Colin Agur
Biographic Data
| ID | 127587 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Colin Agur |
| GIVEN NAMES | Colin |
| FAMILY NAME | Agur |
| SIGNATURE | AGUR C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0799-6691 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 84 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The platformization of emotions: Managing affective labor in platform-mediated game work
This study examines the management of affective labor on E-Pal, a US-based gaming freelancer platform where gig workers provide companionship and intimacy to clients during gaming. Based on interviews with 27 workers, the research reveals that E-Pal prioritizes emotional connection over gaming skills. The platform uses authenticity expectations, performance evaluations, and gamification to regulate workers’ emotional interactions with customers. …
“After All, They Don’t Know Me” Exploring the Psychological Mechanisms of Toxic Behavior in Online Games
Toxic behavior is commonplace in online games and has negative consequences for players. Although previous studies have illustrated common types and features of in-game toxic behavior, it remains unclear what psychological mechanisms can explain why toxic behavior emerges and evolves in gaming environments. To fill this research gap, guided by Online Disinhibition Effect theory, this study applies a qualitative interview approach to understand wh…
Playbor, gamble-play, and the financialization of digital games
This article examines non-fungible token (NFT) applications and their users through a qualitative textual analysis of NFT-based video game Axie Infinity’s Discord server. It considers NFT applications’ dual purposes as entertainment media and financial instruments and posits that the interests of capital inform users’ engagement. In an environment defined by distrust and uncertainty, predominantly Filipino digital laborers’ (“Scholars”) experienc…
Conceptualizing the Roles of Involvement and Immersion in Persuasive Games
While previous studies showed that persuasive games can have positive effects on attitudes and behavioral intentions, little is known about the underlying processes that cause these effects. This study investigates immersion and involvement in order to provide a better understanding of the effects of persuasive games. We conducted an experiment with 152 college students in which participants either played a persuasive game or watched the playback…
Newly minted: Non-fungible tokens and the commodification of fandom
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) exist today as a component of a broader, ever-evolving financial environment in which questions of value, ownership, and intention are characterized by their ambiguity. This article considers Dapper Labs “NBA Top Shot,” a blockchain-backed website inviting NBA fans to join in “a new era in fandom” wherein they may acquire NFTs of NBA highlights by opening “packs,” which are functionally similar to trading cards. NFTs re…
Mobile netware, social graphs, and the reconfiguration of space
Scholars are well-aware that the smartphone is much more than just a mobile telephone. A plethora of applications have been developed to run on smartphones, covering just about every aspect of human life. What is distinctive about the fact that these apps run on smartphones (as opposed to other kinds of devices) is that the smartphone makes them mobile (the apps travel with the user) and locative (the apps know the location of the user). As a res…
Actors, Partisan Inclination, and Emotions: An Analysis of Government Shutdown News Stories Shared on Twitter
Scholars have recognized emotion as an increasingly important element in the reception and retransmission of online information. In the United States, because of existing differences in ideology, among both audiences and producers of news stories, political issues are prone to spark considerable emotional responses online. While much research has explored emotional responses during election campaigns, this study focuses on the role of online emot…
Failure to Launch: Competing Institutional Logics, Intrapreneurship, and the Case of Chatbots
This article explores the institutional logics of intrapreneurial units, or groups within organizations that are designated to foster organizational innovation. Drawing on interviews with news intrapreneurs developing chatbots in news media organizations, this study shows that innovation can be stymied because of conflicting institutional logics. News intrapreneurs adopt a logic of experimentation, audience orientation, and efficiency-seeking, bu…
Insularized Connectedness: Mobile Chat Applications and News Production
Focusing on recent political unrest in Hong Kong, this article examines how mobile chat applications (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Facebook Messenger and others) have permeated journalism. In Hong Kong, mobile chat apps have served as tools for foreign correspondents to follow stories, identify sources, and verify facts; they have also helped reporting teams manage large flows of multimedia information in real-time. To understand the institution…
Digital Disobedience and the Limits of Persuasion: Social Media Activism in Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement
This article probes the catalytic features of social media in civic participation and mass civil disobedience in Hong Kong's 2014 protests, and conceptualizes digital activism in terms of mobilization, organization, and persuasion. It makes use of in-depth interviews, in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, with 40 of the leading users of social media during the protests. These included, first and foremost, student activists, as well as opposition f…
The Bully Pulpit, Social Media, and Public Opinion: A Big Data Approach
