S543:
Computer-Mediated
Communication
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Semester: |
Fall
2007 |
Instructor: |
Susan
Herring |
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Time: |
Thursdays
5:45-8:30 p.m. |
Office: |
LI
037 |
|
Place: |
LI
031 |
Phone: |
(812)
856-4919 (voice mail) |
|
Section: |
26857 |
Email: |
herring
@ indiana.edu |
|
Instructor's Office Hours: Thursday 4-5
p.m. and by appointment |
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Class discussion list: cmc-l @ indiana.edu |
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Required
Readings:
Articles to be made available on
e-reserves, Oncourse, or on the public Web.
0. Course Summary
This
course provides a graduate-level introduction and overview of
computer-mediated
communication (CMC), the human-to-human interaction that takes place
via
computer networks such as the Internet. The perspective of the course
is both social (focusing on human behavior), and technological
(understanding the design features of CMC systems, and how they affect
behavior),
with an emphasis on the former. Course content includes the history of
the
Internet; classification of CMC modes; key CMC theories and debates;
CMC and language; social
issues; CMC applications; and communication in emergent CMC
technologies.
1. Course Description
Computer-mediated
communication (CMC) is the human-to-human interaction that takes place
via
computer networks such as the Internet and, increasingly, via mobile
technologies. Historically, most CMC was (and is still) text-based;
examples include email, distribution lists, threaded discussion forums,
chat,
MUDs, Instant Messaging, text messaging (SMS), blogs, and wikis. Since
the mid-1990s, multimodal CMC has also become important, in the form of
video chat, audio chat, and graphical
virtual reality environments—and, of course, the World Wide Web. CMC
modes have traditionally been classified as either synchronous or
asynchronous, depending on whether or not the system
requires the sender and the receiver to be logged on at the same time
in order
for communication to take place. However, that
distinction is blurred in many contemporary CMC applications, as
is the distinction between public and private in many
online forums.
Invented in the
late 1960s,
CMC has grown at a dizzying rate over the past four decades. Today, CMC
is well on its way to becoming as ubiquitous on a global scale
as such now-taken-for-granted communication technologies as the radio,
the
telephone, and the television. However, inequalities remain in its use.
The goal of this
course is to create an
interactive learning
community around the theme of computer-mediated communication. We will
read,
discuss, and synthesize research claims and findings from classic and
contemporary research on a variety of CMC modes, including email,
discussion forums, webboards, chat rooms, instant messaging, graphical
virtual worlds, video chat, blogs, wikis, and social network sites. We
will also use different
CMC modes in the process of learning about them. The course is roughly chronologically
organized, such that older CMC technologies are discussed first, and
newer technologies
are discussed as the semester advances.
2. Course Objectives
As
a result of completing this course, you should gain:
• a
historical perspective on the development of the Internet and CMC
• familiarity
with different modes of CMC
• a
theoretically-grounded, critical understanding of the nature of CMC and
its
social and technical effects in different contexts of use
• skill
in summarizing and synthesizing concepts from published scholarship
3. Course Requirements
Readings: You
are expected to read the assigned readings and participate in online
discussions about them (using LiveJournal blogs) each week. Each
participant in the course will create a LiveJournal and add the other
participants as their "friends." Every week, one person will post a
summary (2-3 paragraphs, briefly encapsulating each article's main
claims) for each assigned reading on their LJ, and everyone else will
post one or more comments on the summaries, engaging with the content
of the readings. The discussions in LJ will help prepare you for class
discussions, the final exam, and will provide feedback that will help
me conduct
the course in ways that better suit your interests and needs.
Exams: There
will be a final, essay-type (take-home) comprehensive exam. The exam
questions will be of a synthetic nature, requiring you to draw
together, relate,
and apply key concepts from the readings and class discussions. A
review
sheet
of key concepts will be distributed before the exams.
Term paper (OPTIONAL). Instead of taking the final
exam, you may write a 5000-7000 word term
paper (excluding appendices) reporting on the results of
original research on CMC in a mode and setting of your choice. This
need not be
a type of CMC we have discussed in the course; it can be any type of
CMC you
are interested in (providing you can get reasonable and ethical access
to it).
