LIS 590 CMC: Computer-Mediated Communication

Fall 2006

Syllabus: http://classweb.lis.uiuc.edu/~haythorn/Teaching/CMCFall2006.html

Note: this is the draft syllabus. All changes after August 2006 are found in the class Moodle space.

Moodle: http://courses.lis.uiuc.edu/course/view.php?id=20
(open to members of the class and invited guests only)

 

Caroline Haythornthwaite (haythorn@uiuc.edu)

Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Thursday 12-2:50pm, Room 109 LISB

Text: Barry Wellman & Caroline Haythornthwaite (Eds.) (2002). The Internet in Everyday Life. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Readings: as listed below (mainly online or available online via UIUC subscriptions).

This course traces issues and research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) that have accompanied the use and acceptance of new electronic media and their support through the Internet. Selecting from literature from the many fields that examine CMC (including computer science, communications, information science, management, psychology, and sociology), the course discusses the impact of CMC and its use on individuals, groups, communities, and society.

Note: This is a seminar course, consisting of reading and discussing current and background literature on CMC, the Internet and other forms of modern communication.

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LIS 590 CMC, Fall 2006

Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media and the Internet

This course traces issues and research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) that have accompanied the use and acceptance of new electronic media and the connective possibilities of the Internet. These media include ‘older’ new media such as email, bulletin boards, listservs, newsgroups, and chat, as well ‘new’ new media such as social software applications (Myspace, Facebook, etc.), and mobile devices (phones, PDAs, laptops). While the emphasis in this course is on CMC, it is now extremely difficult to separate CMC from the Internet, and it is equally difficult to separate CMC phenomena from daily life (e.g., as in earlier debates about ‘online community’). As a number of scholars have noted, CMC and the Internet have slipped into everyday life (Haythornthwaite & Wellman, 2002), becoming “embedded” (Howard, 2003), indispensable (Hoffman et al, 2004), even ordinary (Herring, 2004) and banal (Graham, 2004). However, it is this very ubiquity, the boringness, which is now a compelling reason for studying them. Leigh Star’s “call to study boring things” (1999, p. 377), although referring to the study of technological infrastructures, is as important for the daily use of such now-boring media as email as it was when the Internet was seen as a “dazzling light” from above (Haythornthwaite & Wellman, 2002; Wellman, 2004).

                  Despite the impending ordinariness of new media, there is much that is not ordinary or known about its outcomes. Although research is progressing in many new areas, development and understandings of use are often driven by grassroots use and anecdote. We do not have definitive answers to questions such as: Where do we look for the effects of new media? How does being online fit with being offline? What makes an online community work? What fosters trust in online interactions? What makes someone post to a listserv, contact a stranger, or otherwise engage online rather than face-to-face? How do they learn the rules, language and culture of the online world? What does it mean to be a ‘friend’ online, particularly in new social software environments? We don’t know when it is better to work, socialize, give support online, and when offline. We don’t know the social consequences of having some people online and others not, where and what constitutes the ‘digital divide’, and what are the short and long term consequences of letting CMC transactions become fundamental to daily life, or of the larger – global – social transformations that may arise from borderless, placeless communication.

                  This then is the general direction for this course. We will examine aspects of interpersonal communication (how and why CMC is different from other kinds of communication, what transformations are happening in interpersonal relationships because of CMC), groups and community online (how do norms develop and why, what is a community and is it possible to have one online), intersections of online and offline (e.g., community networks, home, work, etc.). We will situate this discussion in relation to research and debates about the workings and impact of CMC and the Internet, and in relation to the new and not-so-new ‘new media.’

Graham, S. Beyond the 'dazzling light': from dreams of transcendence to the 'remediation' of urban life - a research manifesto. New Media & Society, 6(1), 16-25.

Haythornthwaite, C. & Wellman, B. (2003). Introduction. In The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 3-44). Oxford, UK: Blackwells.

Herring, S. (2004). Slouching toward the ordinary: Current trends in computer-mediated communication. New Media & Society, 6(1), 26-36.

Hoffman, Donna L., Kalsbeek, William D., & Novak, Thomas P. (1996) Internet and web use in the U. S. Communications of the ACM, 39(12), 37-46.

Howard, P. (2003). Introduction. Embedded media: who we know, what we know, and society online. In P. Howard & S. Jones (eds.), Society Online (pp.1-27). Sage

Star, S.L. (1999). The ethnography of infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(3), 377-391.

