Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore June 23, 2015 // Computer-Mediated Communication CMC in Society

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore1 Course business  Join the mailing list!   Instructions in the News section here:  Annotate at least one reading per week  Critical response, not summary  Office hours Tue + Thu 2–3 p.m. in 305A South Hall

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore2 flakybiscuit

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore3 Web 3.2 is here NOW Vs.

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore4

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore5 Rheingold’s Study: An Early Online Community (Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link)  At this time, geography still played an important role because of BBSes (local telephone access)  Less use of pseudonyms (identity persistence)  Less initial distrust

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore6 What is an online/virtual community? Social Spaces Role-playing Professional Groups Work-related discussion groups Medical and Illness support groups Geographically related groups Tech/Software Support

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore7 Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore8 Potential “to change our lives” Rheingold (1995) Political change (aggregate social level) Person-to-person interaction (interpersonal interaction level) Perception, thoughts, personalities (individual level) Macro Micro

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore9 The Internet as Panopticon?

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore10 The Promise of the Internet as a Social Network  Accessibility of Networks  Usefulness of Networks  Multiplexity of Networks  Strong ties  Weak ties

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore11 How do we know if the ‘promise’ is being fulfilled? How is Internet use related to general social interaction? How does offline interaction relate to online interaction?

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore12 Studies of Physical Communities and Internet Use  Syntopia project (1995–1997; 2000)  HomeNet (1998; 2002)  Netville Studies (e.g., Hampton and Wellman 2003)  Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) 2003

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore13 They argue that research design contributes somewhat to different results. “ ” — Rice et al. (2007) on Shklovski et al. (2006)

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore14 Differences in research design  Cross-sectional vs. longitudinal (vs. experiments?)  How are variables operationalized?  Where did the sample come from?  Syntopia: national random-digit dialing  OxIS: geographic, by district then by address

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore15 US data  In 1995, Internet use (including longer term) associated with more social interaction with friends.  Making more phone calls and writing letters not really associated with Internet usage, controlling for socio- demographic factors.  Those with more Internet expertise tend to be more likely to be members of at least one online community and to have met at least one friend online.  In 1995 data, more online social interaction is not related to more offline social interaction.

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore16 US: Informational vs. social use Interaction with family online42%23% Membership in online communities26%10% Developing online friendships12%14% Meeting online friends in person17%10% Are early adopters more interested in socializing online?

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore17 British Data  Internet users are less likely than non-users to write letters to friends and family who live far away.  However, Internet users are more likely to meet with far-away friends and family (offline).

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore18 Sociability  Most analyses do not show a relationship between Internet usage and offline interpersonal interaction. (Sociodemographics better account for any relationships.)  In 1995, Internet usage does appear to be related to more social interaction, but by 2000 Internet experience appears to account for more social interaction.

6/23/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore19 Internet useSociability Internet use Sociability ??? OR ExtroversionSES???