Eszter Hargittai is Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology, and Faculty Associate of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where she heads the Web Use Project. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University where she was a Wilson Scholar. Before joining the faculty at Northwestern, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.

Her research focuses on the social and policy implications of information and communication technologies with a particular interest in how digital media may contribute to or alleviate social inequalities. Her research projects have looked at differences in people’s Web-use skills, the evolution of search engines and the organization and presentation of online content, political uses of information technologies, and how IT are influencing the types of cultural products people consume.

In addition to her academic articles, her work has also been featured on CNNfn, the BBC’s Web site, the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, USA Today and several other national dailies as well as magazines. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Markle Foundation, the Dan David Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation, in addition to Nokia Research and Google, among others. In 2006/07, she was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. In 2008/09, she was a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Link: http://www.eszter.com

Publications

Hargittai, E. & Hsieh, Y.P. (2010). Predictors and Consequences of Social Network Site Usage. Information, Communication & Society. 13(4):515-536.

Hargittai, E., Fullerton, F. Menchen-Trevino E.& Thomas, K. (2010). Trust Online: Young Adults' Evaluation of Web Content. International Journal of Communication. 4:468-494.

Hargittai, E. (2010). Digital Na(t)ives? Variation in Internet Skills and Uses among Members of the “Net Generation”. Sociological Inquiry. 80(1):92-113.

Hargittai, E. (2009). Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have . Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Hargittai, E. (2009). Introduction: Doing Empirical Social Science Research. In Research Confidential. Edited by E. Hargittai. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. 1-7.

Hargittai, E. & Karr, C. (2009). WAT R U DOIN? Studying the Thumb Generation Using Text Messaging. In Research Confidential. Edited by E. Hargittai. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. 192-216.

Tepper, Steven & Hargittai, E. (2009). Pathways to Music Exploration in a Digital Age. Poetics. 37(3):227-249.

Pasek, J, more, e., & Hargittai, E. (2009). Facebook and Academic Performance: Reconciling a Media Sensation with Data. First Monday. 14(5)

Zillien, N. & Hargittai, E. (2009). Digital Distinction: Status-Specific Internet Uses. Social Science Quarterly. 90(2): 274-291.

Hargittai, E. (2009). An Update on Survey Measures of Web-Oriented Digital Literacy. Social Science Computer Review. 27(1):130-137.

Hargittai, E. (2008). The Role of Expertise in Navigating Links of Influence. In The Hyperlinked Society. Edited by Joseph Turow and Lokman Tsui. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. 85-103.

Hargittai, E. & Hinnant, A. (2008). Digital Inequality: Differences in Young Adults' Use of the Internet. Communication Research. 35(5):602-621.

Hargittai, E. & G. Walejko. (2008). The Participation Divide: Content Creation and Sharing in the Digital Age. Information, Communication and Society.11(2): 239-256.

Hargittai, E. (2008). The Digital Reproduction of Inequality. In Social Stratification. Edited by David Grusky. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 936-944.

Hargittai, E., Gallo, J., & Kane, M. (2008). Cross-Ideological Discussions among Conservative and Liberal Bloggers. Public Choice. 134:67-86.

Tepper, S.J., Hargittai, E. & Touve, D. (2008). Music, Mavens and Technology. In Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation in America's Cultural Life. Edited by Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper. Routledge. 199-220.

Hargittai, E. (2007). Whose Space? Differences among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 13(1): 276-297.

Hargittai, E. (2007). A Framework for Studying Differences in People's Digital Media Uses. In Cyberworld Unlimited. Edited by Nadia Kutscher and Hans-Uwe Otto. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften/GWV Fachverlage GmbH. 121-137.

Hargittai, E. (2007). The Social, Political, Economic and Cultural Dimensions of Search Engines. Special Section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. April.

Hargittai, E. (2007). Content Diversity Online: Myth or Reality? In Media Diversity and Localism: Meaning and Metrics. Edited by Philip Napoli. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 349-362.

