Coye Cheshire June 14, 2016 // Computer-Mediated Communication Social Presentation and Perception

Forums are go!  6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication1

Wiki is ready for you to feed it!  Post your name and at least one or two ideas for a final project– does not have to be fully formed…just express your interest(s).  Post your name under someone else’s idea if you share a similar interest and would like to chat about forming a group.  All groups will ultimately need a single team leader. It is important at this stage to express if you have an interest in that role. 6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication2

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication3 A Brief Introduction to Symbolic Interaction “The character of interaction as it takes place between human beings” Herbert Blumer ( ) developed much of the sociological approach to SI Long history of development in both philosophy and sociology

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication4 Core Features of SI Symbols… Change…

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication5 Core Features of SI Interaction… Empirical… However: note the focus on the micro-level

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication6 Goffman’s Approach and Focus How individuals create and maintain their ‘social self’ Dramaturgical Approach: A metaphor

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6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication8 Frontstage and Backstage

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication9 Expressions Given and Given Off Goffman’s discusses two types of expressions: ‘given’ (intentional) ‘given off’ (unintentional)

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication10 Other Key Concepts in Goffman’s Work “Idealization” “Definition of the Situation” “Impression Management”

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication11 Meaning through Contradiction?  When individuals act in a way that is inconsistent with expected behavior, several things happen (for the ‘performer’ and the ‘audience’).  In many ways, the study of social “roles” allows us to understand such expectations as they are continually interpreted.

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication12 Social Order through Interaction? Goffman argues that social order can be an outcome of our symbolic interactions… Examples of how this might occur in CMC situations?

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication13 Signaling  Assessment signals  Handicap (costly) signals  Index signals  Conventional signals  How do people send and receive them?  At a bar, on IM, in online dating?  Cost of signaling, cost of assessing

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication14 Costs and benefits for sender  Costs  Production  Efficacy costs  Strategic costs  Risk  Punishment  Benefits  Signaling: Changing observer’s beliefs  Functional: Hedonic and utilitarian

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication15 Costs and benefits for receiver  Costs  Assessment  Being deceived by a dishonest signal  Benefits  Signaling: Learning about the sender  Functional: Again, hedonic and utilitarian

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication16 What are the important differences between signaling online and offline?

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication17 What is “deception”? How can we resolve the tension between “playful” and “literal” use of CMC?

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6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication19 How would you conceptualize Goffman’s idea of “setting” in CMC interactions?

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication20 “ The architects of a virtual space — from the software designers to the site administrators — shape the community in a more profound way than do their real-world counterpart. People eat, sleep, and work in buildings; the buildings affect how happily they do these things. But the buildings do not completely control their perception of the world. In the electronic domain, the design of the environment is everything. ”

6/14/2016Computer-Mediated Communication21 Just for fun  Passport to the Pub: A guide to British pub etiquette   Guide to Flirting  Both from Social Issues Research Centre.