699 - 728 The Role of Communal Ratings.indd 701Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political User-generated News Websites Alcides Velásquez1 Cliff Lampe2 Recibido: 2013-06-05 Aprobado por pares: 2013-09-12 Envío a pares: 2013-06-24 Aceptado: 2013-09-21 Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Velásquez, A., Lampe, C. Diciembre de 2013. The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political User-generated News Websites. Palabra Clave 16 (3), 701-728. Abstract Citizen journalists can participate in political user-generated news websites in di!erent ways, including providing content, discussing with other users, and rating the content posted on the site. Also, users of these types of sites form impressions of other users based on the information provided by dif- ferent sources. "e information supplied by rating systems, for example, constitutes a source of information that cues certain characteristics about others. However, user-generated news websites’ rating systems usually eval- uate users’ participation without distinguishing between types of participa- tion. Taking into account the origin of the information carried by the cues and the communal dimension evaluated in the process of impression for- mation, this study examines how a set of di!erent rating system design op- tions might in#uence users’ impressions of the credibility of discussants, discussion informativeness, and willingness to contribute to discussions on political user-generated news websites. "e results of this study partial- 1 Ponti$cia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. alcides@javeriana.edu.co 2 School of Information, University of Michigan, USA. cacl@umich.edu 702 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe ly support the idea that communal third-party information has more im- portance when impressions are formed in these online se%ings, although further research is needed to establish the connection between rating sys- tems and the communal characteristics of users. Keywords Politics, journalism, Internet, news agency, audience measurement, cultural participation. (Source: UNESCO "esaurus). 703Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 El papel de las valoraciones como señales en la participación en los sitios web de noticias políticas generados por el usuario Resumen El periodista ciudadano puede participar en los sitios web de noticias políti- cas generados por el usuario de diferentes maneras, tales como el suminis- tro de contenido, discutir con otros usuarios, y la cali$cación del contenido publicado en el sitio. Además, los usuarios de estos tipos de sitios forman impresiones de otros usuarios en base a la información proporcionada por diferentes fuentes. La información suministrada por los sistemas de clasi$- cación, por ejemplo, constituye una fuente de información que da señales sobre ciertas características de otros. Sin embargo, los sistemas de clasi$ca- ción de los sitios web de noticias generados por el usuario suelen evaluar la participación de los mismos sin distinguir entre los tipos de participación. Teniendo en cuenta el origen de la información transmitida por las señales y la dimensión comunal evaluada en el proceso de formación de impresio- nes, este estudio examina cómo un conjunto de diferentes opciones de di- seño para un sistema de clasi$cación puede in#uir en las impresiones de los usuarios sobre la credibilidad de los ponentes, el carácter informativo de la discusión, y la voluntad de contribuir a los debates en los sitios web de no- ticias políticas generados por el usuario. Los resultados de este estudio apo- yan parcialmente la idea de que la información comunal de terceros tiene más importancia cuando las impresiones se forman en estos entornos en línea, aunque se necesita más investigación para identi$car la relación re- velar entre los sistemas de clasi$cación y las características comunales de los usuarios. Palabras clave Política, periodismo, Internet, agencia de noticias, medición de audiencia, participación cultural. (Fuente: Tesauro de la UNESCO). 704 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe O papel das valorações como sinais na participação dos sites de notícias políticas gerados pelo usuário Resumo O jornalista cidadão pode participar dos sites de notícias políticas gerados pelo usuário de diferentes maneiras: fornecendo conteúdo, discutindo com os outros usuários e quali$cando o conteúdo publicado no site. Além disso, os usuários desse tipo de site formam impressões de outros usuários com base na informação proporcionada por diferentes fontes. A informação for- necida pelos sistemas de classi$cação, por exemplo, constitui uma fonte de informação que dá sinais sobre certas características de outros. Contudo, os sistemas de classi$cação dos sites de notícias gerados pelo usuário costu- mam avaliar a participação. Ao considerar a origem da informação transmi- tida pelos sinais e pela dimensão comunal avaliada no processo de formação de impressões, este estudo examina como um conjunto de diferentes opções de desenho para um sistema de classi$cação pode in#uenciar nas impres- sões dos usuários sobre a credibilidade dos informantes, o caráter infor- mativo da discussão e a vontade de contribuir para os debates nos sites de notícias gerados pelo usuário. Os resultados deste estudo apoiam parcial- mente a ideia de que a informação comunal de terceiros tem mais impor- tância quando as impressões se formam nesses ambientes on-line, embora se precise de mais pesquisa para identi$car a relação entre os sistemas de classi$cação e as características comunais dos usuários. Palavras-chave Política, jornalismo, internet, agência de notícias, medição de audiência, participação cultural. (Fonte:Tesauro da Unesco). 705Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political User-generated News Websites The transformation in media technology has brought a diverse set of changes to the practice and routines of journalism (Carpenter, 2008). Among these changes is the appearance of online citizen journalism. Citizen participation in the production of news in digital media of- fers the possibility of se%ing alternative agendas (Domingo et al., 2008) and diversifying news topics and sources (Carpenter, 2010). Online cit- izen journalism is de$ned as including participatory features (e.g., news production), participation in discussions through comment posting, and the use of social features such as content rating (Goode, 2009). "is study examines how information provided by systems that rate di!er- ent forms of citizen participation in user-generated news websites in#uences the perceptions of online discussions and the users in those discussions. It is limited to political user-generated news websites that are designed to pro- vide information on political issues and to discuss them online. Political user-generated news sites (e.g., newsvine or guerrilla news networks), although focused on news, share many of the characteristics of the broader set of online communities. "ey allow for interaction among individuals through activities such as posting content, providing feedback, commenting on the contributions of others, and building social relation- ships. Online communities are characterized as groups of people who assemble with a shared purpose or interest and are guided by a set of policies that construct a set of conventions and norms for behavior, all facilitated and supported by an online application (Preece & Maloney-Krichmar, 2005). As a genre of online communities, user-generated news websites have a set of rules and incentives for audience participation, such as reputation or leveling systems, which can motivate news production or discussion through comment posting (Domingo et al., 2008). "ese systems allow us- ers to assign scores or to rate other users’ participation, and also are helpful 706 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe in guiding users on what content might be worthwhile to consider and how to overcome information overload (Lampe & Resnick, 2004). Although these systems have proved to be useful for such purpos- es, feedback and rating mechanisms have another e!ect in online commu- nities. Users of these sites employ several sources of information to form impressions about other users (Walther, 1992). Social information process- ing (SIP) theory predicts that, given the limitations of computer-mediated environments in communicating non-verbal cues, it takes longer to form impressions of individuals than in face-to-face (FtF) communication. How- ever, while the limitations as to the amount of social information may slow the process of impression formation, these impressions are formed anyway, even in the most cue sparse online environments. "e information provid- ed by rating systems constitutes a source of information that cues certain characteristics about other users, and may facilitate impression formation by adding additional social cues to the online environment. Research into online impression formation shows the source of infor- mation used to form impressions plays an important role in how those im- pressions are constructed (Walther & Parks, 2002). Furthermore, $ndings by Utz (2010) suggest the e!ect of the source of the information varies, depending on which dimension for judging others (i.e., agentic or com- munal) is more salient when the impression is in the process of being formed. When communal characteristics are judged, third-party infor- mation has a stronger e!ect. As mentioned previously, users of user-generated news websites can contribute to these sites in di!erent ways and with di!erent types of con- tent. However, rating systems usually provide information about users’ contributing behavior without distinguishing between the types of contri- bution. Using experimental methods, this study looks at the di!erences in e!ects between information provided by rating systems on participation through discussion comments, participation through posting news articles, and general participation in terms of users’ impressions of the credibility of other users, perceptions of the informativeness of the discussion taking place, and intentions to participate in the discussions. 707Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 Online Cues and Impression Formation Research on impression formation in computer mediated environments can be described as following two di!erent paths. On one hand, there is the cues-$ltered-out approach based on theories such as those on social presence (Shorts, Williams, & Christy, 1976) and information richness (Da& & Lengel, 1984), which argue that online communication is social- ly impoverished because online environments hinder the formation of im- pressions (Tanis & Postmes, 2003). In contrast, theories such as those on social information processing (Walther, 1992) state the process of impression formation still takes place based on the cues available to online users (Tanis & Postmes, 2003). Evi- dence suggests the type of cues communicated online do in#uence the de- velopment of impressions and, furthermore, such information also has an impact on individual intentions to develop further interaction with others (Tanis & Postmes, 2003). Accordingly, impression formation in online en- vironments, such as discussion forums and online communities, is based on the cues that users make available voluntarily and involuntarily. However, the source of these cues also in#uences the process of im- pression formation. "e warranting theory states that third-party generat- ed information about a target can be more reliable for individuals, since it is less prone to being manipulated (Walther & Parks, 2002). For example, if a user claims to be a political expert, this will carry less impression weight than if another person says the user is a political expert. Two dimensions for judging come into play when individuals are forming impressions about others. One is the agentic dimension, which is related to the self-interest of the possessor of that quality; the other is the communal dimension, which has to do with the interests of people with whom the possessor of that qual- ity interacts (Abele, Cuddy, Judd, & Yzerbyt, 