Published on December 9, 2022

Volume 65, Number 4, December 2022

Publication of the IEEE Professional Communication Society[Publication Information]
 Research Articles: 
A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of News Construction of the Flint Water Crisis, Y. Kong 

This study integrates corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to analyze 1858 news reports about the Flint water crisis published between 2014 and 2018. I use keywords as a core analytical technique to compare local/regional and national news coverage. Both local and national news reports overemphasized government activities while downplaying the unofficial voices of residents and community activists. Additionally, national newspapers were more likely than local newspapers to use racial cues in describing the Flint community and to associate the crisis with other social problems. News media should provide wide coverage of the affected community’s efforts in risk/crisis communication rather than reproducing official messages. News representations should be cautious of strengthening stereotypes or forming negative conceptual associations of traditionally disenfranchised communities.  
Power, Freedom, and Privacy on a Discipline-and-Control Facebook, and the Implications for Internet Governance, M. Cheung and Z. T. Chen 

We identified a gap in the literature on user perceptions and concerns over privacy in Eastern cultures, which is scarce despite the increasing concern over privacy in professional communication. Informed by the recent literature on the privacy paradox and Foucault and Deleuze’s work on power, the unbalanced and normalising power relationship between Facebook and its users in Eastern contexts is identified as a synthesis of discipline and control. Data from a survey of 797 young users in Hong Kong supported our hypotheses that the privacy paradox is evident for Facebook users in Hong Kong. Excessive Facebook use leads to reactive privacy awareness and normalisation behaviours. Technology giants such as Facebook should pioneer the safeguarding of user privacy while encouraging social relationships and freedom of expression. Implications for Internet governance are discussed from a multi-stakeholder perspective. 
Minimalism for the Win: User-Centered Design for Guidance in Industrial Maintenance, H. Heinonen, J. Virtaluoto, T. Suomivuori, K. Forsman, T. Kangas, and S. Siltanen 

We conducted an exploratory study to test the delivery of technical instructions built on the principles of minimalism. The aim was to investigate how we could support target users’ skill levels in a context-sensitive manner. We created material and tested the concept in user studies with maintenance personnel in three countries. We collected feedback through participant observation, interviews, and questionnaires. The minimalist approach of delivering information to maintenance technicians was well received and supported users with varying skill levels. The context-sensitive level of expertise concept empowers users to decide on the depth of technical information that they require to complete the task at hand. The semantic structure of DITA XML works well in the delivery of technical information to users based on their skill levels. Many of the key principles of minimalism are applicable to hardware maintenance instructions. 
Connecting Twitter with Scholarly Networks: Exploring HCI Scholars’ Interactions from an SNA Approach, L.-J. Hsu, W. Lin, and H.-P. Yueh 

Building a reputable network on Twitter is viewed as impactful in several scholarly disciplines, but little is known about the professional and interdisciplinary human-computer interaction (HCI) community. This study combined two approaches from scholarly communication and technical communication to capture the static and dynamic features of the HCI scholar Twitter network. The network analysis method of the exponential random graph model (ERGM) was adopted to trace and visualize current follower networks on Twitter. We found that 22.9% of HCI scholars use Twitter and that reciprocity and country of current employment best drive the Twitter connections of scholars. Characteristics of HCI scholars’ tie formation online are also illustrated and discussed. The empirical findings should be a helpful reference for HCI professional societies and individual scholars in operating online professional networks. 
Heuristic Evaluation vs. Guideline Reviews: A Tale of Comparing Two Domain Usability Expert’s Evaluation Methods, S. Nizamani, S. Nizamani, N. Basir, G. Laghari, K. Khoumbati, and S. Nizamani 

Determining the usability of university websites ascertains that they serve their intended purpose. Their usability can be evaluated either by user testing or by expert inspection. Heuristic evaluation and guideline reviews are two such inspection methods. Heuristic evaluation consists of a few general heuristics (rules), limited to checking general flaws in the design. A guideline review uses a much larger set of guidelines/suggestions that fit a specific business domain. In this study, the two inspection methods are compared in a domain- and the culture-specific context in terms of the nature, time required, approach, templates, and results. The results reflect that both methods identify similar usability issues; however, they differ in terms of the nature, time duration, evaluation procedure, templates, and evaluation results. This study provides insights about the choice of a method for domain- and culture-specific evaluation of university websites.