Wellman B. (2004). The three ages of internet studies: Ten, five and zero years ago. New Media & Society, 6(1), 123-129.

Pre-Course Exploration

A few readings that will get you into the swing of CMC and Internet issues if you want to explore before class begins and otherwise as resources during the term.

Contemporary Trends

Rheingold, H. (2002) Smart mobs: The next social revolution. NY: Perseus Books.

Thurlow, C., Lengel, L. & Tomic, A. (2004). Computer-mediated communication: Social interaction and the Internet. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Assignments

Diary Study (30%) : Due Oct. 26

Participation (20%)

Major project/paper (50%)

Late assignments are subject to a grade penalty proportional to the delay in submission.

Late major paper submission must be discussed with me well before Dec. 1.


LIS 590 CMC Weekly Topics and Readings

Draft, August 9, 2006

Fall 2006

Caroline Haythornthwaite (haythorn@uiuc.edu)

Graduate School of Library and Information Science

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Thursday, 12-2:50pm, Room 109, LIS Building

 

**** Note: The expectation is that you will be reading approximately four, standard journal length papers a week. Some weeks list more than four items, sometimes because two short pieces are listed, sometimes because which ones to read will be decided as we get to the week.

Details about how and where online classes will be conducted will be described in class.

 

CMC Weeky Topic & Readings

Classes: Aug. 24, 31; Sept., 7, 14, 21-online, 28; Oct, 5, 12, 19, 26; Nov. 2-online, 9, 16, 30, Dec. 7

Note that two classes will be run as online classes. Details on how and where these classes will take place will be given in class.

Aug. 24 : Introduction

CMC, the Internet, the course: discussion

Aug. 31 : Overviews: CMC

Two short pieces on ‘then’ (1999), and ‘now’ (2004).

Silverstone, R. (1999). What's New about New Media?: Introduction. New Media & Society, 1(1), 10-12.

Lievrouw, L.A. (2004). What’s Changed about New Media? Introduction to the Fifth Anniversary Issue of New Media & Society, New Media & Society, 6(1), 9-15.

Reviews

Herring, S. C. (2002). Computer-mediated communication on the Internet. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 36, 109-168.

Haythornthwaite, C. & Nielsen, A. (2006). CMC: Revisiting Conflicting Results. In J. Gackenbach (Ed.) Psychology and the Internet, 2nd edition (pp. 161-180). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. <online via LEEP pages>

Walther, J. B., & Parks, M. R. (2002). Cues filtered out, cues filtered in: Computer-mediated communication and relationships. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of Interpersonal Communication (3rd ed., pp. 529-563). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

See also

Walther, J.B., Gay, G., and Hancock, J.T. (2005). How do communciation and technology researchers study the Internet? Journal of Communication, 55, 632-657.

Sept. 7 : Overviews: Internet

Internet Debates

Haythornthwaite, C. & Wellman, B. (2002). Introduction: The Internet in everyday life. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 3-44). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Nie N.H. (2001). Sociability, interpersonal relations, and the Internet: Reconciling conflicting findings. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3), 420-435.

Katz, J.  & Rice, R.E. (2002). Syntopia: Access, civic involvement and social interaction on the net. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet In Everyday Life (pp. 114-138). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Haythornthwaite, C. & Hagar, C. (2004). The social worlds of the web. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 39, 311-346.

Sept. 14 : Online Culture

Lori Kendall to visit re online video culture in second half of class

Smith, C. B., McLaughlin, M. L., Osborne, K. K. (1996). From terminal ineptitude to virtual sociopathy: Conduct control on Usenet. JCMC, 2(4). Available at: http:/www. ascusc. org/jcmc/vol2/issue4/smith.html.

King, J. L, Grinter, R. E., & Pickering, J. M. (1997). The rise and fall of Netville: The saga of a cyberspace construction boomtown in the great divide. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet (pp. 3-33). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Nissenbaum, H. (2004). Hackers and the contested ontology of cyberspace. New Media and Society, 6(2), 195-217.

Kendall, L. (2000). “Oh No! I’m a NERD!” White Masculinities Online. Gender & Society, 14(2), 256-274.

Sept. 21 [online] : Identity, Social Identity, and Interpersonal Relations

Turkle, S. (1996). Virtuality and its discontents. American Prospect, 24; based on book Life on the Screen.