2008). Research by Utz (2010) shows the e!ect of the information source varies, depending on the dimension that comes into play when judging others. "ere are $ndings that suggest other-generated information has an e!ect when communal characteristics are assessed. When individuals are 708 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe evaluating someone’s communal characteristics, such as reliability or un- sel$shness, self-generated information does not have a major e!ect, while other-generated information does. In this sense, when assessing the e!ect of cues on the process of im- pression formation, the origin of the information carried by the cue and the dimension play a role in the process. User-generated news websites are not exempt from this. Users employ the cues they are given to form their im- pressions of others, and shape their behavior based on these impressions. Rating systems, which are a common feature of online communi- ties, o!er explicit mechanisms for users to provide impression cues of one another. In some cases, a rating system that provides general information about user participation might not report su'ciently on the communal characteristics of a user, while a rating system that distinguishes between di!erent forms of participation might provide more solid information about such characteristics, thereby having a greater e!ect on the percep- tions of individuals. Reputation Systems Online reputation systems have several purposes. On one hand, they help users to recognize what information might be valuable to them. "ey also are useful in providing information about users who have been of greater bene$t to others or have been considered as providing be%er quality contri- butions to the community (Lampe, 2012, p. 81). "ese systems are a way to collect information and to communicate how users have judged the behavior and contribution of other users. However, they serve other purposes besides supporting the consumption of information or guiding decisions on social interactions. Since these systems indicate the value certain types of content or behavior has for the community, they also help to shape the norms users share about what types of content or behavior are adequate in that context. Moreover, the $ndings suggest these systems are a way in which users build their status online, and can become a tool for assessing users’ own contri- butions (Velasquez, Wash, Lampe & Bjornrud, 2013). In this sense, repu- tation systems encourage user participation, given the meaning that highly 709Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 rated content entails for them. Another stream of research has found evi- dence indicating reputation systems also shape the way in which users learn and are socialized in online communities (Lampe and Johnston, 2005). However, very few studies have examined the bene$ts of systems that rate di!erent aspects of content or provide information about di!erent types of participation. One of these is the study by Lampe and Garre% (2007). "ey examined the advantages of a system that allowed participants to rate news content according to di!erent dimensions of quality. "e $ndings sug- gest individuals perceived a system that allowed them to evaluate a larger array of news a%ributes as being more accurate and satisfactory. Yet, li%le is known about the possible e!ects a rating system that dis- tinguishes between types of participation might have on users’ perceptions and intentions to participate in the site. Such a study can contribute to cur- rent research on the e!ects of rating systems on participation in user-gen- erated news websites and the process of impression formation in online political se%ings. Discussion Comments on Political User-generated News Websites A paucity of research has examined participation through discussion com- ments on user-generated news websites, including political news websites. Most studies have focused on the transformation that citizen journalism has brought to traditional journalism (Carpenter, 2008; Domingo et al., 2008; Mitchelstein & Boczkowski, 2009), the characteristics of the news produced by users (Carpenter, 2010), and the e!ects on users (Kau(old, Valenzuela & Gil de Zúñiga, 2010) and citizen journalists (Robinson & Deshano, 2011). However, participation in online political discussions has been re- searched more extensively. Some studies have found participation in online political discussion contributes to political participation (Nah, Veenstra, & Shah, 2006). Others have focused on how agreement and disagreement takes place, and the di!erent factors that in#uence opinion expression (Kwak, 710 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe Williams, Wang & Lee, 2005; Wojcieszak & Mutz, 2009), while there is research to suggest online se%ings can enrich the diversity of viewpoints (Kelly, Fisher and Smith, 2005; Stromer-Galley, 2003). Some studies have examined how the features of online media might in#uence participation. For example, Ng & Detenber (2005) conducted an experimental study to examine the impact of synchronicity and civility on users’ perceptions and intentions to participate. "eir $ndings suggest synchronous discussions are perceived as more informative and persuasive than asynchronous discussions, although this feature did not seem to have an impact on users’ intentions to participate in the discussion. Ho and McLeod (2008) hypothesized, from a social psychological perspective, that features such as a reduced amount of cues and the ano- nymity of an online chat room discussion group would increase the like- lihood of stating an opinion in an online context compared to discussion in a FtF context. "eir $ndings suggest fear of isolation had a negative ef- fect on willingness to express an opinion, but this e!ect was tempered by the type of communication to be used. Online interaction reduced the ef- fect of fear of isolation. Tan, Swee, Lim, Detenber and Alsago! (2007) examined the role of cues (i.e., language style and expertise) in users’ perceptions of discus- sants and intentions to participate in