In this paper, we seek to understand the contemporary power of the presidential “bully pulpit”—the persuasive power of the nation’s highest elected office—in a context of shifting patterns of mediation. We do so by examining a major social media communication platform (Twitter) for evidence of changes in public opinion before and after President Obama’s high-profile statements on net neutrality in November 2014. This study includes novel and comp…
Re-imagining the Indian state: External forces and the transformation of telecommunications policy, 1947–present
This article examines Indian telecom policy from independence to the present. Dividing this period into three phases – from 1947 to 1984, 1984 to 1991 and 1991 to the present – the article explores the role of the state in India’s dramatic transformation from a telecommunications laggard to one of the world’s largest markets in mobile communication. It draws on a wide range of government documents, institutional surveys (domestic and internationa…
Mobile sourcing: A case study of journalistic norms and usage of chat apps
Since 2011, mobile chat apps have gained significant popularity worldwide and the leading chat apps have surpassed social networking sites in user numbers. These apps have become the hosts for everyday communication among a wide variety of users and, thanks to the functionalities of certain apps, have taken on new significance in reporting. Especially in Hong Kong (a high-income, high-tech society in which smartphones are in widespread use) and m…
Media capture with Chinese characteristics: Changing patterns in Hong Kong’s news media system
In the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, a former British territory in southern China returned to the People’s Republic as a semi-autonomous enclave in 1997, media capture has distinct characteristics. On one hand, Hong Kong offers a case of media capture in an uncensored media sector and open market economy similar to those of Western industrialized democracies. Yet Hong Kong’s comparatively small size, close proximity, and broad econo…
The Changing Physical and Social Environment of Newsgathering: A Case Study of Foreign Correspondents Using Chat Apps During Unrest
Mobile chat apps have shaped multiple forms of communication in everyday life, including education, family, business, and health communication. In journalism, chat apps have taken on a heightened significance in reporting political unrest, particularly in terms of audience/reporter distinctions, sourcing of information, and community formation. Mobile phones are now essential components in reporters' everyday communication, and particularly durin…
Education and Social Media: Toward a Digital Future
The past ten years have brought significant growth in access to Web technology and in the educational possibilities of social media. These changes challenge previous conceptualizations of education and the classroom, and pose practical questions for learners, teachers, and administrators. Today, the unique capabilities of social media are influencing learning and teaching in ways previously unseen. Social media is transforming sectors outside edu…
Second-order networks, gambling, and corruption on Indian mobile phone networks
This article explores unintended effects of recent growth in India’s mobile phone network. Using a case study of the Indian Premier League (IPL) – a popular cricket league that has encouraged mobile phone usage among fans – this article argues that India’s large and inclusive mobile phone networks have enabled significant new gambling and corruption. The spatial possibilities of mobile networks have led to new organizational forms in gambling and…
Negotiated Order: The Fourth Amendment, Telephone Surveillance, and Social Interactions, 1878–1968
In the United States the words “telephone surveillance” bring to mind contemporary security concerns about smart phone tracking, the NSA warrantless wiretapping scandal, and the telecommunications provisions of the Patriot Act. Yet telephone surveillance is as old as telephony itself, dating back to the nearly simultaneous commercialization of the telephone and phonograph. This article examines telephone surveillance by American law enforcement a…
Reconstructing the Indian public sphere: Newswork and social media in the Delhi gang rape case
In recent years, a growing literature in journalism studies has discussed the increasing importance of social media in European and American news production. Adding to this body of work, we explore how Indian and foreign correspondents reporting from India used social media during the coverage of the Delhi gang rape; how journalists represented the public sphere in their social media usage; and, what this representation says about the future of I…
A Foreign Field No Longer: India, the IPL, and the Global Business of Cricket
In the past decade India has become the financing hub for cricket, a broadcaster in its own right, and an agenda-setter in the management of all forms of the game. What some commentators have called the 'Indianization' of cricket extends beyond business: it is a social, political, and cultural phenomenon. For five seasons, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has offered a glimpse of this phenomenon, prompting enthusiasm from young fans and those who …
Media capture with Chinese characteristics: Changing patterns in Hong Kong’s news media system
In the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, a former British territory in southern China returned to the People’s Republic as a semi-autonomous enclave in 1997, media capture has distinct characteristics. On one hand, Hong Kong offers a case of media capture in an uncensored media sector and open market economy similar to those of Western industrialized democracies. Yet Hong Kong’s comparatively small size, close proximity, and broad econo…
The Changing Physical and Social Environment of Newsgathering: A Case Study of Foreign Correspondents Using Chat Apps During Unrest
