1. Computer-Mediated Communication
Online Communities and the Symbolic Construction of Community
September 2016

2. Wrap-Up of Signaling from Last Time
1/12/2019

3. Expressions “given” and “given off”
Goffman discusses two types of expressions:
“given” vs
“given off”
This has huge implications for ‘lean’ channels of communication:
If our interactions are symbolically meaningful in an evolving social manner, then our reliance/preferences/evolving norms around cmc should affect our ability to interpret expressions given and given off.
Given = intentional
Given off = unintentional
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4. So, why is SI important for CMC?
Quite simply, its where much of our daily communication is occurring.
SI was always important in f2f and other communication styles, but our reliance on CMC is important
1/12/2019

5. Signaling Theory (Donath)
Assessment signals
Handicap (costly) signals
Index signals
Conventional signals
What are some examples of signals in CMC?
Instagram, Online dating, on ….other?
Assessment or “honest” signals.
Handicap signals — indicate possession of a finite resource that you “waste” to produce the signal — you have enough of the resource that you can produce the signal and still survive, e.g., big antlers on a stag, an expensive car
Index signals — require the quality they signal to produce them, e.g., being good at tennis is an index signal of coordination, bigger tigers scratching higher on trees
Conventional signals — the connection of the signal to the quality is through convention, nothing inherent guarantees it. E.g., wearing a Gold’s Gym t-shirt to signal strength. Through social institutions, humans have made conv. signals more reliable than have other animals. (e.g., medical license)
Cost of probing — effort needed to assess honesty of signal
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6. “
The online world is a wholly built environment. 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.
Donath ”
— Donath
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7. Community
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8. “…when we speak of people acquiring culture, or learning to be social, we mean that they acquire the symbols which will equip them to be social” -Cohen
1/12/2019

9. “Classic” Conception of Community (The Chicago School)
“Organic Solidarity”
“Mechanical Solidarity”
Mechanical really just means a society founded upon likeness, unable to deal with dissimilarity
Organic is when differences are integrated– we are special snowflakes and we all do our part in separate, but multifunctioning ‘systems’
1/12/2019

10. The ‘Myths’ of Community
Simplicity and F2F
“…the anatomy of social life at the micro-level is more intricate, and no less revealing, than among … the macro-level”
Egalitarianism
“…community generates multitudinous means of making evaluative distinctions among its members, means of differentiating among them…”
Inevitable Conformity
“suggests that the outward spread of cultural influences from the centre will make communities … less like their former selves…[this assumes that] people are somehow passive in relation to culture: they receive it, transmit it, but do not create it.”
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11. Community Boundaries
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12. ingroup
other, outgroup
other, outgroup
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13. Symbols and Community 1/12/2019
Joy mentioned the expression of lesbian culture in online dating sites. What symbols might delimit that community?
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14. Cohen on symbolic words
Justice, goodness, patriotism, duty, love, peace, life, purity, gender… “Their range of meanings can be glossed over in a commonly accepted symbol — precisely because it allows its adherents to attach their own meanings to it. They share the symbol, but do not necessarily share its meanings.”
p. 16
Freedom & Democracy — ‘hurrah’ words as opposed to ‘boo’ words
Dirt -> ugh! -> scrub! : What are other words for dirt that have the same objective or instrumental meaning but a different attitude?
I believe in God: Two Catholics may say this to each other and, because they share the vocabulary imagine that they ‘understand’ each other. Such an assumption would often be unjustified: the words ‘God’ and ‘believe’ may mean rather different things to each of them. Similarly, they may share the same symbolic forms for the expression of belief — the Mass, genuflection, wearing a crucifix — and yet each be expressing quite different things.
I love you / *I* love *you*! — Monica gave an example in her review of someone who seemed to have a stringent definition of love that differed from his friends’.
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15. Neuroscientist (David Eagleman) perspective is quite similar – and comes with some interesting experiments
David Eagleman (check out recent chat on City Arts and Lectures, from January 2016)
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16. 1/12/2019
from 37signals.com

17. Symbolic meaning (and variation) within communities
“Patriotism”
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18. “
Symbols are effective because they are imprecise. … They are, therefore, ideal media through which people can speak a ‘common’ language, behave in apparently similar ways, participate in the ‘same’ rituals, pray to the ‘same’ gods, wear similar clothes, and so forth, without subordinating themselves to a tyranny of orthodoxy. Individuality and commonality are thus reconcilable. ”
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19. Community Boundaries and Symbols
“Symbols do not so much express meaning as give us the capacity to make meaning.”
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20. Community Boundaries and Symbols
Public face
(symbolically simple)
Private face
(symbolically complex) “ ”
Think of examples of symbolic aspects of you that are complex to you, but outside may seem ‘simple’.
..in politics…how about ‘progressive’ or ‘conservative’?
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21. Cohen on subjectivity
“But not all boundaries, and not all the components of any boundary, are so objectively apparent. They may be thought of, rather, as existing in the minds of their beholders. This being so, the boundary may be perceived in rather different terms, not only by people on opposite sides of it, but also by people on the same side.” — Cohen
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22. Online communities are neither built nor do they just emerge, they evolve organically and change over time. Developers cannot control online community development but they can influence it.
Jenny Preece
1/12/2019