Computer-mediated Communication Medium Research Articles

Testing the impact of paraverbal irony signals. Experimental study on verbal irony identification in face-to-face and computer-mediated communication

AbstractThis paper reports the results of an experimental study with a between subject design (N= 122) whose aim was to compare irony comprehension rates in face-to-face (FTF) and computer-mediated communication (CMC), and examine the influence of paraverbal irony signals on irony identification rates. An irony comprehension test was intersemiotically translated to three conditions: FTF (n= 46), paraverbal signal-rich CMC (n= 30), and paraverbal signal-poor CMC (n= 46). The study adopted a relevance theoretic account of irony. There was a statistically significant difference between the signal-rich CMC and FTF conditions - irony identification rates were higher in the signal-rich CMC condition. The results are important since they suggest that paraverbal irony signals are not essential for correct irony identification if relevant contextual information is available, and the CMC medium is not only unlikely to be an obstacle in communicating the ironic intent, but with the addition of the medium-specific irony signals, may be significantly better.

Making sense ofdanmu: Coherence in massive anonymous chats on Bilibili.com

Although coherence has been widely studied in computer-mediated communication (CMC), insufficient attention has been paid to emergent multimodal forms. This study analyzes a popular commentary system on Chinese and Japanese video-sharing sites – known as danmu or danmaku – where anonymous comments are superimposed on and scroll across the video frame. Through content and multimodal discourse analysis, we unpack danmu-mediated communication analyzing the newest interface (on Bilibili.com), the comments, the interpersonal interactions and the unusual use of the second-person pronoun. Results show that despite the technological constraints (hidden authorship, unmarked sending date and lack of options to structure comments), users construct order in interactions through repetition, danmu-specific expressions and multimodal references, while using playful language to make fun. This study provides an up-to-date analysis on an increasingly popular CMC medium beyond well-studied social networking sites, and broadens the understanding of coherence in contemporary CMC.

CMC on Group Collaboration: The Process and Barriers Between Two Cultures

In an increasingly online world, the ability to use Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and communicate effectively with people from other cultures are key to success. The purpose of this study is to examine how young generation with different cultural background are doing the communication process (specifically in creating messages, choosing the communication device and choosing the time mode) using CMC medium, and how they are dealing with the possible barriers that could hinder the collaboration effectiveness. We refer the cultural differences on cultural dimensions by Hofstede. This research uses qualitative with a case-study method and analyzed multiple sources of evidence such as recorded correspondence, logbook, focus group discussions, direct observation and experts’ interview for data collection. Participants are 30 Journalism students from Pelita Harapan University (UPH) Indonesia and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Australia who join a collaboration project from October – November 2018. This study shows that Individualism, Masculinity and Power Distance cultural dimensions really affect how they communicate to each other. The students use mostly asynchronous communication such as chat text, email and google doc for their communication tools because the available technologies especially internet connections did not yet support this group collaboration using CMC optimally. This project cannot be finalized without CMC however some barriers needed to be overcome to increase the effectiveness of future collaboration.

The integration of English in Flemish versus African online peer group language: a comparative approach

ABSTRACTThe present article deals with the integration of English in informal written computer-mediated communication (CMC) by teenagers and young adults who are not native or first language speakers of English. Data from an extensive Flemish chat corpus are compared to South African, Kenyan, Nigerian, Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean chat and texting data. While the general (socio) linguistic context of the respective speech communities varies considerably, the younger generations appear to share an orientation towards global CMC English. Moreover they apply similar strategies when integrating English in their online discourse and demonstrate both cosmopolitan and local chat linguistic dexterity. The approach of the present study is mainly qualitative. It focuses on spelling adaptations and on the presence of ‘universal’ English chatspeak features. While the parallelisms between the Flemish and African data are most significant, the discrepancies point to the potential impact of factors related to the local context and the CMC medium.

Supportive Accountability: A Model for Providing Human Support to Enhance Adherence to eHealth Interventions

The effectiveness of and adherence to eHealth interventions is enhanced by human support. However, human support has largely not been manualized and has usually not been guided by clear models. The objective of this paper is to develop a clear theoretical model, based on relevant empirical literature, that can guide research into human support components of eHealth interventions. A review of the literature revealed little relevant information from clinical sciences. Applicable literature was drawn primarily from organizational psychology, motivation theory, and computer-mediated communication (CMC) research. We have developed a model, referred to as “Supportive Accountability.” We argue that human support increases adherence through accountability to a coach who is seen as trustworthy, benevolent, and having expertise. Accountability should involve clear, process-oriented expectations that the patient is involved in determining. Reciprocity in the relationship, through which the patient derives clear benefits, should be explicit. The effect of accountability may be moderated by patient motivation. The more intrinsically motivated patients are, the less support they likely require. The process of support is also mediated by the communications medium (eg, telephone, instant messaging, email). Different communications media each have their own potential benefits and disadvantages. We discuss the specific components of accountability, motivation, and CMC medium in detail. The proposed model is a first step toward understanding how human support enhances adherence to eHealth interventions. Each component of the proposed model is a testable hypothesis. As we develop viable human support models, these should be manualized to facilitate dissemination.

