L565: Computer-Mediated
Communication
Semester: |
Fall 2003 |
Instructor: |
Susan Herring |
Time: |
Tuesdays 1-3:45 p.m. |
Office: |
LI 005 B |
Place: |
LI 031 |
Phone: |
(812) 856-4919 (voice mail) |
Section: |
7733 |
Email: |
herring @ indiana.edu |
Instructor's Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 4-5
p.m. and by appointment |
|||
Class majordomo list: herring_cmc @ indiana.edu |
Required
Readings:
Photocopied articles to be made available on
e-reserves or in the SLIS library.
Sproull, Lee & Sara Kiesler. 1991. Connections:
New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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
simultaneously 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 types; key CMC theories and debates; contexts
of use; contemporary trends; 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. Historically, most CMC is text-based;
examples include email, distribution lists, threaded newsgroups, chat, ICQ,
MUDs, and Instant Messaging. Since the mid-1990s, multimodal CMC has become
increasingly important, in the form of video chat, audio chat, and graphical
virtual reality environments—and, of course, the World Wide Web. CMC may
be 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.
Invented in the late 1960s,
CMC has grown at a dizzying rate over the past three and a half decades. Experts
claim that CMC is fast 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. Arguably the moment has already arrived when
every educated person in technologically-advanced countries below a certain age
is expected to know how to use the Web, and to communicate using email.
In this course, we will
evaluate the potentials and pitfalls of various modes of CMC in three contexts
of use: organizational, educational, and non-institutional (i.e., the Internet
at large), with an emphasis on the latter. The order of contexts roughly
recapitulates the evolution of scholarly interest in CMC, which first focused
in the late 1970s and early 1980s on how CMC affects communication and
productivity in the workplace, and starting in the mid-to-late 1980s on the
pedagogical potentials and effects of CMC, then expanded with the growth of the
Internet in the 1990s to the social and recreational (and economic) practices
that take place in public space online. The course is also chronologically
organized in that older CMC technologies are discussed first, and newer technologies
are discussed later in the semester.
The course will be conducted
in an informal lecture-discussion format, with opportunity for student
participation in each class meeting.
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 take informal reading notes on them (1-2 paragraphs identifying each article's
main claim(s), and commenting on or questioning some aspect of the article that
is of interest to you). The reading notes will help prepare you for class
discussions, exams, and will provide feedback that will enable me to conduct
the course to better meet your interests and needs. Reading notes will be
collected at the end of each class period. Therefore, you will need to print
them on individual sheets of paper, rather than write them in a bound journal.
Exams: There
will be a midterm (in-class) and a final, essay-type (take-home) 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. Review sheets
of key concepts will be distributed before the exams. Students who receive a
grade of B+ or higher on the midterm will have the option of writing a term
paper (see below) instead of taking the final exam.
Term paper (OPTIONAL). You may write a 4500-7000 word term
paper (excluding references and 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, but can be any type of CMC you
are interested in (providing you can get reasonable and ethical access to it).
However, the analysis should be theoretically grounded in concepts 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 majordomo list
for this course. 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 majordomo list is encouraged,
although it is not a requirement of the course.
4. Grading
Your grade for the course
will be calculated as follows:
Reading notes and class participation |
30% |
Midterm exam |
30% |
Final exam OR term paper |
40% |
Total: |
100% |
|
|
Grading policy:
• Late
reading notes will be accepted once
during the semester, no questions asked, provided they are turned in at least
two days before the next class meeting. If you turn in notes electronically, please
send them as plain (ascii) text, rather than as an attachment.
• Reading
notes and class participation will be graded with a check mark for each class
meeting, to indicate that the requirement was met. Reading notes are to be
handed in on the day the reading is discussed. 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 before class. You
will also need to be physically present and alert. Participation cannot be made
up if you miss a class.
• The
exams and the term paper will be assigned letter grades (A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+,
C, etc.).
• The
exams 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 expectations regarding the last two
criteria are higher for the final (take-home) exam than for the in-class
midterm.
• 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.
Course Schedule
(Subject to change with
advance notice)
----------------
Week 1 (9/2): |
Introduction to
computer-mediated communication. Modes of CMC. |
Read: |
1. Herring, S. C. (2002).
Computer-mediated communication and the Internet. Annual Review of
Information Science and Technology,
36, 109-132. (No reading notes are due for this article.) |
----------------
Week 2 (9/9): |
The early days of CMC technology
and use. The development of the Arpanet, the Internet, and Usenet. |
Read: |
1. Leiner, B. M. et al.
(1997). The past and future history of the Internet. Communications of the
ACM, 40 (2). 2.
