Abstract :
This study is designed to validate 10 Power Distance indicators identified from previous research on cultural dimensions to establish a measurement for determining a countryʹs national political freedom represented on Web content and interface design. Two coders performed content analysis on 156 college/university Web sites selected from 39 countries. One-way analysis of variance was applied to analyze each of the proposed 10 indicators to detect statistical significant differences among means of the three freedom groups (free-country group, partly-free-country group, and not-free-country group). The results indicated that 6 of the 10 proposed indicators could be used to measure a countryʹs national political freedom on Web interface design. The seventh indicator, symmetric layout, demonstrated a negative correlation between the freedom level and the Web representation of Power Distance. The last three proposed indicators failed to show any significant differences among the treatment means, and there are no clear trend patterns for the treatment means of the three freedom groups. By examining national political freedom represented on Web pages, this study not only provides an insight into cultural dimensions and Web interface design but also advances our knowledge in sociological and cultural studies of the Web.
