Influence of Emoticons on Communicative Behaviour in Social Media Presented By: Sajeel Ahmed Supervised by: Dr Markus Haag, Prof Yanqing Duan

Research Area Social Media Communicative Behaviour Emoticons Focus 1.Skovholt, K., Grønning, A. & Kankaanranta, A., The communicative functions of emoticons in workplace s::-). Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(4), pp.780–797.

Background: Emoticons Emoticons have two functions (Dresner & Herring, 2010) – Indictors of emotional expressions – Indictors of facial expressions (not necessarily emotional) Emoticon can possibly serve the function of complementing and enhancing verbal messages (Derks et al., 2008) Emoticon usage differs between task-oriented contexts and socio-emotional contexts in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) (Derks et al., 2008) 1.Derks, D., Bos, A.E.R. & von Grumbkow, J., Emoticons in computer-mediated communication: social motives and social context. Cyberpsychology & behavior: the impact of the Internet, multimedia and virtual reality on behavior and society, 11(1), pp.99– Dresner, E. & Herring, S.C., Functions of the nonverbal in CMC: Emoticons and illocutionary force. Communication Theory, 20(3), pp.249–268.

Meaning and Interpretation Funny?Miserable? Joking?Sarcastic?

Research Aim and Objectives Aim The research aims to develop a model which clarifies the link between emoticons and communicative behaviour. Objectives To understand how people interpret emoticons. To understand how and why people use emoticons. To identify key influences of emoticons on communication.

Research Methodology Researcher’s View  Nature of reality: social constructivism  Research Goal: Provide meaning and understanding  Focus: key specifics and unique Approach to Research Grounded Theory Inductive Reasoning Theory-generating High dependence on data Begin with data and relies on data for emergence of theory

Data Collection – Online observation/content analysis Observing communicating behaviours and patterns on various social media site – Unstructured interviews Participants will be interviewed on the bases of observations conducted if necessary Theoretical Sampling – A form of purposive sampling – Number and types of groups are being determined based on the ongoing emergence of theory related to data collection – Sampling is based on theoretical relevance – Sampling is continuous until the point of saturation

Grounded Theory Process 1.Jantunen, S. & Gause, D.C., Using a grounded theory approach for exploring software product management challenges. Journal of Systems and Software, 95, pp.32–51. Current Stage (Highlighted in red) Integrative Phase Recruitment and sampling of participants Phase 1 of data collection/analysis 2 sample sets completed

Contribution Knowledge It provides a theoretical understanding of the key influences of emoticons Provides insight into non-verbal behaviours of CMC Provides an understanding of the importance of non- textual elements of CMC Practice Use of emoticons in helping to enrich CMC

Questions??? Thank you for your time!