| Chapter 2: | The Internet as an Object of Study |
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usually been quite different, and interactivity has been conceptualised implicitly rather than being explicitly defined. Hence, in order to operationalise the concept of interactivity (in this context referring to human-computer or user-system-interaction) for empirical testing in their own study, Tremayne and Dunwoody (2001) included several elements: 1. Web site structure, 2. Web experience, 3. cognition and the Web, and 4. learning from media. Under these headings, they discussed, for example, that researchers found a link between previous experience and current levels of efficacy towards a certain behaviour/action. Moreover, in the context of information processing during Web use, they provided a more detailed definition of the ‘cognition and the Web’ concept. For this element of interactivity, they distinguished between three different levels: rehearsal or maintenance, elaboration, and (dis)orientation. Rehearsal simply refers to the reading/repetition of information without connecting it to prior knowledge. Elaboration, on the other hand, is considered useful for the retention of complex information by connecting it to related, pre-existing knowledge. And (dis)orientation, which is regarded as one of the major drawbacks of hypermedia, inhibiting learning and leading to cognitive overload, was found to be the most common cognitive activity when processing hypermedia.
When relating these definitions to the broader context of this study, it should be noted that the processual character of interactivity has been emphasised by various researchers, who in turn characterised the online communication process as an exchange of information and pointed towards theoretical foundations such as the dynamic-transactional approach and sense-making theory, which also stress the processual nature of human sense-making and will be examined in the following chapters. Moreover, the categorisation into three levels of interactivity proposed by McMillan (2004) is useful for future reference and suggests that here all three levels would apply, though the focus was primarily on user-to-system interaction.
Despite the fact that interactivity may be feasible through new media, however, Ha and James made an important point in stating that ‘despite its importance, discussions of interactivity have been filled with a