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Computer-Mediated
Communication
Online Communities and the Symbolic
Construction of Community
Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore
//
1 February 2012
Mailing List:
[email protected]
https://calmail.berkeley.edu/manage/list
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Final project schedule
 We will facilitate in-class group discussion
of project ideas.
 A project description/report will be due
halfway through the semester (e.g., midMarch)
 Final Projects will be presented and due as
the single deliverable for the course.
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More Final Project Examples!
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A few examples of project types:




Design, prototype or build a novel CMC system
Experiment using a CMC system
Analyze or visualize interaction in a CMC system
Research a specific CMC system or domain of systems
and collect empirical data (interviews, small survey, etc).
Importantly, everyone should:
(1) build on a strong theoretical foundation
(2) use this foundation to justify the solution
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Final Project Ideas Wiki:
http://cmc2012.pbworks.com
user: [email protected]
pass: smallestbear
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Wrap up from last week:
self-presentation
and deception
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“The problem with 'The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life' and the use of it in the discussion
of CMC and identity, is that his dramaturgical
metaphors are manifested in analogue examples
and not intended for being use online. This is
evident when talking about backstage - at home
with no physical presence of people – and this is
most often where we are when commutating with
other people online” -Morten
“I wonder if sociologists like Goffman who write
about basic human functions or interactions
ever take a step back and wonder, as I often do,
what exactly the value is that is being added.
Do they question it?” -Monica
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Results — Hancock et al.
% of interactions involving a lie
37%
27%
21%
14%
FtF
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Phone
Instant
Email
Message
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Deception as an aspect of “Media Richness”
 Media ‘richness’ is
only a singular
dimension that may
mask the complexity
of choice, behavior
and inference of
purpose.
Image: Time Barrow Dissertation Research,
http://blog.timebarrow.com/2009/09/media-richness-theory/
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Other Dimensions:
 Synchronicity
 Recordability
 Distribution of
Speaker/Listener
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Feature-based approach
Media features
FtF
Phone
IM
Synchronous
X
X
X*
Recordless
X
X
X*
X
X
X
Distributed
(not copresent)
Email
Lying predictions
Feature-based
2
1
2
3
Media Richness
1
2
3
4
Social Distance
4
3
2
1
* Usually
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Predictions based on features
 The more recordable the medium (papertrail), the less likely people are to lie.
 The more synchronous and distributed (but
not recordable), the more lying will occur:





Phone
FtF
IM
Email
Others?
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most
least
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“It was surprising to me that a diary study
about the mediums of deception found that
participants lied most frequently on the phone.
I would've thought that lying in emails, chat,
or other forms of indirect communication
where the two people can neither hear nor
see each other is much more common than
on the phone or face-to-face” - Wei
“I don't agree that deception in person is as
straightforward as he claims. While there are
visual cues, body language and the ability to
infer from your interaction, being able to judge
deception F2F can be just as complex if there is
no prior relationship or history with the other
person” - Kristine
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Detecting deception
 Most people are
no better than
chance
 Some markers:




Higher pitch
Microexpressions
Certain body movements
Use of language may differ
Source: www.humintell.com
 “Motivation impairment effect”
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Community
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“Classic” Conception of Community
(The Chicago School)
“Organic Solidarity”
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“Mechanical Solidarity”
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The ‘Myths’ of Community
Simplicity and F2F
“…the anatomy of social life at the microlevel 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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http://itawambahistory.blogspot.com/
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Community Boundaries
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ingroup
other,
outgroup
other,
outgroup
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Symbols and Community
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Symbols versus Emblems, Signs
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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.”
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from 37signals.com
Symbolic meaning (and variation)
within communities
“Patriotism”
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“
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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Community Boundaries and Symbols
“Symbols do not so much express meaning as give
us the capacity to make meaning.”
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Community Boundaries and Symbols
Public face
(symbolically simple)
Private face
(symbolically complex)
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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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Some questions to consider
Examples of communities in CMC and the use
of symbols?
How does a community define its
boundaries? If there have been times
when those boundaries were violated,
how did members respond?
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http://xkcd.com/802/
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Community Boundaries Online:
Facebook Newsfeed Fiasco of ‘06
“The point is, you're always
presenting the identity you want to
present - you never have to worry
about the identity you used to
present … This morning, millions of
students were shown that they can't
actually rewrite history. Everything
they do, all of the groups they join
and interests they state or friends
they make - it is all being recorded.”
(Fred Stutzman)
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Brief History and What Makes an
Online Community Anyway?
Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore
//
The Beginnings of Online Community…
The first large-scale online
communities were Usenet
discussion groups and
forums
- Developed around 1979
- No official structure
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https://www.msu.edu/~atf/images/treemap_all.gif
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What aspects define a community?
Common practices?
Network ties?
Symbols?
Poster to post ratio?
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Affect-laden
relationships?
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Social networks and online community
“Community emerges where the
cumulative impact of interactions
among individuals adds value above
the level of pairwise interactions.”
— Caroline Haythornthwaite
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The network perspective
People
(nodes)
Ties
(edges)
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Ties in a social network
(as modeled in SN analysis)
 Directed or undirected
 Simplex or multiplex
 Valued or unvalued
7
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Network approach to community
 Examines interconnections to discover where
groups exist rather than determining a priori that
a group exists based on external criteria.
 But is this a community? Or “an alliance, a
collaborative work group, a collective, a cohort”?
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Social networks and Social Capital
 Accumulate capital
 Social capital
 Knowledge capital
 Communion
… all achieved through
network ties?
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The power of social capital and the
structure of social networks
1+1=2
1 + 1 > 2?
2 + 2 > 4?
Fully connected network:
N people, N(N-1)/2 ties
Connections grow
at a much faster rate
(quadratic vs. linear)
Bridge
6 + 6 > 12?
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Anonymity and Behavior in Online
Groups and Communities
Photo Attribution: http://mimanifesto.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/anonymous1.jpg
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Anonymity, Pseudonymity, and Identity
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Shyness and Anonymity
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Aggressiveness and Anonymity
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Group Dynamics and
Anonymity
Influence
Leadership
Status Power
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Finding Community
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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
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For next Wednesday…
Privacy and information control
 Mayer-Schonberger, V. (2009) "Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the
Digital Age". Princeton University Press. (In reader.)
 Boyd, D., and Hargittai, E. Facebook Privacy Settings: Who Cares?.
In First Monday 15(8).
 Cheshire, C., Antin, J. and Churchill, E. (2010) Behaviors, Adverse
Events and Dispositions: An Empirical Study of Online Discretion and
Information Control. In Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology 61(7).
Remember to write your reviews!
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