Evaluating the Cultural Anthropology of Artefacts of Computer Mediated Communication: A Case of Law Enforcement Agencies
Subject Areas : Semantic Web
Chukwunonso Henry
Nwokoye
1
(National Open University Unit, Nigerian Correctional Service)
Njideka N.
Mbeledogu
2
(Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria)
Chikwe
Umeugoji
3
(Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka)
Keywords: Website, Culture Contexts, E-Governance, Cultural Anthropology, Human Computer Interaction,
Abstract :
The renowned orientations of cultural models proposed by Hall and Hofstede has been the subject of criticisms. This is due to the weak, inflexible and old-fashioned nature of some designs resulting from them. In addition, is the ever-changing, formless and undefined nature of culture and globalization. Consequently, these vituperations have resulted in better clarifications when assessing the cultural anthropology of websites. Based on these later clarifications and other additions, we seek to evaluate the cultural heuristics of websites owned by agencies of the Nigerian government. Note that this is verily necessary because older models did not include Africa in their analyses. Specifically, we employed the online survey method by distributing questionnaires to different groups of experts drawn from the various regions of Nigeria. The experts employed methods such as manual inspection and use of automated tools to reach conclusions. Afterwards, the results were assembled and using the choice of a simple majority, we decided whether a design parameter is either high or low context. Findings show that websites developers tend to favor low context styles when choosing design parameters. The paper attempts to situate Africa in Hall’s continuum; therein, Nigeria (Africa) may fall within French Canadian and Scandinavian and/or within Latin and Scandinavian for the left hand and right hand side diagram respectively. In future, we would study the cultural anthropology of African websites employing the design parameters proposed by Alexander, et al.
[1] E. Wurtz, “Intercultural communication on web sites: A cross-cultural analysis of web sites from high-context cultures and low-context cultures”, J. of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 11, 2006, pp. 274–299.
[2] E. T Hall, The Silent Language, New York: Doubleday. 1976.
[3] G. Hofstede, Culture’s consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. UK: Sage, 1984.
[4] D. Morley and K. Robins, Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries. US: Routledge, 1995.
[5] M. D. Myers, and F. B. Tan, “Beyond models of national culture in information systems research”, Journal of Global Information Management, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 23-56, 2002.
[6] L. Thorlacius, “Visuel Kommunikation pa Web sites,” Ph.D. dissertation, Roskilde Universite, 2002.
[7] K. F. Gygi, and J. H. Spyridakis, “Developing a cultural model to support web site localization: a case study of Uzbek school websites,” in Annual Conference Society for Technical Communication, vol. 54, 2007, pp. 1-20.
[8] A. Yeratziotis, and D. Greunen, “E-government – putting service at your fingertips,” in IST-Africa 2009 Conference & Exhibition, 2009, pp. 1–15.
[9] M. Herselman, and D. Greunen, “Global survey on culture differences and context in using e-government systems: a pilot study,” in Second International ICST Conference, AFRICOM, 2010, pp. 46–68.
[10] R. Vatrapu, and M. A. Pérez-Quiñones, “Culture and international usability testing: The effects of culture in structured interviews”, Journal of Usability Studies, vol. 1, no. 4, pp.156-170, 2006.
[11] F. T. Moura, N. Singh and W. Chun, “The influence of culture in website design and users’ perceptions: Three systematic reviews,” Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 312-339, 2016.
[12] R. Alexander, D. Murray, and N. Thompson, “Cross-cultural web design guidelines,” W4A 2017, 2017, pp. 1-16.
[13] I. Umeh and C. H. Nwokoye, “Culture Context Profiles: A Case of Institutional Websites in Nigeria”, Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology: G Interdisciplinary, vol. 17, pp. 1-17, 2017.
[14] I. O. Oyefolahan, A. A. Sule, S. A. Adepoju, and F. Babakano, “Keeping with the global trends: An evaluation of accessibility and usability of Nigerian banks website,” I. J. Information Engineering and Electronic Business, vol. 2, pp. 44-53, 2019.
[15] SEO, Assessed on: July 24, 2020. [Online]. Available from https://seositecheckup.com/seo-audit/flash-test/.
[16] Smallseotools, Assessed on: Aug 19, 2020. [Online]. Available from https://smallseotools.com/website-link-analyzer-tool/.
[17] J. Ouellet, J. Kang and A. Girouard, “Cultural and linguistic variables in usability testing: A Canadian evaluation of international students,” Journal of Usability Studies, vol. 16, pp. 121–147, 2021.
[18] C. Sik-Lanyi and E. Orbán-Mihálykó, “Analyses of websites was done for healthcare in European countries,” Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, vol. 44, pp. 9171–9190, 2019.
[19] Z. Nong and S. M. Gainsbury, “Website design features: exploring how social cues present in the online environment may impact risk taking,” Human behavior and emerging technologies, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1 – 35, 2019.
[20] N. Al-Shammari, “E-Commerce in Saudi Arabia: characteristics of a trustworthy usable e-commerce websites,” International Journal of Information Science, vol. 9, pp. 6-15, 2019.
[21] R. Alexander, N. Thompson and D. Murray, “Towards cultural translation of websites: a large-scale study of Australian, Chinese, and Saudi Arabian design preferences,” Behaviour & Information Technology, vol. 36, pp. 351 – 363, 2017.
[22] L. Al-Omairi, H. Al-Samarraie, A. I. Alzahrani and N. Alalwan, "Students' intention to adopt e-government learning services: a developing country perspective," Library Hi Tech, vol. 39, pp. 308-334, 2020.
[23] Nigeria Airforce, January 2020. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://airforce.mil.ng.
/ [24] Nigeria Navy, March 2020. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from http://www.navy.mil.ng/.
[25] Nigeria Army, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://www.army.mil.ng/.
[26] Nigeria Police Force, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://www.npf.gov.ng/.
[27] Nigeria Prisons Service, January 2019. Assessed on: May 5, 2019. [Online]. Available from http://www.prisons.gov.ng/.
[28] Nigeria Immigration Service, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://immigration.gov.ng/.
[29] Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from http://nscdc.gov.ng/.
[30] Nigeria Customs Service, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://www.customs.gov.ng/.
[31] Federal Road Safety Corps, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://frsc.gov.ng/.
[32] Federal Fire Service, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from http://fedfire.gov.ng/.
[33] Defense Intelligence Agency, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from http://www.dia.gov.ng/.
[34] National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://ndlea.gov.ng/.
[35] Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, January 2019. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from http://icpc.gov.ng/.
[36] Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, January 2020. Assessed on: June 20, 2021. [Online]. Available from https://efccnigeria.org/efcc/.
[37] M. Cutts, How many links per page. Gadgets, Google, and SEO, 2009, January 2020. Assessed on: January 30, 2020. [Online]. Available from https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-many-links-per-page/.
[38] S. Köszegi, R. Vetschera, and G. E. Kersten, “National cultural differences in the use and perception of Internet-based NSS: Does high or low context matter?” Assessed on: January 30, 2020. [Online]. Available from interneg.concordia.ca/views/bodyfiles/paper/2003/09.pdf.