997). On-line smiles: Does gender
make a difference in the use of graphic accents? Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 2(4). Retrieved from
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/
The authors began with three hypotheses about online
communication: that women use more emoticons than men,
that men use more challenging language than women, and
that men flame more often than women do. Only the first was
supported by evidence from more than 2,500 e-mail messages.
As for why their other hypotheses were not supported, the
Gender and Online Communication 6
Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008).
authors speculate that women may be more likely to use male
communication styles online than in person and that the
women in this study, being mostly in technology and
academia, are not representative of all women. This article
does not elaborate on the methodology or results of the
experiment, so the findings seem less credible than those of
other studies.
Gender and Online Communication 7
Assignment 1: Discussion—Speech Acquisition
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