Eugene Borgida - US grants

Over the last fifty or sixty years, there has been an ongoing debate concerning the impact of cameras in the courtroom. In some landmark legal cases, courts have sometimes banned the use of microphones and cameras fearing that the jurors would be biased by the "carnival-like" media coverage. In 1965, the Supreme Court overturned a major conviction on the grounds that the defendant was denied a fair trial due to the intense media coverage which psychologically distracted the participants and impaired their attentiveness, memory, and credibility. In 1981, the Supreme Court again considered the question of televising criminal trials and adopted a states' rights position on the use of electronic media coverage (EMC) for state criminal trials. Although news cameras are still banned from Federal courts, 44 states now permit EMC of proceedings on a permanent or experimental basis. Proponents of EMC have argued that the bans or restrictions are unwarranted and that there is little empirical data on which to base a constitutional judgment about the issue. There has been some sporadic research undertaken by social scientists to address the issue using simulated courtrooms and surveys, but this research has been inconclusive. Drs. Borgida and Penrod will undertake the first true experimental research in a courtroom in order to better understand the effects of news media on the proceedings. They will study 90 to 120 criminal and civil trials over a two year period in one state. Using randomly assigned cases to EMC coverage, sketch artist coverage, or no media representation, data will be collected on a broad range of measures designed to assess courtroom functioning such as the credibility, accuracy, memory, nervousness of witnesses, media obtrusiveness, and satisfaction with proceedings and the decision process. This research will provide scientifically sound data on a key constitutional issue concerning the potential conflict between free press and due process in trials with media coverage. In addition, it should advance basic understanding of legal decisionmaking. More broadly, the quality and character of decisionmaking under stress has been the focus of considerable research in judgment research, social psychology, and cognitive science. The results of this unique opportunity to conduct experiments in the courtroom will allow assessments of actual subjective and objective effects. Empirically testable assumptions about human behavior are crucial to a fully informed appraisal of the advantages and disadvantages associated with technological innovation.

This proposal extends a prior NSF-funded study of the impact of a community-based electronic network linking citizens in the city of Grand Rapids in rural Itasca County, Minnesota. In 1995, Grand Rapids initiated planning for a community-wide electronic network. Implemented in late 1997, GrandNet's goals included increasing the community's access to the national information infrastructure, reducing residents' disparities in access,increasing information available to community members, and facilitating the sharing of data and information among the partner organizations. The GrandNet Project now encompasses both GrandNet and ItascaNet, an expansion of GrandNet to surrounding Itasca County. This study addresses several very broad issues. The first is to identify what distinguishes a community that attempts to develop a community-wide, non-commercial network with broad-based citizen access from one that relies entirely on market economics and makes no effort to address issues of equity or civic life. One potential answer resides in the social capital literature: communities with greater social and human capital attempt to provide collective rather than individual applications of information technologies. A second issue is to assess the consequences for political, human, social, and economic resources of developing a community-wide civic network. Compared to a similar community lacking such an effort, what in economic, political, and social life is improved? Finally, the project will focus on three fundamental values an electronic community can affect. Regarding equity of resources, it will address whether an electronic community alleviates or exacerbates urban-rural differences in economic opportunities, technology use, educational resources and health care. Second, it will examine equity of opportunity within the community. Over time, how are special subgroups (senior citizens, at-risk children, Native Americans, and the economically disadvantaged) affected by the implementation of an electronic network? Third, given national trends of increased citizen apathy and decreased civic participation, how may an electronic community affect community bonds? Can a communications system lacking face-to-face interaction strengthen community ties? Alternatively, would increased information flow between local government and citizens encourage or weaken citizen support and participation? To assess these issues, the project will compare GrandNet in Grand Rapids with a control town lacking such a community-wide network (Detroit Lakes, MN, which was selected by a rigorous cluster analysis coupled with qualitative analysis of the characteristics of several communities and counties.) The control community does not lack technology development efforts, but it does lack a public-oriented community effort. This allows a comparison of GrandNet's effects with a community that is experiencing the kind of technological change that Grand Rapids and Itasca County would probably experience were it not for the efforts of the GrandNet partners. The prior work has shown that, in the control town, computer access and use is a function of economic resources, whereas in Grand Rapids, access and use are rather strongly affected by political and civic as well as economic resources. This project will collect additional baseline and follow-up data to compare ItascaNet in Itasca County with Becker county (home of Detroit Lakes) in order to discern whether changes in attitudes and behaviors reasonably can be attributed to GrandNet. Baseline and follow-up information will be collected and analyzed for both counties, including surveys and aggregate demographic and economic statistics. During year 1, the team will administer mail surveys in Itasca and Becker counties. The year 1 survey will be a baseline assessment of ItascaNet and a time 2 follow up of the fall 1997 baseline survey of the city of Grand Rapids. Researchers will also conduct a series of focus groups with citizens and community leaders, as well as longitudinal panels comprised of members of three special populations (seniors, at-risk children and adolescents, and Native Americans). To supplement the data from the general- and special-population surveys and focus groups, the team will collect aggregate statistics for Minnesota cities and counties for a number of demographic and economic characteristics and conduct interrupted time series analyses. In year 2 data collection will be a county-wide survey in the spring of 2001 that represents a time 3 Grand Rapids assessment and a time 2 Itasca County assessment. The researchers will continue to conduct focus groups and small-scale surveys with members of the special populations. In Year 3, the focus of the research effort will be a county-wide survey administered in the fall of 2002, which will provide a fourth assessment of the impact of GrandNet and a third assessment of the impact of ItascaNet on the community. The project will be able to track changes that occur over the first five years of the network's existence. Results will be presented at meetings and symposia, and in articles and other publications.