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Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore // Computer-Mediated Communication Online Communities and the Symbolic Construction of Community 1 February 2012
Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore //
Computer-Mediated Communication
Online Communities and the Symbolic Construction of Community
1 February 2012
Mailing List:[email protected]
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https://calmail.berkeley.edu/manage/list/listinfo/[email protected]
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., mid-March)
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:
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http://cmc2012.pbworks.com user:
[email protected] pass: smallestbear
Wrap up from last week:
self-presentationand 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
% of interactions involving a lie
27%
37%
21%
14%
FtF Phone EmailInstant
Message
Results — Hancock et al.
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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.
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Image: Time Barrow Dissertation Research, http://blog.timebarrow.com/2009/09/media-richness-theory/
Other Dimensions:
Synchronicity
Recordability
Distribution of Speaker/Listener
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Media features FtF Phone IM Email
Synchronous X X X*
Recordless X X X*
Distributed (not copresent)
X X X
Lying predictions
Feature-based 2 1 2 3
Media Richness 1 2 3 4
Social Distance 4 3 2 1
Feature-based approach
* Usually
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Predictions based on features
The more recordable the medium (paper-trail), the less likely people are to lie.
The more synchronous and distributed (but not recordable), the more lying will occur: Phone most FtF IM Email least Others?
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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
Detecting deception Most people are
no better thanchance
Some markers: Higher pitch Microexpressions Certain body movements Use of language may differ
“Motivation impairment effect”
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Source: www.humintell.com
Community
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“Mechanical Solidarity”“Organic Solidarity”
“Classic” Conception of Community (The Chicago School)
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The ‘Myths’ of CommunitySimplicity and F2F
“…the anatomy of social life at the micro-level 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.”
http://itawambahistory.blogspot.com/
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Community Boundaries
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other,outgroup
ingroup
other,outgroup
Symbols and Community
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Symbols versus Emblems, Signs
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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2/1/12 Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication 24from 37signals.com
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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) “ ”
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?
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)2/1/12 32Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication
Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore //
Brief History and What Makes an Online Community Anyway?
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
What aspects define a community?
Symbols?
Poster to post ratio?
Network ties?
Affect-ladenrelationships?
Common practices?
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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 unvalued7
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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”?
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?
6 + 6 > 12?
Fully connected network: N people, N(N-1)/2 ties
Connections grow at a much faster rate (quadratic vs. linear)
Bridge
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
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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).
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