However, the analysis should relate to issues discussed in
the course. Students wishing to write a term paper instead of taking
the final
exam should submit a one-page proposal by week 10 identifying the
topic, research
question, methods, data and preliminary observations on which the paper
will be
based. The final paper should follow the formal conventions for a
publishable-quality research article, including footnotes and citations
of
scholarly work in APA (American Psychological Association) style.
There is a email
distribution list
for this course (cmc-l @ indiana.edu). You are expected to check your
email at least twice
between
class meetings, including the morning before class for last-minute
announcements and reminders. Participation on the email list is
encouraged,
although it is not a requirement of the course.
4. Grading
Your grade for
the course
will be calculated as follows:
|
Class
participation |
25% |
|
LJ
reading summaries and discussions |
35% |
|
Final
exam OR term paper |
40% |
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Total: |
100% |
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Grading
policy:
• Late
LJ comments will be accepted once
during the semester, no questions asked, provided they are posted
within two days after the class
meeting in which the readings were
discussed.
• Class
participation and LJ summaries and discussions will be graded with a
check mark for each class
meeting, to indicate that the requirement was met. Class participation
means being
willing and prepared to speak intelligently in class about the topics
under
discussion. (Note: this does not
necessarily mean speaking a lot—you may be penalized if you habitually
dominate class discussions.) In order to be able to speak intelligently
about a
topic, you will need to have done the readings for that topic. You
will also need to be physically present and alert.
• The
exam and the term paper will be assigned letter grades (A, A-, B+, B,
B-, C+,
C, etc.).
• The
exam will be graded on quality (depth and accuracy) of understanding of
key
concepts; ability to extend, apply and relate concepts beyond what was
discussed in class; appropriate citation of sources; and clarity and
organization of written presentation.
• The
term paper (if you choose this option) will be graded on
content—originality of the research question, appropriateness of the
data
and methods used to investigate the question, plausibility of your
interpretations—and form—organization, clarity and quality of
written expression, and appropriate use of scholarly conventions such
as
citations and footnotes. An 'A' quality term paper addresses an
interesting
research question, makes use of an appropriate empirical method to
analyze real
CMC data, and interprets the findings thoughtfully, in addition to
being
well-organized and clearly and professionally written.
Note:
Learning is a collaborative enterprise. However, plagiarism,
copyright
infringement, and other types of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. To
help you
recognize plagiarism, the IU Writing Center has prepared a short guide:
Plagiarism:
What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It. Please read this guide and refer to it
when you produce
your written assignments for this course.
Tentative
Schedule of
Readings and Discussions
(Subject to
change with
advance notice)
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Week 1 (8/30): |
Introduction
to computer-mediated communication. Classifying CMC. |
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Read: |
1. Herring, S. C. (2002). Computer-mediated communication and the Internet. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 36, 109-132 [article is longer; read only up to "Early Claims About CMC Revisted"]. 2. Herring, S. C. (2007). A faceted classification scheme for computer-mediated discourse. Language@Internet. http://www.languageatinternet.de/articles/761 |
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Week 2 (9/6): |
The
origins and evolution of computer-mediated communication. |
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Read: |
(Choose 3)
2. Hafner, K. & Lyon, M. (1996). E-mail. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. 3. Rheingold, H. (1993). Chapter 4:
Grassroots
groupminds. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic
Frontier. http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/4.html
4. Berners-Lee, T. (1996). The World Wide Web: Past, present and
future. 5. Herring, S.C. (2004). Slouching toward the ordinary: Current trends in computer-mediated communication. New Media & Society, 6 (1), 26-36. http://faculty.washington.edu/thurlow/com482/herring(2004).pdf |
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Demonstration: |
Google Groups; The Wayback Machine |
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Week 3 (9/13): |
Theories about the effects of CMC.