Kendall, L. (1998). Meaning and identity in "cyberspace." The performance of gender, class, and race online. Symbolic Interaction, 21(2), 129-153.

Sander, William (n.d.). SIDE Theory, Small World Networks, and Smart Mob Formation: A Beginners Guide. Retrieved August 9, 2006 from: http://www.matei.org/ithink/collected-papers-persp-seminar/side-theory-small-world-networks-and-smart-mob-formation-a-beginners-guide/

Postmes, T., Spears, R., & Lea M. (1998). Breaching or building social boundaries?
 Side-effects of computer-mediated communication. Communication Research, 25(6), 689-715.

Ellison, N., Heino, R., & Gibbs, J. (2006). Managing impressions online: Self-presentation processes in the online dating environment. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2), article 2. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue2/ellison.html

boyd, danah and Jeffrey Heer (2006).  Profiles as Conversation: Networked Identity Performance on Friendster.  In Proceedings of the Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-39), Persistent Conversation Track. Kauai, HI: IEEE Computer Society. January 4 - 7, 2006. http://www.danah.org/papers/HICSS2006.pdf

Stutzman, F. (2006). The Evaluation of Identity-Sharing Behavior in Social Network Communities. Paper presented at the 2006 iDMAa + IMS “Code” conference (International Digital Media and Arts Association and Miami University’s Center for Interactive Media Studies). Retrieved August 7, 2006 from: http://www.units.muohio.edu/codeconference/papers/papers/stutzman_track5.pdf

 Sept. 28 : Online Networks / Online Communities

Katz, J. E., Rice, R. E., Acord, S., Dasgupta, K., & David, K.  (2004).  Personal mediated communication and the concept of community in theory and practice. In P. Kalbfleisch (Ed.), Communication and Community, Communication Yearbook, 28.  (pp. 315-371). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Wellman, B. (1997). An electronic group is a social network. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Cultures of the Internet (pp.179-205). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/electronicgroup/electronicgroup.pdf

Haythornthwaite, C. (forthcoming). Social networks and online community. To appear in A. Joinson, K. McKenna, U. Reips & T. Postmes (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford University Press.  [Available temporarily at: http://leep.lis.uiuc.edu/publish/haythorn/Papers/Haythornthwaite_SNandOnlineCommunity_April2006.doc]

Boase, J., Horrigan, J. B., Wellman, B. & Rainie, L. (2006). The Strength of  Internet Ties. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved May 28, 2006 from: www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Internet_ties.pdf

Donath, J. & boyd, d. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal, 22(4). 71-84. Retrieved August 9, 2006 from:  http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/PublicDisplays.pdf.

Oct. 5  : Online Communities / Game Communities

Dmitri Williams to visit re the social life of games

Tepper, M. (2003). The rise of social software, netWorker, 7(3), 18-23.

Williams, D. (2006, in press). A (brief) social history of video games. In P. Vorderer & J. Bryant (Eds.) Playing Computer Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Williams, D., N. Ducheneaut, L. Xiong, Y. Zhang, N. Yee & E. Nickell (in press). From tree house to barracks: The social life of guilds in World of Warcraft. Games & Culture.

Hartmann, T., and Klimmt, C. (2006). Gender and computer games: Exploring females’ dislikes. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(4), article 2. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/hartmann.html

Resource

UIUC Library, Gaming website (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/gaming/) features information about gaming research resources, gaming activities at UIUC, and current gaming news with an RSS feed.

Oct. 12 : Internet Access and Internet in the Community

Howard, P., Rainie, L. & Jones, S. (2002). Days and Nights on the Internet. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 45-73). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Hargittai, E. & Shafer, S. (2006). Differences in actual and perceived online skills: The Role of gender. Social Science Quarterly, 87(2):432-448.

Kavanaugh, A. & Patterson, S. (2002). The impact of computer networks on social capital and community involvement in Blacksburg. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet In Everyday Life (pp. 325-344). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Hampton, Keith (2006). e-Neighbors: Neighborhoods in the Network Society. Working draft. Available temporarily at: http://leep.lis.uiuc.edu/publish/haythorn/ClassReadings/CMCReadings/Hampton_eneighborsplace.pdf

See also

Eastin, M. S., & LaRose, R. (2000). Internet self-efficacy and the psychology of the digital divide. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 6(1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol6/issue1/eastin.html

Dobransky, K. & Hargittai, E. (
2006). The disability divide in internet access and use. Information, Communnication and Society, 9(3), 313-334.