Mobile chat apps have shaped multiple forms of communication in everyday life, including education, family, business, and health communication. In journalism, chat apps have taken on a heightened significance in reporting political unrest, particularly in terms of audience/reporter distinctions, sourcing of information, and community formation. Mobile phones are now essential components in reporters' everyday communication, and particularly durin…
Mobile sourcing: A case study of journalistic norms and usage of chat apps
Since 2011, mobile chat apps have gained significant popularity worldwide and the leading chat apps have surpassed social networking sites in user numbers. These apps have become the hosts for everyday communication among a wide variety of users and, thanks to the functionalities of certain apps, have taken on new significance in reporting. Especially in Hong Kong (a high-income, high-tech society in which smartphones are in widespread use) and m…
Playbor, gamble-play, and the financialization of digital games
This article examines non-fungible token (NFT) applications and their users through a qualitative textual analysis of NFT-based video game Axie Infinity’s Discord server. It considers NFT applications’ dual purposes as entertainment media and financial instruments and posits that the interests of capital inform users’ engagement. In an environment defined by distrust and uncertainty, predominantly Filipino digital laborers’ (“Scholars”) experienc…
Digital Disobedience and the Limits of Persuasion: Social Media Activism in Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement
This article probes the catalytic features of social media in civic participation and mass civil disobedience in Hong Kong's 2014 protests, and conceptualizes digital activism in terms of mobilization, organization, and persuasion. It makes use of in-depth interviews, in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, with 40 of the leading users of social media during the protests. These included, first and foremost, student activists, as well as opposition f…
Reconstructing the Indian public sphere: Newswork and social media in the Delhi gang rape case
In recent years, a growing literature in journalism studies has discussed the increasing importance of social media in European and American news production. Adding to this body of work, we explore how Indian and foreign correspondents reporting from India used social media during the coverage of the Delhi gang rape; how journalists represented the public sphere in their social media usage; and, what this representation says about the future of I…
Failure to Launch: Competing Institutional Logics, Intrapreneurship, and the Case of Chatbots
This article explores the institutional logics of intrapreneurial units, or groups within organizations that are designated to foster organizational innovation. Drawing on interviews with news intrapreneurs developing chatbots in news media organizations, this study shows that innovation can be stymied because of conflicting institutional logics. News intrapreneurs adopt a logic of experimentation, audience orientation, and efficiency-seeking, bu…
Insularized Connectedness: Mobile Chat Applications and News Production
Focusing on recent political unrest in Hong Kong, this article examines how mobile chat applications (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Facebook Messenger and others) have permeated journalism. In Hong Kong, mobile chat apps have served as tools for foreign correspondents to follow stories, identify sources, and verify facts; they have also helped reporting teams manage large flows of multimedia information in real-time. To understand the institution…
A Foreign Field No Longer: India, the IPL, and the Global Business of Cricket
In the past decade India has become the financing hub for cricket, a broadcaster in its own right, and an agenda-setter in the management of all forms of the game. What some commentators have called the 'Indianization' of cricket extends beyond business: it is a social, political, and cultural phenomenon. For five seasons, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has offered a glimpse of this phenomenon, prompting enthusiasm from young fans and those who …
Mobile netware, social graphs, and the reconfiguration of space
Scholars are well-aware that the smartphone is much more than just a mobile telephone. A plethora of applications have been developed to run on smartphones, covering just about every aspect of human life. What is distinctive about the fact that these apps run on smartphones (as opposed to other kinds of devices) is that the smartphone makes them mobile (the apps travel with the user) and locative (the apps know the location of the user). As a res…
The Bully Pulpit, Social Media, and Public Opinion: A Big Data Approach
In this paper, we seek to understand the contemporary power of the presidential “bully pulpit”—the persuasive power of the nation’s highest elected office—in a context of shifting patterns of mediation. We do so by examining a major social media communication platform (Twitter) for evidence of changes in public opinion before and after President Obama’s high-profile statements on net neutrality in November 2014. This study includes novel and comp…
Re-imagining the Indian state: External forces and the transformation of telecommunications policy, 1947–present
This article examines Indian telecom policy from independence to the present. Dividing this period into three phases – from 1947 to 1984, 1984 to 1991 and 1991 to the present – the article explores the role of the state in India’s dramatic transformation from a telecommunications laggard to one of the world’s largest markets in mobile communication. It draws on a wide range of government documents, institutional surveys (domestic and internationa…
Newly minted: Non-fungible tokens and the commodification of fandom