Information exchange vs. |
|
Read: |
(Choose 3)
2. Kiesler, S. et al. (1984). Social
psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication. American
Psychologist, 39, 1123-34. [e-reserves] 3. Rice, R., & Love, G. (1987).
Electronic emotion: Socioemotional content in a computer-mediated
network. Communication Research, 14, 85-108. [e-reserves] 4. Walther, J. (1996). Computer-mediated
communication: Impersonal, interpersonal and hyperpersonal interaction.
Communication Research, 23(1), 3-43. [e-reserves] 5.
Postmes, T., Spears, R., & Lea, M. (1998). Breaching or building
social boundaries? SIDE-effects of computer-mediated communication. Communication Research, 25/6,
689-715. [Oncourse] 6.
Dennis, A. R., & Valacich, J. S. (1999). Rethinking media richness:
Towards a theory of media synchronicity. HICSS-32. http://csdl2.computer.org/comp/proceedings/hicss/1999/0001/01/00011017.PDF 7. Parks, M. R., & Floyd, K. (1996).
Making friends in cyberspace. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 1(4). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol1/issue4/parks.html 8. Kraut, R., Lundmark, V., Patterson, M.,
Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T., Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet Paradox: A
social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological
well-being? American Psychologist,
53/9, 1017-1031. [Oncourse] |
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Week 4 (9/20): |
Computer-mediated language. |
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Read: |
(Choose 3)
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Demonstration |
Internet Relay Chat |
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Week 5 (9/27): |
Gender,
race, culture.
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|
Read: |
(choose 3) 1. Danet, B. (1998). Text as mask: Gender, play and performance on the Internet. In S. Jones (Ed.), Cybersociety 2.0. http://atar .mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/mask.html 2. Herring, S. C. (2003). Gender and power in online communication. In J. Holmes & M. Meyerhoff (Eds.), The Handbook of Language and Gender (pp. 202-228). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. [Oncourse] 3. Nakamura, L. (2002). Head-hunt ing on the Internet: Identity tourism, avatars, and racial passing in textual an d graphic chat spaces. Chapter 2, Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Inter net (pp. 31-60). NY: Routledge. [Oncourse] 4. Burkhalter, B. (1999). Reading race online. In M. Smith & P. Kollock (Eds.), Communities in Cyberspace. [Oncourse] 5. Matei, S. & Ball-Rokeach, S. (2002). Belonging in geographic, ethnic, and internet spaces. In Wellman, B. & Haythornthwaite, C. (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. [Oncourse] 6. Gunewardena, C. N., Wilson, P. L., & Nolla, A. C. (2003). Culture and online education. In M. G. Moore & W. G. Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of Distance Education (pp. 753-776). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. [Oncourse] |
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Week 6 (10/4): |
Anonymity, deception, and trust.
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|
Read: |
(choose 3) 1. Van Gelder, L. (1985). The strange case of the electronic lover. Ms. Magazine, October. [Oncourse] 2. Donath, J. (1999). Identity and deception in the virtual community. In M. Smith & P. Kollock (Eds.), Communities in Cyberspace. [Oncourse] 3. Herring, S. C., & Martinson, A. (2004). Assessing gender authenticity in computer-mediated language use: Evidence from an identity game. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 23(4), 424-446. [Oncourse] 4. Bowker, N., & Tuffin, K. (2003). Dicing with deception: People with disabilities' strategies for managing safety and identity online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 8(2). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue2/bowker.html 5. Lampe, C., & Resnick, P. (2004). Slash(dot) and burn: Distributed moderation in a large online conversation space. Proceedings of CHI 2004. http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/papers/chi04/LampeResnick.pdf 6. Jøsang, A., Ismail, R., & Boyd, C. (2007). A survey of trust and reputation systems for online service provision. Decision Support Systems, 43 (2), 618-644. http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~josang/papers/JIB2007-DSS.pdf
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Week 7 (10/11): |
Online community.
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Read: |
(Choose 3) 1. Rheingold, H. (1993). Chapter 1: Introduction & Chapter 2: The Heart of the Well. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/ 2. Fernback, J., & Thompson, B. (1995). Virtual communities: Abort, retry, failure? http://www.well.com/user /hlr/texts/VCcivil.html 3. Preece, J., & Maloney-Krichmar, D.
