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Hampton, K. and Wellman, B. (2001). Long distance community in the network society: Contact and support beyond netville. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3). 476-95.
The authors examine the experience of the residents of Netville, a suburban neighborhood with access to some of the most advanced new communication technologies available, and how this technology affected the amount of contact and support exchanged with members of their distant social networks. Focusing exclusively on friends and relatives external to the neighborhood of Netville, the authors analyze community as relations that provide a sense of belonging rather than as a group of people living near each other. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is treated as one of several means of communication used in the maintenance of social networks. Contrary to expectations that the Internet encourages a global village, those ties that previously were just out of reach geographically experience the greatest increase in contact and support as a result of access to CMC.

Bystrom, D.G., and Dimitrova, D.V. (2007). Rocking the youth vote: How television covered young voters and issues in a 2004 target state. American Behavioral Scientist, 50(9). 1124-1136.
To gauge what role the media played in targeting young voters, this study examines the content of the early evening newscasts on Iowa’s three major television stations in the month leading up to the 2004 presidential election. Content analysis of 285 campaign news stories shows limited (3.2%) focus on youth, little explicit mention of youth (6%), and rare use of youth as sources in the news (6.3%). However, these findings are much higher than previous content analysis of youth in the 2000 campaign. Results show that television appears not to target young voters and that young voters use Internet and interpersonal channels for political information.

Encyclopedia Articles

“Triangulation.” Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods. (2004): 1143-1144.
Triangulation refers to the use of more than one approach to the investigation of a research question in order to enhance confidence in the ensuing findings. Because much social research is founded on the use of a single research method, and as such may suffer from limitations associated with that method or from the specific application of it, triangulation offers the prospect of enhanced confidence. Triangulation is one of the several rationales for multimethod research. The term derives from surveying, where it refers to the use of a series of triangles to map out an area.