Licklider J. C. R. & Taylor, R. W. (1968). The computer as a
communication device. International Science and Technology, April. http://memex.org/licklider.pdf 3.
Hafner, K. & Lyon, M. (1996). E-mail. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. 4.
Rheingold, H. (1993). Grassroots groupminds. The Virtual Community:
Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/ |
Demonstration: |
Dejanews; The Wayback Machine |
----------------
Week 3 (9/16): |
The debate over the nature of CMC. Information
exchange vs. socio-emotional expression. What is CMC good (or bad) for? |
Read: |
1. Daft, R. & Lengel,
R. (1984). Information richness: A new approach to managerial behavior and
organization design. Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 6, 191-233. 2.
Kiesler, S. et al. (1984). Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated
communication. American Psychologist, 39, 1123-34. 3.
Rice, R. & Love, G. (1987). Electronic emotion: Socioemotional content in
a computer-mediated network. Communication Research, 14, 85-108. 4. Walther, J. (1996). Computer-mediated
communication: Impersonal, interpersonal and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication
Research, 23(1), 3-43. |
----------------
Week 4 (9/23): |
CMC in organizations, Part I: Genres. Efficiency,
decision-making, and group dynamics. Secondary social effects. |
Read: |
1. Yates, J. & Orlikowsky,
W. (1991). Genres of organizational communication: An approach to studying
communication and media. MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper. 2.
Sproull & Kiesler, Chs. 1-5. (Take separate reading notes for each chapter.) |
----------------
Week 5 (9/30): |
CMC in organizations, Part
II: Influence, control, and organizational change. Speculation vs. empirical
findings. |
Read: |
1. Sproull & Kiesler,
Chs. 6-9. (Take separate reading
notes for each chapter.) 2.
Ahuja, M. K. & Carley, K. M. (1998). Network structure in virtual
organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3(4). http://jcmc.huji.ac.il/vol3/issue4/ahuja.html |
----------------
Week 6 (10/7): |
CMC and education. Online learning. Review for
midterm. |
Read: |
1. Bourne, J. R., McMaster,
E., Rieger, J., & Campbell, J. O. (1999). Paradigms for on-line learning:
A case study in the design and implementation of an asynchronous learning
networks (ALN) course. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 1(2). http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/issue2/nssee.htm 2.
Noble, D. F. (1998). Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher
education. First Monday
3(1). http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/index.html 3.
Hara, N. & Kling, R. (2000). Students' distress with a Web-based distance
education course. Center for Social Informatics Working Papers
00-01-B1.
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/csi/WP/wp00-01B.html |
----------------
Week 7 (10/14): |
Midterm exam. |
----------------
Week 8 (10/21): |
CMC on the Internet:
Community. Examples of a listserv community (The Well) and a MUD community
(ElseMOO). |
Read: |
1. Fernback, J. & Thompson,
B. (1995). Virtual communities: Abort, retry, failure? http://www.well.com/user/hlr/texts/VCcivil.html 2.
Rheingold, H. (1993). Introduction & The Heart of the Well. The
Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/ (Note: Treat the two Rheingold chapters as
one article for reading notes.) 3.
Cherny, L. (1999). Conversation and Community, Chs. 1-2. (Note: Treat the two Cherny chapters as one
article for reading notes.) |
Demonstration: |
A social MUD |
----------------
Week 9 (10/28): |
CMC on the Internet:
Community (continued). Usenet and IRC. |
Read: |
1. Baym, N. (1995). The
emergence of community in computer-mediated communication. In: Cybersociety, ed. by S. Jones. 2.
Reid, E. (1991). Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet
Relay Chat. Senior Honours thesis,
University of Melbourne, Australia. http://www.crosswinds.net/~aluluei/electropolis.htm 3.
Liu, G. Z. (1999). Virtual community presence in Internet Relay Chatting. Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communication
5(1). http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol5/issue1/liu.html |
Demonstration: |
Internet Relay Chat |
----------------
Week 10 (11/4): |
Computer-mediated
language. Linguistic features of CMC. |
Read: |
1. Herring, S. C. (1998).
Variation and change in e-mail style. (English version of: Le style du
courrier électronique: variabilité et changement. Terminogramme 84-85: 9-16.) 2.
Cho, N. (In press). Linguistic features of electronic mail: A comparison with
memoranda. In: Computer-Mediated Conversation, ed. by S. Herring. 3.
Werry, C. (1996). Linguistic and interactional features of Internet Relay
Chat. In: Computer-Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social and
Cross-Cultural Perspectives, ed.
by S. Herring. 4.