an online political discussion. "e re- sults did not indicate expertise cues had a signi$cant e!ect on intentions to participate in the discussion. "e e!ect on discussion informativeness and user credibility also was very limited. In general, the results suggest the status cues of participants did not have a signi$cant e!ect on users’ im- pression and on their intention to participate in the discussion. However, the same study had a limitation in that the level of expertise was manipu- lated with four types of information, without distinguishing the e!ect of each one. Speci$cally, expertise cues were manipulated using the time the discussant has been a community member, the number of posts contrib- uted, the user’s level in the community, and rating of the user’s comments in the online community. "e study did not assess the di!erences in e!ect 711Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 for each of the sources of the cues, ignoring that each of them might pro- vide agentic or communal characteristics. For that reason, the present study examines how a reputation system that allows for rating di!erent types of users’ contributions a!ects indi- viduals’ perceptions of users’ credibility, perceptions of discussion infor- mativeness, and individuals’ intentions to participate in discussion on a user-generated news website. It assumes a rating system that does not distin- guish between types of contributions might not cue communal characteris- tics, while a system that distinguishes between di!erent types of participation does cue communal characteristics, thereby having more of an e!ect on us- ers’ impressions and perceptions. According to previous research, when individuals are forming impres- sions of others, they focus more on information that cues communal char- acteristics. "e communal dimension is more valued and is more important for personal and group perceptions than the agentic dimension, and is re- lated to function in social relations (Wojciszke & Abele, 2008). Further- more, the $ndings suggest communal judgments are inferred from cues that provide information about whether an individual’s behavior might bene- $t the perceiver, which will increase a%itudes toward that person (Cislak & Wojciszke, 2008). "erefore, the following research questions are proposed: Research question 1: What is the di!erence in users’ perceptions of the credibility of users who have received ratings on their general parti- cipation, their participation in discussion comments, and their par- ticipation posting news articles? Research question 2: What is the di!erence in users’ perceptions of the informativeness of discussion in which users who have partici- pated therein have been rated on their participation in posting dis- cussion comments, or their participation in posting news articles, or their participation in general? 712 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe Hypothesis 3: What is the di!erence in individuals’ intentions to par- ticipate in discussions where discussants who participated have recei- ved ratings regarding their comment posting participation, or their news article participation, or their participation in general? Method Participants A total of 98 undergraduate students (33 women, 65 men) from a major mid-western university in the United States participated in this study (age M = 21.16, SD =2.089). "e students who took part were recruited from courses related to the information society, telecommunications policy, and me- dia e!ects. "ey each received course credit for taking part in the experiment. Experimental Design "e stimuli consisted of an article accompanied by a discussion thread. Both were wri%en speci$cally for this study. "e topic was the threats to “net neutrality” posed by the Google and Verizon agreement. Content was presented to participants as part of a user-generated news website. "e discus- sion thread had four posts. "e usernames of users who posted comments in the discussion were situated alongside each discussion comment. "e rating for each user was expressed through a star rating system (see Appendix A for details on the three di!erent conditions). "e “general ratings” condition had a rating indicating how each of the users was graded on their participation in general, without any informa- tion specifying the type of contribution. With the other two conditions, the rating for each of the discussants provided information on how they were graded by other users in terms of their discussion comments or their news articles, respectively. In the “news articles” condition, users had a rating score that indicated how other users judged the quality of the articles they had posted in the past, although they had no stars rating their comments. "e “discussion comments” condition had the opposite information. "e rating system showed a score for how other users rated the discussion com- ments posted by the user in question, even though they had zero stars rat- ing their posted articles. 713Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 "e information that varied across the conditions was the information on rating speci$city regarding the type of contribution. Also, the descrip- tion of the website changed, depending on the condition. For the “gener- al rating” condition, it indicated the users of this website could rate others’ contributions through a star rating system, but the system did not provide speci$c information about the type of contribution. With the “news arti- cles” and “discussion comments” conditions, participants could read a de- scription indicating that users received two separate ratings: one for news articles and another for discussion comments. Comments, usernames, the number of stars for each user, and the article that initiated the discussion were kept consistent (See Appendix A). Procedure "e study took place in the computer laboratory on campus. Upon arriving at the room, the subjects signed a consent form. "en, they were told, both verbally and in wri%en form, they were going to see information on the char- acteristics of a political user-generated news