Final Paper Guidlines
Impacts of Technology: Culture and Communication on the Internet
For those of you who do not have a topic for your final papers, or who are
unclear about what to do for the final project, here are some guidelines
and suggestions. You do not have to follow them. You can borrow from them
and apply them to the topic of your choice. They are meant to help you get
started.
Write a 10-12 page paper, due by Friday, May 8. If you do not have a
topic, Choose one of the following topics for your paper:
1. the language of email messages
2. playing with identity on IRC
3. building a home on the web
The paper must combine online research with theoretical readings. I
suggest you expand upon the research you have done for the smaller
assingments earlier in the semester.
The Language of Email
Some people argue that digital writing is no different from any other form
of writing, and that messages or texts just happen to be typed on a
computer keyboard, rather than, say, handwritten or typed on an electric
typewriter. Others argue that digital writing is a new form of human
communication with unique characteristics.
We bring to digital messages a rich experience with many genres of spoken
and written communication in print culture, incuding the general business
letter, the intra-organizational memo, the personal letter, the personal
conversation, the telephone conversation, the telegram, the ritual
greeting, to name a few.
Do some online Research
choose a corpus of 50-100 messages from a discussion list or a
newsgroup. You may want to print out the entire corpus in order to work on
it in detail. (Make sure to use a sequence of messages that actually
followed one another).
Analyze your Research
analyze your corpus using either qualitative or quantitative methods or
a combination of both. If you prepare quantitative tables, keep your
statistics simple. You may focus on one or more of the following themes:
1) the linguistic and typographic features of messages; 2) the general
features of the text of messages as a whole, for example type of openings
or closings; 3) the relations between messages.
The following books and articles are especially relevant to this
assignment:
- Sherry Turkle _Life on the Screen_ (1995)
- Howard Rheingold _Virtual Communties_ (1993)
- David Bolter _Writing Space: The Computer Hypertext, and the History
of Writing_ (1991)
- Eric Raymond _The Hacker's Dictionary_ (1991),
(http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_toc.html)
- Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas, "The Baudy World of the Byte Bandit: a
Postmodernist Interpretation of the Computer Underground" (1990) Appears
in F. Schmalleger's "Computers In Criminal Justice"
(http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_culture/Cyberpunk/baudy_world_of_byte_ban.article)
- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "The Electronic Vernacular" in
Connected, George E. Marcus, editor (1996)
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/electronic.html
- Ruedenberg, Danet, and Rosenbaum-Tamari. "Virtual Virtuosos: Play and
Performance at the Computer Keyboard" (1995)
http://lrw.net/~lucia/pubs/virtual.txt
- Natalie Maynor, "The Language of Electronic Mail: Written Speech?"
in Centennial Usage Studies. Ed. Greta D. Little and Michael Montgomery.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama (1994)
- JoAnne Yates and Wanda J. Orlikowski "Knee-jerk Anti-LOOPism and
other
E-mail Phenomena: Oral, Written, and Electronic Patterns in
Computer-Mediated Communication," MIT Sloan School Working Paper #3578-93,
Center for Coordination Science Techincal Report #150, (July 1993)
http://ccs.mit.edu/CCSWP150.html
Questions and ideas for analysis:
(These are suggestions. You may add or modify these questions and ideas in
any ways you think useful):
- In what ways do the messages resemble the various genres of spoken
and
written communication listed above and discussed in class?
- What types of openings and closings appear in your corpus? Are they
the
same or different from openings and closings in pre-computer-mediated
genres of communication?
- What forms of playfulness do you find in your material?
- What linguistic elements or features resemble other forms of writing?
- What elements are unique to email?
- How are headers and messages related, if at all?
- What uses do participants make of the subject line in their messages?
When do subject lines change? To what extent do people adhere to the topic
in the subject line, or do they depart from it? Do people play with the
subject line? In what ways? How are new threads introduced?
- Do participants use signature files? How do they sign their names?
How
do they present their identity?
- do you find changes in the form and features of messages over time?
(if
you are interested in focusing on this question you may want to compare 50
recent messages with 50 messages from, say, a year or two ago. (most
discussion lists and newsgroups have archives of past discussions)).
- Did you find any clear differences between males and females in
communication style?
- How do participants exert control over the topic of their discussion?
what is their style?