(2003). Online communities. In J. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 596-620).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Preprint: http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/paper/7%20Handbook%20v1.7Final.pdf 4. McLure Wasko, M., & Faraj, S.
(2005, March). Why should I share? Examining social capital and
knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice. MISQ, 29, 35-57. [Oncourse] 5. Boyd, J. (2002). In community we trust:
Online security communication at eBay. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, 7(3). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol7/issue3/boyd.html 6. Brown, R. (2001). Process of
community-building in distance learning |
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Demonstration: |
A social MUD |
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Week 8 (10/18): |
Illegal,
inethical, and antisocial uses.
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Read: |
(Choose 3) 1. Herring, S. C. et al. (2002). Searching for safety online: Managing 'trolling' in a feminist forum. The Information Society, 18(5), 371-383. [Oncourse] 2. Harvey, D. (2003). Cyberstalking and Internet harassment: What the law can do. http://www.netsafe.org.nz/Doc_Library/netsafepapers_davidharvey_cyberstalking.pdf 3. Zickmund, S. (1997). Approaching the radical other: The discursive culture of cyberhate. In S. Jones (Ed.), Virtual culture: Identity and communication in cybersociety (pp. 185-205). Sage. [Oncourse] 4. Kaigo, M., & Watanabe, I. (2007). Ethos in chaos? Reaction to video files depicting socially harmful images in the Channel 2 Japanese Internet forum. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), article 6. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/kaigo.html 5. O'Sullivan, P., & Flanagin, A. (2003). Reconceptualizing 'flaming' and other problematic messages. New Media & Society. [Oncourse] 6. Cranor, Lorrie Faith & LaMacchia, Brian A. (1998, Aug.) Spam! Communications of the ACM, 41 (8), 74-83. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/280324.280336 [ACM Portal - free access through IU library] |
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Week 9 (10/25): |
Collaboration and collaborative authoring. Wikis.
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Read: |
1. Wagner, C. (2004). Wiki: A technology for conversational knowledge management and group collaboration. Communications of the AIS, vol. 13, article 19. http://cais.isworld.org/articles/13-19/default.asp?View=Journal&x=21&y=5 2. Mattison, D. (2005, April). Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and collaborative content tool. Searcher, 11(4). http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr03/mattison.shtml 3. Emigh, W., & Herring, S. C. (2005). Collaborative authoring on the Web: A genre analysis of online encyclopedias. Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos: IEEE Press. http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/wiki.pdf 4. Viégas, F. B., Wattenberg, M., & Dave, K. (2004). Studying cooperation and conflict between authors with history flow visualizations. CHI 2004, 575-582. 5. Raitman, R., Augar, N., & Zhou, W. (2005). Employing wikis for online collaboration in the e-learning environment: Case study. Third International Conference on Information Technology and Applications, vol. 2 (pp. 142-148). http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/proceedings/&toc=comp/proceedings/icita/2005/2316/02/23162toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/ICITA.2005.127 |
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Week 10 (11/1): |
CMC as
mass media. Online newssites and blogs.
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Read: |
(choose 3) 1. Morris, M., & Ogan, C. (1996). The Internet as mass medium. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1(4). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol1/issue4/morris.html 2. Schultz, T. (2000). Mass media and the concept of interactivity: An exploratory study of online forums and reader e-mail. Media, Culture & Society, 22(2), 205-221. 3. Lasica, J. D. (2002, April 18). Blogging as a form of journalism. USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/lasica/1019166956.php 4. Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L. A., Bonus, S., & Wright, E. (2004). Bridging the gap: A genre analysis of weblogs. Proceedings of the 37th Hawai'I International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society Press. http://www.blogninja.com/DDGDD04.doc 5. Nardi, B., Schiano, D., Gumbrecht, M., & Swartz, L. (2004). I'm blogging this: A closer look at why people blog. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/classes/ics234cw04/nardi.pdf 6. Du, H. S., & Wagner, C. (2005). Learning with weblogs: An empirical investigation. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/HICSS.2005.387 |
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Week 11 (11/8): |
Online
social networks and social network sites.