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) exist today as a component of a broader, ever-evolving financial environment in which questions of value, ownership, and intention are characterized by their ambiguity. This article considers Dapper Labs “NBA Top Shot,” a blockchain-backed website inviting NBA fans to join in “a new era in fandom” wherein they may acquire NFTs of NBA highlights by opening “packs,” which are functionally similar to trading cards. NFTs re…
Second-order networks, gambling, and corruption on Indian mobile phone networks
This article explores unintended effects of recent growth in India’s mobile phone network. Using a case study of the Indian Premier League (IPL) – a popular cricket league that has encouraged mobile phone usage among fans – this article argues that India’s large and inclusive mobile phone networks have enabled significant new gambling and corruption. The spatial possibilities of mobile networks have led to new organizational forms in gambling and…
Negotiated Order: The Fourth Amendment, Telephone Surveillance, and Social Interactions, 1878–1968
In the United States the words “telephone surveillance” bring to mind contemporary security concerns about smart phone tracking, the NSA warrantless wiretapping scandal, and the telecommunications provisions of the Patriot Act. Yet telephone surveillance is as old as telephony itself, dating back to the nearly simultaneous commercialization of the telephone and phonograph. This article examines telephone surveillance by American law enforcement a…
Reconstructing the Indian public sphere: Newswork and social media in the Delhi gang rape case
In recent years, a growing literature in journalism studies has discussed the increasing importance of social media in European and American news production. Adding to this body of work, we explore how Indian and foreign correspondents reporting from India used social media during the coverage of the Delhi gang rape; how journalists represented the public sphere in their social media usage; and, what this representation says about the future of I…
A Foreign Field No Longer: India, the IPL, and the Global Business of Cricket
In the past decade India has become the financing hub for cricket, a broadcaster in its own right, and an agenda-setter in the management of all forms of the game. What some commentators have called the 'Indianization' of cricket extends beyond business: it is a social, political, and cultural phenomenon. For five seasons, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has offered a glimpse of this phenomenon, prompting enthusiasm from young fans and those who …
Second-order networks, gambling, and corruption on Indian mobile phone networks
This article explores unintended effects of recent growth in India’s mobile phone network. Using a case study of the Indian Premier League (IPL) – a popular cricket league that has encouraged mobile phone usage among fans – this article argues that India’s large and inclusive mobile phone networks have enabled significant new gambling and corruption. The spatial possibilities of mobile networks have led to new organizational forms in gambling and…
Education and Social Media: Toward a Digital Future
The past ten years have brought significant growth in access to Web technology and in the educational possibilities of social media. These changes challenge previous conceptualizations of education and the classroom, and pose practical questions for learners, teachers, and administrators. Today, the unique capabilities of social media are influencing learning and teaching in ways previously unseen. Social media is transforming sectors outside edu…
Mobile sourcing: A case study of journalistic norms and usage of chat apps
Since 2011, mobile chat apps have gained significant popularity worldwide and the leading chat apps have surpassed social networking sites in user numbers. These apps have become the hosts for everyday communication among a wide variety of users and, thanks to the functionalities of certain apps, have taken on new significance in reporting. Especially in Hong Kong (a high-income, high-tech society in which smartphones are in widespread use) and m…
Media capture with Chinese characteristics: Changing patterns in Hong Kong’s news media system
In the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, a former British territory in southern China returned to the People’s Republic as a semi-autonomous enclave in 1997, media capture has distinct characteristics. On one hand, Hong Kong offers a case of media capture in an uncensored media sector and open market economy similar to those of Western industrialized democracies. Yet Hong Kong’s comparatively small size, close proximity, and broad econo…
The Changing Physical and Social Environment of Newsgathering: A Case Study of Foreign Correspondents Using Chat Apps During Unrest
Mobile chat apps have shaped multiple forms of communication in everyday life, including education, family, business, and health communication. In journalism, chat apps have taken on a heightened significance in reporting political unrest, particularly in terms of audience/reporter distinctions, sourcing of information, and community formation. Mobile phones are now essential components in reporters' everyday communication, and particularly durin…
The Bully Pulpit, Social Media, and Public Opinion: A Big Data Approach
In this paper, we seek to understand the contemporary power of the presidential “bully pulpit”—the persuasive power of the nation’s highest elected office—in a context of shifting patterns of mediation. We do so by examining a major social media communication platform (Twitter) for evidence of changes in public opinion before and after President Obama’s high-profile statements on net neutrality in November 2014. This study includes novel and comp…
Re-imagining the Indian state: External forces and the transformation of telecommunications policy, 1947–present
