Building a Theory of Multi-Media CMC

In order to provide directions for future computer-mediated communication (CMC) scholarship, in this article, I analyze, critique and integrate contemporary CMC theory and research. Particularly, based upon an analysis of recent developments in multi-media software and the world wide web, I explore the theoretical implications of increased audio, video and three-dimensionality in cyberspace. In general, in this article, I argue that CMC theory and research has been limited by the `textual bias' of previous scholars. CMC researchers and theorists must begin to reconstruct the communicative, rhetorical and epistemological features of multi-media CMC in order to describe and explain communication in cyberspace. Through an integrated, inter-disciplinary program of multi-methodological empirical research, scholars can build theory that better accounts for multi-media CMC.

[1]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Group decision making and communication technology , 1992 .

[2]  Marguerite Waller,et al.  If "Reality Is the Best Metaphor," It Must Be Virtual , 1997 .

[3]  D. Jacobson,et al.  Contexts and Cues in Cyberspace: The Pragmatics of Naming in Text-Based Virtual Realities , 1996, Journal of Anthropological Research.

[4]  T. Postmes,et al.  Breaching or Building Social Boundaries? Side-Effects of Computer-Mediated Communication. , 2002 .

[5]  J. Walther.  Anticipated Ongoing Interaction Versus Channel Effects on Relational Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction , 1994 .

[6]  David Myers.  “Anonymity is part of the magic”: Individual manipulation of computer-mediated communication contexts , 1987 .

[7]  S. R. Hiltz.  The Network Nation , 1978 .

[8]  Doug Schuler,et al.  New community networks - wired for change , 1996 .

[9]  Luciano Paccagnella,et al.  Getting the Seats of Your Pants Dirty: Strategies for Ethnographic Research on Virtual Communities , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[10]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  User satisfaction with computer-mediated communication systems , 1990 .

[11]  Mark Giese,et al.  Constructing a Virtual Geography: Narratives of Space in a Text-Based Environment , 1998 .

[12]  T. Postmes,et al.  Breaching or Building Social Boundaries? , 1998 .

[13]  Sara Kiesler,et al.  Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication , 1984 .

[14]  A. Feenberg.  A user’s guide to the pragmatics of computer mediated communication , 1989 .

[15]  S. Turkle.  Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet , 1997 .

[16]  R. Spears,et al.  Panacea or Panopticon? , 1994 .

[17]  Lee-Ellen Marvin,et al.  Spoof, Spam, Lurk and Lag: the Aesthetics of Text-based Virtual Realities , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[18]  Patricia R. Webb.  Cybersociety: Computer-mediated communication and community , 1996 .

[19]  Richard T. Herschel,et al.  The Impact of Varying Gender Composition on Group Brainstorming Performance in a GSS Environment , 1994 .

[20]  Eleanor Wynn,et al.  Hyperbole over Cyberspace: Self-Presentation and Social Boundaries in Internet Home Pages and Discourse , 1997, Inf. Soc..

[21]  Nessim Watson,et al.  Why we argue about virtual community: a case study of the Phish.net fan community , 1997 .

[22]  Russell Spears,et al.  Love at first byte? Building personal relationships over computer networks. , 1995 .

[23]  J. Walther,et al.  Relational communication in computer-mediated interaction , 1990 .

[24]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  Network Nation: Human Communication Via Computer , 1979 .

[25]  R. Rice,et al.  Electronic Emotion , 1987 .

[26]  Richard A. Lanham,et al.  Book Reviews: The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts , 1995, CL.

[27]  J. Walther.  Computer-Mediated Communication , 1996 .

[28]  Sara B. Kiesler,et al.  The Equalization Phenomenon: Status Effects in Computer-Mediated and Face-to-Face Decision-Making Groups , 1991, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[29]  David W. Park,et al.  Interpersonal Effects in Computer-Mediated Interaction , 1994 .

[30]  Malcolm R. Parks.  Making Friends in Cyberspace , 1996, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[31]  Charles Soukup,et al.  The Gendered Interactional Patterns of Computer-Mediated Chatrooms: A Critical Ethnographic Study , 1999, Inf. Soc..