website, a&er which they would be able to read some of the content posted by some of its users. "e subjects were assigned randomly to one of the three versions of the site, through a javascript code. No contact between the participants was allowed. "ey were reminded they could take as much time as they needed to read all of the material carefully. A&er reading the description of the website, the news article, and the discussion thread, they were taken directly to the questionnaire, which in- cluded measurements of the dependent variables, the items that assessed the manipulation, the covariates and the demographics. Measurements "e perceived credibility scale was adapted from McCroskey & Teven (1999). It was comprised of three dimensions (i.e., competence, good- will and trustworthiness). Each dimension was measured using six 7-point Likert type scale items. "e perceived informativeness measurements were adapted from Ng & Detenber (2005). "is scale was comprised of eight 7-point Likert type scale items that asked respondents to indicate their lev- 714 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe el of agreement with statements such as “I learned something new from the discussion.” and “"e discussion provided explanations of policies/ issues.” Intention to participate in the discussion used items from Ng & Detenber (2005). "e items in this scale asked respondents to indicate their level of agreement with statements such as “At times, while read- ing, I wanted to participate in the discussion.” and “I would like to reply to one or more of the participants in the discussion.” "is scale included ten 7-point Likert type scale items. "e covariates included internal and external political e'cacy mea- surements, constructed using four 7-point Likert-type scale items for each dimension of political e'cacy. "e respondents also were asked about the frequency of participation in online political discussions (1=Never to 7= Very o&en). Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations and reliability scores for each of the three dimensions of credibility, discussion informativeness, in- tention to participate in the discussion, as well as internal and external po- litical e'cacy. "e reliability scores for all the variables were above α=.70, except for external political e'cacy. When the reliability tests were perfor- med for this covariate, the results suggested that one of the items was a!ec- ting the reliability score. "e item in question was dropped from the index of external political e'cacy, somewhat improving its reliability. Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations and Reliability Scores Mean SD Competence 4.92 .809 .76 Goodwill 4.87 .807 .78 Trustworthiness 4.91 .808 .85 Informativeness 4.35 .856 .78 Intention to participate 3.62 1.05 .85 Internal political e'cacy 3.96 1.25 .81 External political e'cacy 4.36 1.03 .68 715Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 Manipulation Check To assess if participants had indeed detected the experimental manipu- lation, they were asked a set of questions concerning the characteristics of the site and a user in the discussion. Speci$cally, the respondents were asked to select the appropriate answer to the following questions. “In !e Constituents, users can rate contributions by other users.” “In !e Constitu- ents, the more stars users have, the be%er they have been rated by other us- ers.” “What is RisingStar2000’s rating of discussion comments only?” “Users in !e Constituents get one reputation score for discussion comments post- ing and another for posting opinion articles.” "en, an additive index was constructed based on the answers to those questions. "e means for the “general ratings” condition (M=3.6, SD=1.1), the “news article” condition (M=4.7, SD=0.59) and the “discussion com- ments” condition (M=5.4, SD=0.89) were signi$cantly di!erent. "e re- sults of an ANOVA comparing the means of the three conditions revealed the di!erence was signi$cant (F (2, 95) = 32.17, p = .005). "ese results indicate the participants detected the manipulation. Results To determine which covariates were related signi$cantly to the dependent vari- ables and could be used potentially in the analyses, correlation analyses were run between the three covariates and the three dimensions of credibility, discussion informativeness and intention to participate (Table 2). In the cases where a signi$cant correlation existed, a stepwise regression test was performed be- tween the suggested covariate and the dependent variable. In this way, the probability of any overestimation of the ANCOVA model was reduced. Table 2. Correlation Coefficients between Dependent and Control Variables Frequency of Online Political Discussion Internal Political E!cacy External Political E!cacy Competence .143 .142 -.056 Goodwill .024 .112 .065 Trustworthiness .086 .116 .066 Informativeness -.166 -.064 .066 Intention to participate .228* .205* .180 *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). 716 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe Credibility "e research question that asked about a di!erence in the e!ect on credi- bility among the three conditions was tested using ANOVA for each of the dimensions of credibility (see all the ANOVA tables in Appendix B). For competence, results indicated there was no signi$cant di!erence among the three conditions (F (2.95) =1.18, p=.309) (Table 3). "e di!er- ence in goodwill, another dimension of credibility, was not found to be sig- ni$cant either (F (2.95)=.512, p=.601) (Table 4); nor was the di!erence in trustworthiness (F (2.95)=1.13, p=.327) (Table 5). In summary, the results showed users were not perceived as more cred- ible in any of the dimensions of this concept when they received a rating for their participation in discussion comments, or a rating for their partici- pation with news articles, or a general rating for their overall participation. "erefore, no di!erence in the e!ect of the rating system was found regard- ing levels of user credibility. Informativeness "e results of the ANOVA that tested the question about the e!ect of