CMC Issues

1
Unit 3
2
CMC Issues

• Are the new communication tools replacements?
• Debate over new technologies is not new (see page
  36)
• Franklins two stages (page 37)
• Becomes invisible technology
• Pen, plastics, telephone, etc.

3
CMC Issues

• Hype vs. Hysteria
• Utopian perspective
• Star Trek perspective
• Less work, more time, fewer social problems, etc.
• Enhanced values, synergy of cultures
• Dystopian perspective
• Dehumanizing, enslaving, unstoppable growth,
  information overload, more work, less time
• Degraded values, elimination of cultures
• Sherry Turkles subjective computer

4
CMC Issues

• Technological Determinism (TD)
• Does technology drive culture, history, social
  and psychological change? The reverse (social
  constructivism)?
• Reductionistic simple cause and effect
• Monistic reducing a complex relationship to a
  single cause
• Neutralizing technology is value free
• Technological imperative technologys growth is
  inevitable, unstoppable, irreversible

5
CMC Issues

• If TD is valid, what about technology failures?
• WAP, Internet camera phones, etc.?
• Technologys design intention and its application
  are often not the same
• Social Realism empirical studies of the actual
  uses of technology
• Some suggest social constructivism better
  predicts young technologies technological
  determinism better predicts more mature
  technologies

6
Unit 4

• CMC Interpersonal Dynamics

7
CMC as Bad (Impersonal)

• Some suggest CMC is both inadequate and harmful
  to relationships
• CMC is asocial
• Quality is reduced by lack of rich nonverbals
• CMC is antisocial
• Relationships are destructive to relationships
• These allegations were made for telegraph,
  telephone, radio, TV etc. Were they accurate?
• Can watching TV enhance communication?
• Is it even a good question?
• Can a tool be inherently good or bad?

8
Deficit Models

• Most arguments are called deficit approaches
• They focus on what CMC lacks
• Social Presence Theory (SPT) immediacy is
  missing from CMC
• Immediacy our perception that those we
  communicate with and the relationships we create
  are real
• Based on degree of nonverbal richness
• Do you perceive a radio personality, or your
  favorite actor, as real? Newspaper reporter?

9
Social Presence Theory Critique

• SPT is not credible because
• SPT is based on the assumption (unsupported) that
  face-to-face (FTF) is necessarily superior to CMC
• Circular logic
• CMC channels are not functional alternatives,
  they are often specialized channels
• Degree of social presence is task-dependent

10
Dystopian Interpersonal Perspective Deficit
Models

• Cuelessness Model
• Cuelessness is the lack of nonverbals AND
  social markers
• Social Markers any form of communication that
  nonverbally suggests social status, age, gender,
  occupation, wealth, attractiveness etc.
• Lack of these nonverbals increases psychological
  distance between communicators

11
Cuelessness Model Critique

• Sometimes, an increase of psychological distance,
  and a lack of social cues is a good thing
• Less likely to judge others based on those cues
• Model is too broad sometimes we thrive in
  reduced-richness environments
• Love notes, telephone conversations, newspaper
  personal postings, flowers, etc.
• The lack of nonverbals is often why we perceive a
  message as high in emotion.

12
Dystopian Interpersonal Perspective Deficit
Models

• Media Richness Model
• Media richness
• Bandwidth (how much we can communicate
  simultaneously)
• Feedback
• Conversational language
• Personal focus
• People prefer the richest medium available
• The more complex the task (relational
  communication is complex), the richer the medium
  needed

13
Media Richness Model Critique

• Unsupported assumption that spoken language is
  inherently superior to text
• We often want a less-rich medium for certain
  complex tasks
• More time to prepare, more control over the
  message, less subject to communication
  apprehension

14
CMC as Just as Good (Interpersonal)

• Social Information Processing Model
• Given enough time, CMC environments can be just
  as rich and satisfying as FTF
• We adapt, learn new ways to communicate the
  relational content normally reserved for
  nonverbals
• Were driven by a communication imperative
• We find ways to compensate
• CMC is interpersonal See page 51

15
CMC as Better Hyperpersonal

• CMC is just as good for impression management
  as FTF, perhaps better
• We read cues, and substitute cues more carefully
• Page 52-53 Capitalization, acronyms, emotes,
  action language, identity markers, bending
  language rules, multimodes
• Three reasons for hyperpersonal
• Shared membership
• Optimized self-presentation
• Asynchronous message creation allows for a more
  precise, more thoughtful response

16
Bottom Line

• CMC is neither a utopia nor a dystopia, its a
  set of tools that may be used appropriately or
  not
• Technical efficiency is not necessarily the same
  as social efficiency
• CMC is just one of many ways of forming and
  maintaining relationships