New media/Internet research topics of the association of Internet researchers

This study summarizes prior reviews of new media and Internet research, and the growth
of the term Internet in academic publications and online newsgroups. It then uses semantic
network analysis to summarize the interests and concepts of an interdisciplinary group of
Internet researchers, as represented by session titles and paper titles and abstracts from the
2003 and 2004 Association of Internet Researchers conferences. In both years, the most
frequent words appearing in the paper abstracts included Internet, online, community, social,
technology, and research. The 2003 papers emphasized topics such as the social analysis/
research of online/Internet communication, community, and information, with particular coverage
of access, individuals, groups, digital media, culture; role and process in e-organizations; and
world development. The 2004 papers emphasized topics such as access; news and social issues;
the role of individuals in communities; user-based studies; usage data; and blogs, women, and
search policy, among others.