the di!erent rating system conditions on the perceived informativeness of the discussion showed the existence of a signi$cant di!erence in per- ceived discussion informativeness (F (2.95)=6.48, p=.002) (Table 6). An a priori simple contrast analysis (Table 7) was performed compar- ing the “discussion comments” rating system condition to the other two conditions. "e results showed the “general ratings” condition (M=4.14, SE=.14) was not perceived as signi$cantly di!erent from the “discussion comments” rating system condition (M = 4.17, SE =.14) with regard to participants’ impressions of discussion informativeness. "e di!erence between the “news article” rating system condition (M=4.77, SE=.13) and the “discussion comments” rating system condition (M=4.17, SE=.14) was found to be signi$cant. "is di!erence showed the perceptions of discussion informativeness were signi$cantly higher in the “news article” rating system condition. 717Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 Intention to Participate In the analysis that explored the research question regarding di!erences in the e!ect on intentions to participate in the discussion between the three conditions, although results of the correlation analysis suggested internal political e'cacy and frequency of participation in online political discus- sions should be used in the ANCOVA model for this dependent variable, the results of a stepwise regression indicated only internal political e'ca- cy was appropriate. An ANCOVA was run with internal political e'cacy as the covariate. "e results revealed a signi$cant di!erence in intentions to participate (F (2.95) = 5.52, p=.002), when correcting for internal po- litical e'cacy (Table 8). An a priori simple contrast comparing the “discussion comments” rating system condition to the other two conditions assessed these di!er- ences. "e results (Table 9) showed intentions to participate were signi$- cantly lower in the “general ratings” condition (M = 3.19, SD =.811) than in the “discussion comments” rating system condition (M=3.86, SD =1.11) when correcting for internal political e'cacy. "e comparison also showed the di!erence between the “discussion comments” rating system condition (M = 3.86, SD =1.11) and the “news article” rating system condition. (M = 3.79, SD =1.09) was not signi$cant. Although intentions in the “discus- sion comments” rating system condition were higher, the di!erence was not signi$cant. Conclusions Based on the notion that rating systems act as sources of third-party informa- tion used to develop impressions about users, this study examined the way in which rating systems that distinguish between types of participation in- #uenced users’ perceptions and intentions to participate in discussions on political user-generated news websites. Although the $ndings suggest rat- ings of di!erent types of participation have an e!ect on users’ perceptions, more research is needed to identify the type of participation that cues more communal characteristics about user participation in the form of posting news article or in the form of discussion comments. However, the results might suggest that, when forming impressions about others, rating systems 718 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe can cue communal characteristics, depending on the type of participation the systems rate. "e outcome of this study supports the idea that commu- nal third-party information has more importance in online impression for- mation processes. Although the results suggest there is no signi$cant di!erence in the perceptions of credibility facilitated by any of the rating systems evaluat- ed, these $ndings do not contradict what is predicted by social information processing theory. While the results suggest there is no di!erence between the di!erent versions of the rating system, this can be explained in terms of the rate at which cues can be communicated through computer-medi- ated channels. Following SIP theory, the results regarding the e!ect on credibility perceptions among the three conditions might stem from the fact that the di!erence between forms of participation was not perceptible for partici- pants during such a limited exposure. However, evidence already exists to suggest cues in#uence participation over time (Velasquez, 2012). In this sense, the $ndings of the present study might be limited by the speci$c con- ditions of the experiment and the characteristics of computer-mediated set- tings regarding the amount of social information communicated. "e results also detected a di!erence between the “news article” rat- ing system condition and the other two conditions, although the “discus- sion comments” rating system was not di!erent from the “general rating” system condition. One possible explanation for this $nding is that the ma- nipulation might have primed individuals to give more importance to partic- ipation through posting news articles. How the news website was described and the way users could participate in it might have suggested to partici- pants that posting articles was the main and most important contribution to the site. Without articles, there would be no other kind of participation. On this point, in the condition where users received ratings for par- ticipation via posting news articles, they were perceived as being more in- formed, because they were expected to provide more and be%er support for 719Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 the arguments they made with respect to the articles. In assessing the infor- mativeness of a discussion, participants then conferred (Flanagin, Metzger & Medders, 2008) the perceptions they had of individuals’ informativeness to the discussion in which those individuals participated, perceiving those discussions as being more informative than the discussion under the other two conditions. Another possibility is that article posting cues more com- munal characteristics compared to the other two rating system conditions. "e results support the idea that information on the type of partic- ipation played a role in users’ intentions to participate in the