 

Oct. 19 : Conversation, Language & Genre

Walther, J.B. (2004). Language and communication technology: An introduction to the special issue. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 23, 384-396.

Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L. A., Bonus, S., and Wright, E. (2005). Weblogs as a bridging genre. Information, Technology & People, 18(2), 142-171.

Herring, S. C., and Paolillo, J. C. (2006). Gender and genre variation in weblogs. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 10(4), 439-459. Preprint: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/jslx.pdf

Thurlow, C. (2006). From statistical panic to moral panic: The metadiscursive construction and popular exaggeration of new media language in the print media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(3), article 1. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue3/thurlow.html

See also

Huffaker, D. A., and Calvert, S. L. (2005). Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(2), article 1. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html

Bregman, A. & Haythornthwaite, C. (2003). Radicals of presentation: Visibility, relation, and co-presence in persistent conversation. New Media and Society, 5(1), 117-140.

Oct. 26 : Diary Studies of CMC Use

Diary studies due today

Nie, N.H., Hillygus, S.D. & Erbring, L. (2002). Internet use, interpersonal relations and sociability: A time diary study. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 215-243). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Copher, J., Kanfer, A. & Walker, M.B. (2002). Everyday communication patterns of heavy and light email users. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 263-288). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Robinson, J., Kestnbaum, M., Neustadtl, A. & Alvarez, A. (2002).The Internet and other uses of time. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 244-262). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

 

Nov. 2 [online] : Mobility & Cell phones

Green, N. (2002). On the move: Technology, mobility, and the mediation of social time and space, The Information Society, 18(4), 281-292.

Ling, R. (2004). The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone's Impact on Society. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. <excerpt>

Pew Internet and American Life Project (March 3, 2006). How Americans use their cell phones. News release at: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/179/report_display.asp; Report at: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Cell_phone_study.pdf.

Gant, D. & Kiesler, S. (2002). Blurring the boundaries: Cell phones, mobility, and the line between work and personal life. In B. Brown, N. Green & R. Harper (Eds.), Wireless world: Social and interactional aspects of the mobile age. NY Springer Verlag.

 

Nov. 9 : Internet at Home: Domestication and at work@home

Venkatesh, A. (2006). Introduction to the Special Issue on “ICT in Everyday Life: Home and Personal Environments”. The Information Society, 22(4), 191-194.

Haythornthwaite, C. & Kazmer, M. M. (2002). Bringing the Internet home: Adult distance learners and their Internet, Home and Work worlds. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 431-463). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Salaff, Janet (2002). Where home is the office: The new form of flexible work. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 464-495). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Kraut, R., Mukhopadhyay, T., Szczypula, J., Kiesler, S., & Scherlis, B. (2000). Information and communication: Alternative uses of the Internet in households. Information Systems Research, 10, 287-303.

Kennedy, T.L.M. & Wellman, B. (in preparation). The Networked Household. [copy available from authors]

 

Nov. 16 : Transformative Effects

Hyperpersonal communication

Walther, J.B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3-43.

Networked individualism

Wellman, B., Quan-Haase, A., Boase, J., Chen, W., Hampton, K., de Diaz, I. I., & Miyata, K. (2003). The social affordances of the Internet for networked individualism. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 8(3). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue3/wellman.html

Latent ties

Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social networks and Internet connectivity effects. Information, Communication and Society, 8(2), 125-147.

Disengaging

Kazmer, M. M. (in press). Beyond C U L8R: Disengaging from online social worlds. New Media and Society. http://mailer.fsu.edu/~mkazmer/kazmer_disengaging_nms.pdf

Folksonomies

Mathes, A. (2004). Folksonomies - cooperative classification and communication through shared metadata. Retrieved October 14, 2005 from: http://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html

Sociotechnical capital

Resnick, P. (2002). Beyond bowling together: Sociotechnical capital. In J. Carroll, HCI in the New Millennium (pp. 247-272). Addison-Wesley. Draft available online at: http://www. si. umich. edu/~presnick/papers/stk/ResnickSTK. pdf

 

Nov. 23 : Thanksgiving week

Nov. 30 : Presentations

Dec. 7 : Presentations