Browsing by Subject "computer-mediated communication"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Evaluating Peers in Cyberspace: The Impact of Anonymity
    (2016) Christie, Charlene; Dill, Emily
    This research examined the question of whether the anonymity found in most types of computer-mediated communication (CMC) impacted individual reactions to people who agreed or disagreed with their own opinions. Participants (N = 256) evaluated other respondents who voiced an attitude that was either similar or dissimilar to the one they endorsed. The social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995), suggests that anonymous group members will experience a heightened sense of social identity and show an increased likelihood of protecting that group by disparaging those who disagree with their beliefs. However, in the absence of a salient ingroup, we fail to find support for this. In contrast, we provide evidence that the impact of anonymity on interpersonal evaluations of peers is moderated by individual difference factors. Only those participants with high self-esteem, low levels of social anxiousness, or an elevated sense of autonomy evaluated targets more negatively when anonymous rather than identifiable. The current research suggests that any models used to understand anonymity's effects in CMC situations will need to carefully consider both social and personal identity characteristics.
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    Identifying Cross-Cultural Differences of Emoticons In Computer-Mediated Communication: A Comparison of North American (U.S.) and South Korean Emotional Responses to Emoticons
    (2011-01-11) Cha, Young-Joo; Faiola, Anthony; Defazio, Joseph; Jones, Josette
    The lack of physical communication cues, such as facial expressions, in text-only communication has prompted the creation of emoticons to represent feelings. Moreover, the emoticon has become a new “cultural” language adopted by a community of users who find emoticons useful for expressing an emotional state during their online communication. Using emoticons in computer-mediated communication (CMC), which includes any means of communication on the Internet, especially instant messaging (IM) programs, helps users convey and enhance the underlying emotional aspects of their communication facilitating user communication by providing non-verbal cues and clues to clarify a message. Although many researchers have studied the differences in the use of emoticons between males and females and different age groups and some even report cross-cultural differences and similarities between CMC and face-to-face (FTF) communication such research is not sufficient to understand the effective use of emoticons. The current research explores three categories of emoticons - textual, pictorial, and animated emoticons – to ask the broad question: Do North Americans and South Koreans use emoticons differently? The research examines the cross-cultural differences involved in using emoticons, focusing on the visual aspect of online communication that provides emotional cues to understand the differences in their use. Textual emoticons and pictorial emoticons of MSN messenger are used in this study's questionnaires. The results indicate the cross-cultural differences of emoticon use and recognition between North Americans and South Koreans.
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    The Influence of Holistic and Analytic Cognitive Styles on Online Information Design: Toward a communication theory of cultural cognitive design
    (2008-04) Faiola, Anthony; MacDorman, Karl F.
    Although studies have linked culture to online user preferences and performance, few communication researchers have recognized the impact of culture on online information design and usability. It is important to ask if people are better able to use and prefer Web sites created by designers from their own culture. We propose that to improve computer-mediated communication, Web site design should accommodate culturally diverse user groups. First, a body of research is presented that aligns East Asian cultures with more holistic cognitive styles and Western cultures with more analytical cognitive styles. Building on this contrast, a theory of cultural cognitive design is proposed as a means of understanding how cognitive styles that develop under the influence of culture lead to different ways of designing and organizing information for the Web.
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    Supporting mega-collaboration: a framework for the dynamic development of team culture
    (2011-10-19) Newlon, Christine Mae; MacDorman, Karl F.; Faiola, Anthony; Jones, Josette F.
    This research project, inspired by the nationwide crisis following Hurricane Katrina, identifies mega-collaboration as an emergent social phenomenon enabled by the Internet. The substantial, original contribution of this research is a mega-collaboration tool (MCT) to enable grassroots individuals and organizations to rapidly form teams, negotiate problem definitions, allocate resources, organize interventions, and mediate their efforts with those of official response organizations. The project demonstrated that a tool that facilitates the exploration of a team’s problem space can support online collaboration. It also determined the basic building blocks required to construct a mega-collaboration tool. In addition, the project demonstrated that it is possible to dynamically build the team data structure through use of the proposed interface, a finding that validates the database design at the core of the MCT. This project has made a unique contribution by proposing a new operational vision of how disaster response, and potentially many other problems, should be managed in the future.