Politics and Media Richness in World wide web Representations of the Former Yugoslavia

Abstract

Media‐richness theory is applied to World Wide Web sites to demonstrate how Web‐page designers are using hypertext markup language to shape conceptions of place and to provide competing visions of the events that have transpired in the former Yugoslavia. We argue that Web sites vary in their interactivity, strategically, to reduce equivocality surrounding conceptions of space and territory. Media‐richness theory as applied here allows the development of a heuristic to understand how Web pages communicate information about geographical entities and help to shape perceptions of place.

• media‐richness theory
• place representation
• Serbian Krajina
• World Wide Web
• Yugoslavia

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michele H. Jackson

Dr. Jackson is an assistant professor of communication at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, where Mr. Purcell is a doctoral candidate in geography.

Darren Purcell

Dr. Jackson is an assistant professor of communication at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, where Mr. Purcell is a doctoral candidate in geography.