Technical Communication Quarterly Jul 2019

Empty Templates: The Ethical Habits of Empty State Pages

John R. Gallagher ; Steve Holmes George Mason University

Abstract

This article examines how empty state pages (ESPs) constrain user-generated communication through the ethical lens of Bourdieu’s habitus. The authors define ESPs as interactive instructional templates that prompt users to input information to participate in an online network. Through a case study analyzing ~450,000 online comments from The New York Times, the authors find a direct connection between ESP elements, such as the character limit for comments, and online writers’ cultivated habitus.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2019-07-03
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2018.1564367
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

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  1. Hunter (2024)
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