This article examines Indian telecom policy from independence to the present. Dividing this period into three phases – from 1947 to 1984, 1984 to 1991 and 1991 to the present – the article explores the role of the state in India’s dramatic transformation from a telecommunications laggard to one of the world’s largest markets in mobile communication. It draws on a wide range of government documents, institutional surveys (domestic and internationa…
Insularized Connectedness: Mobile Chat Applications and News Production
Focusing on recent political unrest in Hong Kong, this article examines how mobile chat applications (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Facebook Messenger and others) have permeated journalism. In Hong Kong, mobile chat apps have served as tools for foreign correspondents to follow stories, identify sources, and verify facts; they have also helped reporting teams manage large flows of multimedia information in real-time. To understand the institution…
Digital Disobedience and the Limits of Persuasion: Social Media Activism in Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement
This article probes the catalytic features of social media in civic participation and mass civil disobedience in Hong Kong's 2014 protests, and conceptualizes digital activism in terms of mobilization, organization, and persuasion. It makes use of in-depth interviews, in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, with 40 of the leading users of social media during the protests. These included, first and foremost, student activists, as well as opposition f…
Failure to Launch: Competing Institutional Logics, Intrapreneurship, and the Case of Chatbots
This article explores the institutional logics of intrapreneurial units, or groups within organizations that are designated to foster organizational innovation. Drawing on interviews with news intrapreneurs developing chatbots in news media organizations, this study shows that innovation can be stymied because of conflicting institutional logics. News intrapreneurs adopt a logic of experimentation, audience orientation, and efficiency-seeking, bu…
Mobile netware, social graphs, and the reconfiguration of space
Scholars are well-aware that the smartphone is much more than just a mobile telephone. A plethora of applications have been developed to run on smartphones, covering just about every aspect of human life. What is distinctive about the fact that these apps run on smartphones (as opposed to other kinds of devices) is that the smartphone makes them mobile (the apps travel with the user) and locative (the apps know the location of the user). As a res…
Actors, Partisan Inclination, and Emotions: An Analysis of Government Shutdown News Stories Shared on Twitter
Scholars have recognized emotion as an increasingly important element in the reception and retransmission of online information. In the United States, because of existing differences in ideology, among both audiences and producers of news stories, political issues are prone to spark considerable emotional responses online. While much research has explored emotional responses during election campaigns, this study focuses on the role of online emot…
Conceptualizing the Roles of Involvement and Immersion in Persuasive Games
While previous studies showed that persuasive games can have positive effects on attitudes and behavioral intentions, little is known about the underlying processes that cause these effects. This study investigates immersion and involvement in order to provide a better understanding of the effects of persuasive games. We conducted an experiment with 152 college students in which participants either played a persuasive game or watched the playback…
Newly minted: Non-fungible tokens and the commodification of fandom
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) exist today as a component of a broader, ever-evolving financial environment in which questions of value, ownership, and intention are characterized by their ambiguity. This article considers Dapper Labs “NBA Top Shot,” a blockchain-backed website inviting NBA fans to join in “a new era in fandom” wherein they may acquire NFTs of NBA highlights by opening “packs,” which are functionally similar to trading cards. NFTs re…
“After All, They Don’t Know Me” Exploring the Psychological Mechanisms of Toxic Behavior in Online Games
Toxic behavior is commonplace in online games and has negative consequences for players. Although previous studies have illustrated common types and features of in-game toxic behavior, it remains unclear what psychological mechanisms can explain why toxic behavior emerges and evolves in gaming environments. To fill this research gap, guided by Online Disinhibition Effect theory, this study applies a qualitative interview approach to understand wh…
Playbor, gamble-play, and the financialization of digital games
This article examines non-fungible token (NFT) applications and their users through a qualitative textual analysis of NFT-based video game Axie Infinity’s Discord server. It considers NFT applications’ dual purposes as entertainment media and financial instruments and posits that the interests of capital inform users’ engagement. In an environment defined by distrust and uncertainty, predominantly Filipino digital laborers’ (“Scholars”) experienc…
The platformization of emotions: Managing affective labor in platform-mediated game work
This study examines the management of affective labor on E-Pal, a US-based gaming freelancer platform where gig workers provide companionship and intimacy to clients during gaming. Based on interviews with 27 workers, the research reveals that E-Pal prioritizes emotional connection over gaming skills. The platform uses authenticity expectations, performance evaluations, and gamification to regulate workers’ emotional interactions with customers. …
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Media studies (10 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Social media (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Media Studies and Communication (7 works)