Speech Communication 497B: Computer-Mediated Communication

#5. Describe/assess a digital activity or community (20%): NOTE: this project can be coupled with your Internet Use Project (#4), or act as the precursor to your Final Project (#6). Join (or begin watching a group you're already affiliated with) a thematic listserv, MOO, chat room, USENET group, or other digital venue, and assess what's going on there. Choose something youÕre interested in.

Try to assess a few of the reasons that this activity/community stays together and functions. In essence, youÕre asking: whatÕs going on and why? Is this a community? A "participatory genre" (Erickson, 1997)?

Survey the group for a defined period of time.

• Depending on the traffic (total participating membership frequency of postings), the time period could be 1 day or 2 weeks.

Describe the properties of the "discourse medium" (Erickson, 1997):

• What are the affordances and limitations of it's interface/features?
• How does the interface affect interaction? (see Erickson, 1997, for examples)
• headers? persistence (threaded discussion stays on-line, listserv messages may not)? do all participants see the same thing? can newcomers see the "whole" conversation (possible with threaded discussion/forums, not possible with listservs (unless they are archived)?

Possible questions you could ask include:

• What is the purported topic or theme? What binds the group together?
• Is the purported topic what is actually being discussed?
• Who posts a lot?
• What do they say?
• How are you responded too?

Look for "regularities" and recurrent patterns of language use and interaction (e.g., genre). From Erickson:

• declaration of inexperience
• participation hedge
• welcoming and encouraging comments
• affirmation and thanks for good posts
• jokes and word play

Include examples of postings/interactions to illustrate your points.

Total length ~5-7 pages.