SOC250 Group Presentation: Mediated Identity and Interaction

Nicholas Corr Jones George Hilary Key

Overview:
Introduction Micro Online: Identity

Micro Online: Interaction

Introduction:

Mediation:
Mediation refers to what media do, and to what we do with the media. It is a term that defines the media, both the media of mass communication (radio, television, the world wide web, but also the press) and the media of interpersonal communication (fixed and mobile telephony, e-mail, but also the letter), as actively creating a symbolic and cultural space in which meanings are created and communicated beyond the constraints of the face to face, and which is becoming increasingly significant for the conduct of public, institutional and private life. Readers, viewers and audiences are part of this process of mediation, because they continue the work of the media in the ways they respond to, extend and further communicate what they see and hear on the worlds multitude of screens and speakers (Silverstone, 2006).

Example One:
...think about a new album by your favourite artist. It is not just the sound of a few musicians playing together in a studio. Instead, the reality of the sound that they might make has been mediated before it reaches you. Engineers and producers have re-modeled the sound and artists have packaged the album. Newspapers and magazines have reported the group and created a context for the album so that most people probably had an opinion about it before it came out.

Example Two:
If you ever go to see a comedy show recorded for the television, you will see the process of mediation in action. What might end up as a half hour broadcast, will be recorded over an entire evening jokes that might seem spontaneous when watched on the TV will have been endlessly repeated until just right. The studio audience will have been trained into laughing in exactly the right way by warm up men and the text that finally reaches the public will also be given context by use of soundtrack music and computer graphics.

Computer Mediated Communication:

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is a term which refers to human communication via computers. Synchronous CMC : where interaction takes place in real time Synchronous CMC includes various types of text-based online chat, computer, audio, and video conferencing; Asynchronous CMC: where participants are not necessarily online simultaneously. Asynchronous CMC encompasses email, discussion forums, and mailing lists.

 CMC can take place over local area networks (LANs) or over the Internet. Internet CMC, as well as allowing for global communication, also provides for the added dimension of hypertext links to sites on the www, and to email addresses.

Forms of Mediated Interaction:

E-Mail World Wide Web (WWW, W3) Online News Media Chat Rooms

Text messaging
Blogs Social Networking Sites: -Content Centric -User Centric

Linguistics in Mediated Communication:

Orthography Informal ("phonetic") spelling Do wot I did Luv from SD Dunno how easy itll be Speed-writing (esp. with mobile phones): combination of informal spelling with letter omission

Thx 4 yr txt

 Absence of capitalization (even with pronoun I and proper names) I got your email. ill be over later on in the day

Linguistics in Mediated Communication

Vocabulary Informal If you give it to me to look at in the summer hols Ill be able to have a peek at it myself sometime. I think the N lot managed to dagger it quite effectively. Oh goody. ... Even goodier. Use of interjections At last phew! This was the last bid with N, oh, ages ago. Not back till Saturday: grooh.

 Use of "in"-terms and abbreviations (BTW, ROTFL, PTB) BTW have you heard an update on the continuing saga?

Linguistics in Mediated Communication

Grammar Telegraphic" language Have forwarded the N email. Will do, but am not back in office until Tuesday. Chaining" (multiple coordination/subordination in sequence)

Linguistics in Mediated Communication

Discourse and Text

use of interaction features (e.g. questions)

Ill be over later on in the day, ok? The main trip up seems to be that what we were thinking of is not in this call, am I right? "stream of consciousness" writing Just one more thing, do I want to go to England to teach in a school??? do I? oh well, Ill decide that when I have to.

 Message-comment structures in e-mail, etc. Have just had your payslip and returned tax card. Oh goody. Hypertext (in the WWW)

Linguistics in Mediated Communication

Paralinguistics and Graphics spaced letters In case youre wondering why things went R E A L S L O W just now multiple letters PLEEEEEASE alternative markers for emphasis *now* _now_

capitalization ("shouting")

 little or "excessive" punctuation do i want to go to england to teach in a school??? "smilies" (emoticons)

Instead of using it as a control key you have to do two keypresses :( Why not join the most exciting thing since Sues hedgehog followed Tim round the building :)

Micro Online: Identity

Online Identity and Presentation of Self:

The symbolic interactionist framework is crucial to understanding the cyberself-ing process because the cyberself is formed and negotiated in the same manner as the offline self (p.94) (Robinson, 2007).