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Read: |
(Choose 3) 1. Adamic, L.A., Adar, E. (2003). Friends and neighbors on the web. http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~rizos/web10.pdf 2. Adamic, L. A., Buyukkokten, O., & Adar, E. (2003). A social network caught in the web. First Monday, 8(6). http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_6/adamic/index.html 3. boyd, d., & Ellison, N. (2007). Introduction, special issue on social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html 4. Donath, J. (2007). Signals in social supernets. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donath.html 5. Paolillo, J. (2001). Language variation on Internet Relay Chat: A social network approach. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 5(2), 180-213. [Oncourse] 6. Haythornthwaite, C. (2001). Exploring multiplexity: Social network structures in a computer-supported distance learning class. The Information Society, 17, 211-216. [Oncourse] |
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Week 12 (11/15): |
Graphical
worlds, avatars, and artificial intelligence agents.
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Read: |
(Choose 3) 1. Smith, M., Farnham, S., & Drucker, S. (2000). The social life of small graphical chat spaces. Proceedings of CHI 2000. http://research.microsoft.com/scg/papers/vchatchi2000.pdf 2. Yee, N., Bailenson, J. N., Urbanek, M., Chang, F., & Merget, D. (2007). The unbearable likeness of being digital: The persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments. The Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior, 10, 115-121. 3. Czarnecki, K., & Gullett, M. (2007). Meet the new you. School Library Journal, 53(1), 36-39. 4. Childress, M. D., & Braswell, R. (2006). Using massively multiplayer online role-playing games for online learning. Distance Education, 27(2), 187-196. 5. Cassell, J. (2000). More than just another pretty face: Embodied conversational interface agents. Communications of the ACM, 43(4), 70-78. |
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Week 13 (11/29): |
Convergent
media. MMOGs, YouTube, interactive television.
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|
Read: |
1. Jenkins, H. (2004). The cultural logic of media convergence. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7, 33-43. [Oncourse] 2. Jakobsson, M. & Taylor, T. L. (2003). The Sopranos meets Everquest - social networking in massively multiuser networking games. fineArt forum, 17:8. http://www.fineartforum.org/Backissues/Vol_17/faf_v17_n08/reviews/jakobsson.html 3. Lange, P. G. (2007). Publicly private and privately public: Social networking on YouTube. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 18. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/lange.html 4. Zelenkauskaite, A., & Herring, S. C. (2008). Television-mediated conversation: Coherence in Italian iTV SMS chat. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press. http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/hicss08.pdf 5. Lytras, M, Lougos C, Chozos, P, & Pouloudi, A. (2002). Interactive television and e-learning convergence: Examining the potential of t-learning. Proceedings of the European Conference on E-Learning. Academic Conferences International: Reading. http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:Nig8aar8p-IJ:www.eltrun.aueb.gr/papers/tlearning.pdf+Lytras+M,+Lougos+C,+Chozos+P,+Pouloudi+ [looking for pdf version]
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Week 14 (12/6): |
CMC in a multilingual world. Machine translation of CMC. Review for final exam.
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Read: |
1. Danet, B., & Herring, S. C. (2007). Multilingualism on the Internet. In M. Hellister & A. Pauwels (Eds.), Language and Communication: Diversity and Change, Handbook of Applied Linguistics, vol. 9. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. [Oncourse] 2. Dor, D. (2004). From Englishization to imposed multilingualism. Public Culture, 16(1), 97-118. [Oncourse] 3. Climent, S., More, J., Oliver, A., Salvatierra, M., Sanchez, I., Taule, M., & Vallmanya, L. (2003). Bilingual newsgroups in Catalonia: A challenge for machine translation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 9(1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol9/issue1/climent.html |
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Week 15 (12/13): |
Take-home final exam OR term paper due by 5 p.m.
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Last updated: 11/14/07