July 6th, 2010
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3-43.
Hyperpersonal
In the last few posts, I discussed this Walther article and the ways in which computer-mediated communication (CMC) can be more impersonal than face-to-face (FtF) communication and the ways in which it can been as interpersonal as FtF. In this third (and final) post on this Walther article, I look at his consideration of the hyperpersonal perspective of CMC. This idea refers to the way in which CMC is even more personal than (surpassing the affection and emotion level of) FtF communication. He states that these situations in which we find CMC more desirable than FtF is generally in a recreational setting and relate to four different elements of the communication process: receivers, senders, characteristics of the channel, and feedback processes. Read the rest of this entry »
July 5th, 2010
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3-43.
Interpersonal
Continuing from the Last post, after considering the impersonal perspective of CMC, Walther goes on to look at the interpersonal perspective. “The model assumes that communicators in CMC, like other communicators, are driven to develop social relationships” (10). While this is true of text-based social settings like chat rooms (not so popular now, but certainly so in the mid-to-late 1990s), it can be seen to be even more accurate now with communication occurring through social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, 12seconds.tv, etc. Read the rest of this entry »
July 3rd, 2010
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3-43.
This 1996 article is quite dated in many of its discussions, including its characterization of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). While Walther never directly defines CMC in this article, he uses the term largely to refer only to text-based communication, such as email and chat. However, we now communicate online through other methods that offer various levels of modality, such as audio and video. Yet, within this article, Walther puts forth many ideas that are foundational to both my study and to the current state of CMC. Read the rest of this entry »