About Us

Computational Research, Organizations and Media

The introduction of new information communication technology (ICT) has a significant impact on the way that organizations change over time. New ICTs often prompt organizations to change by disrupting the status quo, helping to create new competition for resources, and creating a need for new organizational structures and routines. For instance, theInternet has transformed the news media industry, and has contributed to profound changes to the way that news is produced and consumed, and has dramatically changed the shape of news media organizations. Likewise, enterprise social networking systems have enabled teams in organizations to collaborate in new ways, and to create new ways to share and preserve knowledge. The organizational challenges associated with new ICT use are critical issues for academics in a number of disciplines, for practitioners in a wide array of industries, and for policymakers concerned with ongoing economic and societal development.

Web-based ICT has had a particularly profound impact on organizations in the news media industry, making them ideal settings for testing theories that explain organizational change in response to significant new ICTs. In the past two decades, the majority of traditional newspapers companies in the United States have undertaken significant initiatives to adapt to digital media production. At the same time, countless new ventures have emerged that compete for talented employees, investment capital and other resources.

The ComLab is home to a multitude of projects examining core questions related to computational research, organizations and media. Our work varies in methodology; network analysis and computational analysis are core methods, but our work applies a wide range of methods including ethnography and interviews. We aim to create a space for open dialogue about the core research questions we are studying.