Freese, J., Rivas, S. & Hargittai, E. ( 2006). Cognitive Ability and Internet Use Among Older Adults. Poetics. (Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts) 34(4), 236-249.

Dobransky, K. & Hargittai, E. (2006). The Disability Divide in Internet Access and Use. Information, Communication and Society. 9(3), 313-334.

Hargittai, E., Shafer, S. (2006). Differences in Actual and Perceived Online Skills: The Role of Gender. Social Science Quarterly, 87(2), 432-448.

Hargittai, E. (2006.) Hurdles to Information Seeking: Explaining Spelling and Typographical Mistakes in Users' Online Search Behavior. Journal of the Association of Information Systems. January.

Hargittai, E. & Hinnant, A. (2005). Toward a Social Framework for Information Seeking. In New Directions in Human Information Behavior. Edited by Amanda Spink and Charles Cole. New York: Springer. 55-70.

Hargittai, E. (2005). Survey Measures of Web-Oriented Digital Literacy. Social Science Computer Review, 23(3): 371-379.

Hargittai, E. (2004). Classifying and Coding Online Actions. Social Science Computer Review, 22(2), 210-227.

Hargittai, E. (2004). Do you 'google'? Understanding Search Engine Use Beyond the Hype. First Monday. 9(3)

Hargittai, E. (2004). Internet Access and Use in Context. New Media and Society, 6(1), 137-143.

DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Celeste, C. & Shafer, S. (2004). Digital Inequality: From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use. In Social Inequality. Edited by Kathryn Neckerman. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 355-400.

Hargittai, E. (2004). The Changing Online Landscape: From Free-for-All to Commercial Gatekeeping. Community Practice in the Network Society: Local Actions/Global Interaction. Edited by P. Day and D. Schuler. Routledge. 66-76.

Robinson, J., DiMaggio, P.J. & Hargittai, E. (2003). New Social Survey Perspectives on the Digital Divide. IT & Society. 1(5), 1-22. Summer.

Hargittai, E. (2003). The Digital Divide and What to Do About It. New Economy Handbook, Edited by D.C. Jones, San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 822-841.

Hargittai, E. (2003). Serving Citizens' Needs: Minimizing Hurdles to Accessing Government Information Online. IT & Society. 1(3), 27-41.

Hargittai, E. (2003). Informed Web Surfing: The Social Context of User Sophistication. In Society Online I. Edited by P. Howard and S. Jones. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 257-274.

Hargittai, E. (2002). Beyond Logs and Surveys: In-Depth Measures of People's Online Skills. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 53(14), 1239-1244.

Hargittai, E. (2002). Second-Level Digital Divide: Differences in People's Online Skills. First Monday. 7(4)

Hargittai, E. (2002). Untangling the Tangled Net: Symmetry and the Internet. In Symmetry 2000. Edited by I. Hargittai, and T. Laurent. London: Portland Press Ltd.

DiMaggio, P.J., Hargittai, E., Neuman, W.R. & Robinson, J. 2001. Social Implications of the Internet. Annual Review of Sociology. 27, 307-336.

Hargittai, E., & Centeno, M.A. (2001). Defining a Global Geography. American Behavioral Scientist, 10(44), 1545-1560.

Hargittai, E. (2000). Open Portals or Closed Gates? Channeling Content on the World Wide Web. Poetics (Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts). 27(4), 233-254.

Hargittai, E. (2000). Standing Before the Portals: Non-Profit Content in the Age of Commercial Gatekeepers. Info (The Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for Telecommunication, Information and Media). 2(6), 543-550.

Hargittai, E. (2000). Radio's Lessons for the Internet. Communications of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). 43(1), 50-56.

Hargittai, E. (1999). Weaving the Western Web: Explaining Differences in Internet Connectivity Among OECD Countries. Telecommunications Policy, 23(10/11), 701-718.

Louch, H., Hargittai, E. & Centeno, M.A. (1999). Phone Calls and Fax Machines: The Limits to Globalization. The Washington Quarterly, 22(2), 83-100.