discussion. However, the results did not show a di!erence between the speci$c partic- ipation rating system conditions. "is might indicate the need to improve on identifying the type of participation that characterizes communal us- ers. Although the $ndings suggest it made a di!erence to specify the type of participation, there did not seem to be enough elements to reach a con- clusion as to which of the two communicated more communal character- istics in users who participated in the discussions. Also, the evidence found in this study is limited to the conditions of the experiment. It is possible other methodologies can be used to com- plement these $ndings. Experiments that take into account the temporal dimension in these interactions can provide more evidence as to how dif- ferent versions of a rating system might a!ect the perceptions and behav- ior of those who use sites of this type. Future studies should do more to re$ne and improve the operation- alization of communal characteristics cued by rating systems. Interviews and focus groups might provide more useful data for constructing a rating system of this nature. Finally, this study might have given prevalence to participation through posting articles. More control over the characteristics of the news website might be helpful in verifying how the dynamics in participation and the di!erent types of participation might play a role in users’ impres- sions and behavior. 720 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe References Abele, A. E., Cuddy, A. J. C., Judd, C. M., & Yzerbyt, V. Y. (2008). Funda- mental dimensions of social judgment. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 1063–1065. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.574 Carpenter, S. (2008). How online citizen journalism publications and on- line newspapers utilize the objectivity standard and rely on exter- nal sources. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 85(3), 531–548. doi:10.1177/107769900808500304 Carpenter, S. (2010). A study of content diversity in online citizen journa- lism and online newspaper articles. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1064–1084. doi:10.1177/1461444809348772 Cislak, A., & Wojciszke, B. (2008). Agency and communion are inferred from actions serving interests of self or others. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(7), 1103-1110. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.554 Da&, R . L. & Lengel, R . H. (1984). Information richness: A new approach to managerial behaviour and organizational design. Research in Or- ganizational Behaviour, 6, 191-233. Domingo, D., Quandt, T., Heinonen, A., Paulussen, S., Singer, J. B., & Vujnovic, M. (2008). Participator y journalism practices in the media and beyond. Journalism Practice, 2(3), 326–342. doi:10.1080/17512780802281065 Metzger, M. J., Flanagin, A. J., & Medders, R . (2010). Social and heuristic approaches to credibility evaluation online. Journal of Communi- cation, 60(3), 413-439. Goode, L. (2009). Social news, citizen journalism and democracy. New Media & Society, 11(8), 1287–1305. doi:10.1177/1461444809341393 721Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 Ho, S. S., & McLeod, D. M. (2008). Social-psychological in#uences on opinion expression in face-to-face and computer-mediated com- munication. Communication Research, 35(2), 190-207. doi: 10.1177/0093650207313159 Kau(old, K., Valenzuela, S., & Zúñiga, H. G. de. (2010). Citizen journalism and democracy: How user-generated news use Relates to political knowledge and participation. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 87(3-4), 515–529. doi:10.1177/107769901008700305 Kelly, J. W., Fisher, D., & Smith, M. (2006). Friends, foes, and fringe: norms and structure in political discussion networks. Proceedings of the 2006 international conference on Digital government research, dg.o ’06 (p. 412–417). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:h%p://doi.acm. org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/10.1145/1146598.1146727 Kwak, N., Williams, A. E., Wang, X., & Lee, H. (2005). Talking poli- tics and engaging politics: An examination of the interactive relationships between structural features of political talk and dis- cussion engagement. Communication Research, 32(1), 87-111. doi:10.1177/0093650204271400 Lampe, C. (2012). "e role of reputation systems in managing online communities. In H. Masum and M. Tovey, !e reputation Socie- ty: How online opinions are reshaping the o"ine World. Cambrid- ge, MA: "e MIT Press. Lampe, C. & Garre%, R .K. (2006).  It’s all news to me: !e e#ect of instru- ments on ratings provision. Presented at HICSS 2007, 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2007.308 Lampe, C., & Resnick, P. (2004). Slash(dot) and burn: Distributed mode- ration in a large online conversation space. Proceedings of the SIG- CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, CHI ’04 (p. 543–550). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:h%p://doi.acm.org. proxy1.cl.msu.edu/10.1145/985692.985761 722 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe Lampe, C. & Johnston, E. (2005). Follow the (slash) dot: E!ects of feedback on new members in an online community. Proceedings of the 2005 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on supporting group work, GROUP ’05 (p. 11–20). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:h%p:// doi.acm.org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/10.1145/1099203.1099206 Mitchelstein, E., & Boczkowski, P. J. (2009). Between tradition and chan- ge A review of recent research on online news production. Journa- lism, 10(5), 562–586. doi:10.1177/1464884909106533 Metzger, M. J., Flanagin, A. J. & Medders, R . B. (2010). Social and heuris- tic approaches to credibility evaluation online. Journal of Commu- nication, 60(3), 413-439. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01488.x McCroskey, J. C. & Teven, J. J.(1999). Goodwill: A reexamination of the construct and its measurement. Communication Monographs, 66(1), 90-103. doi:10.1080/03637759909376464  Nah, S., Veenstra, A. S., & Shah, D. V. (2006). "e Internet and anti-war ac- tivism: A case study of information, expression, and action. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(1). doi: 10.1111/j.1083- 6101.2006.00323.x Ng, E., & Detenber, B. (2005). "e impact of synchronicity and civility in online political discussions on perceptions and intentions to par- ticipate. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(3). doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00252.x Preece, J., & Maloney-Krichmar, D. (2005). Online communities: Design, theory, and practice. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communi- cation, 10(4). doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00264.x Robinson, S., & Deshano, C. (2011). Citizen journalists and their third places. Journalism Studies, 12(5), 642–657. doi:10.1080/146167 0X.2011.557559 723Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). !e social psychology of tele- communications. London, England: John Wiley. Stromer-Galley, J. (2003). Diversity of political conversation on the Inter- net: Users’ perspectives. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communi- cation, 8(3). doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2003.tb00215.x Tan, K. W. P., Swee, D., Lim, C., Detenber, B. H. & Alsago!, L. (2007). "e impact of language variety and expertise on perceptions of online political discussions.  Journal of Computer-Mediated Communica- tion,13(1). 76-99. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00387.x Tanis, M., & Postmes, T. (2003). Social cues and impression formation in CMC. !e Journal of Communication, 53(4), 676-693. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2003.tb02917.x Utz, S. (2010). Show me your friends and I will tell you what type of per- son you are: How one’s pro$le, number of friends, and type of friends in#uence impression formation on social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(2), 314-335. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01522.x Velasquez, A. (2012). Social media and online political discussion: "e e!ect of cues and informational cascades on participation in on- line political communities. New Media & Society, 14(8), 1286– 1303. doi:10.1177/1461444812445877 Velasquez, A., Wash, R ., Lampe, C., & Bjornrud, T. (n.d.). Latent Users in an Online User-Generated Content Community. Computer Sup- ported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 1–30. doi:10.1007/s10606- 013-9188-4 Walther, J. B. (1992). Interpersonal e!ects in computer-mediated in- teraction: A relational perspective. Communication Research, 19 (1), 52-90. 724 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe Walther, J. B., & Parks, M. R . (2002). Cues $ltered out, cues $ltered in: Computer-mediated communication and relationships. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communica- tion. (3rd ed., pp. 529-563). "ousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Wojcieszak, M. E., & Mutz, D. C. (2009). Online groups and political dis- course: Do online discussion spaces facilitate exposure to politi- cal disagreement? Journal of Communication, 59(1), 40-56. doi: DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2003.tb00215.x Wojciszke, B., & Abele, A. E. (2008). "e primacy of communion over agency and its reversals in evaluations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(7), 1139-1147. doi:10.1002/ejsp.549 725Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 Appendix A General rating condition Discussion comments ratings condition 726 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe News articles ratings condition 727Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 3 - Diciembre de 2013. 701-728 Appendix B Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 1.552 2 .776 1.188 .309 Within Groups 62.047 95 .653 Total 63.599 97 Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups .675 2 .338 .512 .601 Within Groups 62.628 95 .659 Total 63.303 97 Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 1.477 2 .738 1.132 .327 Within Groups 61.974 95 .652 Total 63.451 97 Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 8.546 2 4.273 6.482 .002 Within Groups 62.631 95 .659 Total 71.177 97 Table 3. ANOVA Summary for the Competence Dimension of Credibility Table 4. ANOVA Summary for the Goodwill Dimension of Credibility Table 5. ANOVA Summary for the Trustworthiness Dimension of Credibility Table 6. ANOVA summary for discussion informativeness 728 The Role of Communal Ratings as Cues in Participation in Political ... - Alcides Velásquez, Cliff Lampe Contrast Value of Contrast Std. Error t df Sig. (2-tailed) Assume equal variances “General” vs. “Discussion Comments” Condition -.0325 .20634 -.157 95 .875 “News Articles” vs. “Discussion Comments” Condition .5952 .20072 2.965 95 .004 Does not assume equal variances “General” vs. “Discussion Comments” Condition -.0325 .20629 -.157 59.997 .875 “Articles vs. Discussion comments condition 952 19646 3.030 62.548 .004 Source Type III Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Corrected Model 16.091a 3 5.364 5.529 .002 Intercept 51.249 1 51.249 52.833 .000 Internal Political E'cacy 7.261 1 7.261 7.485 .007 Rating system 10.687 2 5.343 5.509 .005 Error 91.182 94 .970 Total 1391.328 98 Corrected Total 107.273 97 95% CI Comparisons Mean Di!erence in Intentions to Participate in discussion (kg) Std. Error Lower Bound Upper Bound General Ratings vs. Ratings -.730* .251 -1.229 -.232 News Articles Ratings vs. Discussion Comments Ratings -.040 .244 -.525 .444 a. R Squared = .150 (Adjusted R Squared = .123) * p < 0.05 Table 7. Contrast Tests for Discussion Informativeness for “General” vs. “Discussion Comments” Rating System and “News Article” Rating System vs. “Discussion Comments” Rating System Table 8. Summary of ANCOVA for Intention to Participate, Correcting for Internal Political Efficacy Table 9. Contrast Tests for Intention to Participate in Discussion for “General” vs. “Discussion Comments” Rating System and “News Article” Rating System vs.” Discussion Comments” Rating System