Community of Inquiry in an Online Undergraduate Information Technology Course

Introduction Within the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), a successful higher education experience is held to be supported by the presence and interaction of the elements of cognitive, social and teaching presences. Although the framework has been extensively used, from a constructivist perspective, to examine the quality of asynchronous educational interactions enabled by computer-mediated communication (CMC) media such as e-mail and discussion forums, less is known about its applicability to the more discursive educational exchanges facilitated by the synchronous CMC medium. This paper describes an innovative case of the instructional application of online synchronous (chat) interaction in a distance IT undergraduate course that enabled the examination of the three presences during tutorial discussions. Results from discourse analysis of chat exchanges and web survey of student learning experiences during collaborative group learning processes in virtual tutorials are presented. The paper concludes with discussion on the implications of findings for guiding the pedagogical design of online synchronous instructional environments that facilitate collaborative group learning processes in distance educational programmes. Background Interaction is considered crucial to learning experiences from the sociocultural constructivist perspective (Vygotsky, 1962) which assumes that participation in discursive practices of the community supports knowledge construction. Furthermore, the learner's potential capacity for intellectual growth is held to be enhanced by the presence of scaffolding or guidance in the form of tutor/peer support through interaction. In online educational contexts, the move from constructing learning conversations in traditional classrooms to virtual settings presents benefits and challenges to educators as the range of educational interactions has been extended yet limited by technological decisions. Moore (1989) introduced three types of interaction now widely described and accepted in the field of distance education: learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learner interactions. With greater acceptance of constructivist learning approaches and improved web/CMC technologies, learner-learner interaction represents a new dimension in distance education which normally eschews group/collaborative learning approaches due to the geographically separated learning parties. Extending on these three basic interaction types, Anderson and Garrison (1998) proposed that online transactions could occur between three macro-components of student, teacher, and content producing student-teacher, student-content, and teacher-content interaction types. In addition, transactions within each macro-component could result in a sub-set of interactions: student-student, teacher-teacher, and content-content. In order to contextualize these interactions, Garrison Anderson and Archer (2000) developed a Community of Inquiry (COI) model which was elaborated on and refined in subsequent publications (Anderson, 2004; Garrison, 2003; Garrison & Anderson, 2003; Kanuka & Garrison, 2004). The following discussion draws from these main sources in describing the model. According to Garrison and Anderson (2003), the term 'community of inquiry' was originally used by Lipman (1991) to refer to a teacher-facilitated critical learning community where listen to one another with respect, build on one another's ideas, challenge one another to supply reasons for otherwise unsupported opinions, assist each other in drawing inferences from what has been said, and seek to identify one another's assumptions (Lipman, 1991, p.15 in Garrison & Anderson, 2003, p.27). Based on this broad concept of a critical learning community comprising students and teachers and the constructivist assumption that knowledge building is a contextualized social process which occurs within such a community, the COI model is conceived as comprising three mutually interacting and reinforcing elements of cognitive, social, and teaching presences supported in online instructional environments by CMC technologies (Figure 1). …

The Psychobiological Model: Towards a New Theory of Computer-Mediated Communication Based on Darwinian Evolution

This article reviews theories of organizational communication with a special emphasis on theories that have been used to explain computer-mediated communication phenomena. Among the theories reviewed, two—social presence and media richness—are identified as problematic and as posing obstacles to future theoretical development. While shortcomings of these theories have been identified in the past, some of these theories' predictions have been supported by empirical evidence. It is argued that this theoretical dilemma can be resolved based upon principles derived from a modern version of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and the application of those principles to the understanding of human evolution. A new theoretical model called the psychobiological model is developed, which predicts variations in cognitive effort in computer-mediated collaborative tasks. The model proposes that there is a negative causal link between the “naturalness” of a computer-mediated communication medium, which is the similarity of the medium to the face-to-face medium, and the cognitive effort required from an individual using the medium for knowledge transfer. The model also states that this link is counterbalanced by what are referred to as “schema alignment” and “cognitive adaptation.” The schema alignment construct refers to the similarity between the mental schemas of an individual and those of other participant(s). The cognitive adaptation construct refers to an individual's level of schema development associated with the use of a particular medium. Finally, the model states that the degree to which the medium supports an individual's ability to convey and listen to speech is particularly significant in defining its naturalness, more so than the medium's degree of support for the use of facial expressions and body language. An example is offered of how the psychobiological model can be tested in the context provided by the customer support area of an online broker.