Cherny, L. (1999). Conversation and Community, Ch.3. |
Recommended: |
1. Suler, J. (1996).
E-mail communication and relationships. http://www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/emailrel.html
- anatomy 2.
Suler, J. (1996). TextTalk: Psychological dynamics of online synchronous
conversations in text-driven chat environments. http://www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/texttalk.html |
----------------
Week 11 (11/11): |
Identity, gender, and
race. Conscious self-presentation vs. unconscious cues given off through
communication styles. |
Read: |
1. Donath, J. (1999).
Identity and deception in the virtual community. In: Communities in
Cyberspace, ed. by M. Smith &
P. Kollock. 2.
Burkhalter, B. (1999). Reading race online. In: Communities in Cyberspace, ed. by M. Smith & P. Kollock. 3.
Danet, B. (1998). Text as mask: Gender, play and performance on the Internet.
In: Cybersociety 2.0, ed. by S.
Jones. 4. Herring, S. C. (2001). Gender and power in
online communication. Center for Social Informatics Working Papers
01-05. http://www.slis.indiana.edu/csi/WP/WP01-05B.html |
----------------
Week 12 (11/18): |
Social problems in
cyberspace. Cyberstalking, trolling and hate speech. |
Read: |
1. Gilbert, P. (1997). On
space, sex and stalkers. Women and Performance 17. http://www.echonyc.com/~women/Issue17/art-gilbert.html 2. Herring, S. C. et al. (2002). Searching for Safety Online: Managing 'Trolling' in a
Feminist Forum. Center for Social Informatics Working Papers
02-03. http://www.slis.indiana.edu/csi/WP/WP02-03B.html 3. Zickmund, S. (1997). Approaching the Radical
Other: The Discursive Culture of Cyberhate. In:Virtual culture: Identity
and communication in cybersociety,
ed. by S. Jones, 185-205. |
Recommended: |
1. Dibbell, J. (1993). A rape in cyberspace. The Village Voice, Dec. 21, 36-42. http://www.levity.com/julian/bungle.html 2.
Herring, S. C. (2002). Cyber Violence: Recognizing and resisting abuse in
online environments. Asian Women
14 (Summer). |
----------------
Week 13 (11/25): |
The World Wide Web.
Hypertextuality. Mass vs. interpersonal communication. |
Read: |
1. Berners-Lee, T. (1996).
The World Wide Web: Past, present and future. http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/1996/ppf.html 2.
Hoffman, D. & Novak, R. (1995). Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated
Environments: Conceptual Foundations. http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/cmepaper.revision.july11.1995/cmepaper.html 3.
Jackson, M. (1997). Assessing the Structure of Communication on the World
Wide Web. JCMC 3(1). http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue1/jackson.html 4.
O'Sullivan, P. (1999). 'Personal Broadcasting': Theoretical Implications of
the Web. http://www.ilstu.edu/~posull/PersBroad.htm |
----------------
THANKSGIVING BREAK
----------------
Week 14 (12/2): |
Multimodal CMC. What are
the effects of adding other channels of communication? Graphics, audio and
video. |
Read: |
1. Lombard, M. &
Ditton, T. (1997). At the heart of it all: The concept of presence. JCMC 3(2). http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue2/lombard.html 2.
Walther, J. (1999). Visual cues and computer-mediated communication: Don't look
before you leap. http://www.rensselaer.edu/~walthj/ica99.html 3.
Hollan, J. & Stornetta, S. (1992). Beyond being there. ACM. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/142750.142769 4. Sellen, A. (1992). Speech
patterns in video-mediated conversations. ACM. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/142750.142756 |
Recommended: Demonstration: |
1. Neal, L. (1997).
Virtual classrooms and communities. http://www3.ncsu.edu/dox/NBE/neal/nealtitle.htm Video conferencing |
----------------
Week 15 (12/9): |
Graphical Virtual Reality
Environments. Review for final exam. |
Read: |
1. Krikorian, D. H. et al.
(2000). Isn't that spatial? Distance and communication in a 2-D virtual environment.
JCMC 5(4). http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol5/
issue4/krikorian.html 2.
Herring, S., Börner, K., & Swan, M. B. (2002). "There, you're right next to
me": Spatial reference in a 3-D virtual world. MS. (No
reading notes are due for this week's articles.) |
Recommended: Demonstration: |
1. Suler, J. (1996). The
Psychology of Avatars and Graphical Space in Multimedia Chat Communities. http://www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/psyav.html ActiveWorlds |
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Week 16 (12/16): |
Take-home Final exam OR Term paper due by 5 p.m. |
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Last updated: 8/26/03