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCiY1y3uJ3o

Symbolic Interactionism:
The three fundamental elements of the looking glass self are: -Imagination of appearance to the other person -Imagination of their judgement of that appearance -Some sort of self feeling, such as pride or shame (Scheff, 2005). I/Me couplet

Dramaturgy:
The self strives to convey an identity consistent with the expectations formed by the audience and with the situation or stage that frames the interaction (p.96) (Robinson, 2005). Frontstage/backstage Given/given off

Online Identity:
..cyberself-ing offers a fresh slate for MUDders to create new online identities (p.97) (Trukle, 1995). ..the range of acceptable behaviour and expression in MUD environments far surpasses that in the offline world (Wertheim, 1999).

Trolling:

Discussion Question:
Goffmans extended metaphor of dramaturgy, expressions given, and expressions given off remain salient for he cyberself. Online expressions are still given and given off through text; front stages and backstages are critical to framing cyberinteractions. Thus, interaction in cyberspace perpetuates the same self-ing that exists in the offline world (p.107-108) (Robinson, 2007). Is the process of self-ing is the same both in cyberspace and in the offline world? Why or why not?

Micro Online: Interaction

Backstage with the Knowledge Boys and Girls: Goffman and Distributed Agency in an Organic Online Community
Qualitative research of Knowledge Boys and Girls Organic Online Learning Community (OOLC) named CabbieCall Learners studying to become Cabbies No instructor or teacher

 Learners who are part of OOLCs therefore control almost every aspect of their own online spaces, as well as what takes place within them. The implications of this are that OOLCs are able to serve members unaddressed needs in ways that top-down externally controlled groups might not (p.308) (Ross, 2007).

Regions
Goffman describes regions as venues for performances. Region boundaries are more precisely sense-boundaries, not necessarily physical boundaries (p.314) (Ross, 2007).

Frontstage
Each frontstage creates the possibility of and necessity for its own backstage through its singularities. (p.315) (Ross, 2007) Online virtual space as back-region created/enabled through the existence of the frontstage Cyberspace back-region exists because it is in specific reference to the front stage

 Goffman describes, it is a FR that allows a BR to be conjured as its opposite entity. Backstages are unique to and joined to specific frontstages and create the opportunities to critique them in their particularities (p.315) (Ross, 2007).

Back-Region
The online community BR becomes a sanctuary of sorts for taking social and academic risks, one where potential adverse consequences are few and benefits are legion (p.307) (Ross, 2007). People are protected by anonymity and pseudonyms Use of inclusive and esoteric language can disguise online communication

 Language and pseudonymity prevent intrusion into the back-region Works to exclude uninformed outsiders Allows for benchmarking behaviour Allows learners to test their knowledge Allows members to use be open, honest, and use commonly inappropriate, blunt, vulgar talk without fear of personal consequences

Discourse Typology and Macro-scale Practices

Reflective Self-positioning (RSP) Sharing personal learning histories Participating to feel part of a group Building intersubjectivity Benchmarking Affective Register Interaction Expressing emotion Establishing friendships Therapy/support group Expertise Pooling Contributing to content-item databases Posting content in order to assist other members Acting as a node Mentoring less experienced learners

Discussion Question:
Goffman notes that by invoking a backstage style, individuals can transform any region into a backstage (p.128), especially when the talk in this place makes explicit or implicit reference to activities in the FR. This can be true even if there is only a symbolic or metaphorical disconnect between the FR and the BR, and there does not need to be any sort of official designation of a space as a BR in order for it to be such (p.315) (Ross, 2007). Do you agree that the CabbieCall OOLC is a backregion?

Discussion Question:
Online learning communities or OOLCs have been shown to be significantly efficient learning tools. Which do you think is a more effective learning environment: University or OOLC? Why?

Bibliography:
Barnett, C, Rose, G & Robinson, J (2006), A Demanding World, Milton Keynes, Open University Worldwide. Goffman, E (1971), Performances in Goffman, E, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin. Joinson, A & Dietz-Uhler, B (2002), Explanations for the perpetration of and reactions to deception in a virtual community, Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 275 289. Ooi, V (2002), Aspects of computer-mediated communication for research in corpus linguistics in Peters, P, Collins, P & Smith, A (Ed), New Frontiers of Corpus Research, Amsterdam, Rodopi. Roberts, B (2006), Symbolic interactionism 2: developments in Roberts, B, Micro Social Theory, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. Robinson, L (2005), The cyberself: the self-ing project goes online, symbolic interactionism in the digital age, New Media Society, Vol. 9, No. 93, pp. 93 110. Ross, D (2007), Backstage with the knowledge boys and girls: Goffman and distributed agency in an organic online community, Organizational Studies, Vol. 28, No. 307, pp. 307 325. Scheff, T (2005), Looking-glass self: Goffman as symbolic interactionist, Symbolic Interactionism, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 147 166. Turkle, S (1995), Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, New York, Simon and Schuster. Wertheim, M (1999), The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet, New York, Norton.