Enhancing Mutual Understanding in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication by Training

Ineffective use of text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC), that is, chats, may affect the quality of communicative exchange compared to effective use and to face-to-face (FtF) communication. Especially in groups making decisions in equivocal judgmental tasks, inappropriate use of the CMC medium often impairs performance. Users need high communication and media competencies to overcome the negative effects brought about by the technology. Without intervention, mutual understanding and satisfaction with the group process are reduced in computer-mediated decision groups. Training that helps participants adapt to the medium should provide them with the needed competencies. The authors found a complex pattern of process and outcome effects with the best performance scores in the FtF condition, performance scores in CMC with training approximating those of the FtF condition, and lowest performance scores in CMC without training.

COmputer-Mediated Communication: A Test of the Impact of Social Cues on the Choice of Medium for Resolving Misunderstandings

As communication technology improves, computer-mediated communication (CMC) increases in use for interpersonal interaction. While there are newer forms of CMC that interface with audio, graphic, and video data, for the most part text-based CMC (i.e., e-mail, IRC, other text chat) remains the most common and frequently used. The increased use of text-based CMC medium is not without its problems, as is the case with any other communication media. Text only CMC lacks the capacity to transmit nonverbal cues. This study explores CMC medium in communication misunderstandings. The findings indicate that although participants acknowledge the lack of nonverbal cues as a source of misunderstandings during interactions, they still express the willingness to use text-based CMC in resolving misunderstandings. This article also provides discussions, implications, and recommendations.

The Relationship of Social Presence and Interaction in Online Classes

The purpose of this research was to study social presence in the online learning environment. Dimensions of social presence were examined using quantitative and qualitative methods. Three dimensions of social presence-social context, online communication, and interactivity-emerged as important elements in establishing a sense of community among online learners. The privacy factor was also an important element in the level of comfort for students online. An increase in the level of online interaction occurs with an improved level of social presence. This can be fostered by considering characteristics of the learners, by selecting the appropriate computer-mediated communication medium, and by applying appropriate instructional elements to course design.

The Electronic Survey Technique: An Integration and Assessment

Even though e-mail is the most widely used computer-mediated communication medium, its considerable potential as a survey technique has received little attention from management scholars. Using a three-dimensional framework focused on sampling issues, nonsampling errors, and comparative performance, the authors review and integrate previous research on the electronic survey technique and provide an assessment of the comparative trade-offs vis-à-vis other techniques. Moreover, they provide recommendations for future researchers interested in using this approach. Finally, they conclude that although this approach poses unique challenges and drawbacks, when an unbiased sampling frame exists or can be constructed, it allows researchers to inexpensively gather data with less effort than other available approaches.

Critical examination of factors affecting interaction on CMC

This study examines how computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems, e-mail, bulletin board, real time discussion and listserv, enhance and inhibit on-line interaction from four theoretical constructs and four different types of interaction. A comprehensive search of the ERIC database was conducted and the relevant studies were referenced for the discussion. Analysis reveals that CMC systems enhance and inhibit on-line interaction. The user's perceptions and the attributes of CMC that enhance interactions must both be examined. The successful use of CMC in the classroom requires the selection of the correct CMC medium and group specific instructional design. CMC does not replace face-to-face communication. CMC provides a more flexible delivery and a greater selection of communication channels for online users. The users are able to optimize their communication, on-line image (face), and on-line impression easier than in face to face encounters that require the simultaneous use of all communication channels. Communication models and distance education theoretical constructs are reviewed.

Effects of instructions on computer-mediated communication in single- or mixed-gender small task groups

This study extends recent studies of gender and computer-mediated communication (CMC) in work groups which found a pattern of relationships between group activity and gender composition that helps understand satisfaction and productivity. The following hypotheses are tested: (a) participants in groups receiving group development encouraging instructions will show higher levels of participation, group development, and satisfaction than participants in groups receiving standard e-mail etiquette instructions; and (b) across gender composition conditions, group development will be positively related to use of self-disclosure, opinion, and coalition building language, and inversely related to use of facts, argumentativeness, and coarse and abusive language. Generally, the first hypothesis was not supported. However, closer examination indicates that groups' “gendered” communication styles may have overridden the experimental procedure so this hypothesis may not have been adequately tested. The second hypothesis concerning the relationship between group development and use of specific communication patterns is supported. The ability of some participants to demonstrate successful socioemotional behaviors in the test-based CMC medium suggests the need to reexamine theories which propose that communication is determined solely by its medium. Rather than focusing on the characteristics of the medium, it might be more productive to focus on the characteristics of the communication to understand CMC in small task groups.