Write a Paper:
write a paper 10-12 pages long, double spaced and typed, not including the
full set of texts of the messages you analyzed. Refer specifically to at
least 5 readings listed above. You may hand your paper in by email, as an
html page, or on paper. Organize the paper as follows:
- Personal introduction (optional)
- General theoretical introduction (what questions/problems are you
exploring? and what readings/ideas are you drawing on?)
- Description of the corpus and presentation of the main research
questions and topics investigated.
- Analysis
- Summary and Discussion.
Important: give many examples in the text. cite all references in the
usual academic manner (e.g. "Thompson (1990) suggests...). At the end of
the paper include a full bibliography of references. Give all publishing
details. If it's an electronic publication, give full name of file,
address, url, or how to retrieve it if necessary, e.g.:
...electronic ms. available at url (full address)
...electronic ms. available by anonymous ftp from (full address)...
Your bibliography at the end of the paper should combine real world items
with electronic ones, in alphabetical order. Include selected examples
from your corpus as an appendix at the end of the paper.
Playing with Identity on IRC
Synchronous forms of computer-mediated communication (cmc) are "chat"
like. They are sometimes compared to face-to-face communication, even
though they are typed.
Do some Online Research
choose one or more logs from several hours of observation of one
channel on IRC, spread over several days. (It is difficult to say how many
hours you need to observe; it depends on how interesting the action is on
the channel!) You may want to print out the entire log in order to work on
it in detail.
Analyse your Research
Analyse your logs, using either qualitative or quantitative methods, or
a combination of both. If you prepare quantitative talbes, keep your
statistics simple. You may focus on one of more of the following themes:
1) the linguistic and typographic features of messages; 2) types of
openings and closings; 3) linguistic and content features of nicknames;
3) the construction of identity and community through play with words.
The following books and articles are especially relevant to this
assignment:
- Sherry Turkle _Life on the Screen_ (1995)
- Howard Rheingold _Virtual Communties_ (1993)
- David Bolter _Writing Space: The Computer Hypertext, and the History
of Writing_ (1991)
- Walter Ong's _Orality and Literacy: the Technologizing of the Word_
(1982)
- Elizabeth Reid, "Electropolis: Communication and Community on
Internet
Relay Chat, http://www.ee.mu.oz.au/papers/emr/electropolis.html
- Haya Bechar-Israeli, "From to : Nicknames, Play
and Identity on Internet Relay Chat" in JCMC Volume 1 Issue 2, (1995)
http://shum.huji.ac.il/jcmc/vol1/issue2/vol1no2.html
- Ruedenberg, Danet, and Rosenbaum-Tamari. "Virtual Virtuosos: Play and
Performance at the Computer Keyboard" (1995)
http://lrw.net/~lucia/pubs/virtual.txt
- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "The Electronic Vernacular" in
Connected, George E. Marcus, editor (1996)
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/electronic.html
- Eric Raymond _The Hacker's Dictionary_ (1991),
(http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_toc.html)
- Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas, "The Baudy World of the Byte Bandit: a
Postmodernist Interpretation of the Computer Underground" (1990) Appears
in F. Schmalleger's "Computers In Criminal Justice"
(http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_culture/Cyberpunk/baudy_world_of_byte_ban.article)
Questions and ideas for analysis:
(these are guidelines. You may modify these research questions or add
others of your own)..
- what forms of playfulness do you find in your material?
- What linguistic elements or features resemble speech? Do people
"sound"
like they are "talking" ?
- what linguistic and typographic elements or features resemble other
forms of writing?
- Are there any uses of language which are unique to this channel?
- how many participants are on the channel? What is the proportion of
men
to women, if you can tell? What ages are the participants? What are their
nicknames?
- what is the "topic" of the channel. Is there a relationship, between
the channel name, the topic of discussion, and the nicknames of the
participants?
- Is there a sense of community on this channel? Does play with
language
contribute to this collective sense of identity? If so, how? If not, what
other shared activity constitutes a sense of community for this channel?
Write a Paper
Write a paper 10-12 pages long, double spaced and typed, not including the
full set of texts of the messages you analyze. Refer specifically to at
least 5 readings listed above. You may write your paper as an html page,
email, or on paper. Organize the paper in the following manner:
- Personal introduction (optional)
- General theoretical introduction (what questions/problems are you
exploring? and what readings/ideas are you drawing on?)
- Description of the corpus and presentation of the main research
questions and topics investigated.
- Analysis
- Summary and Discussion
Give many examples in the text. Cite all references in the usual academic
manner and include a bibliography at the end of the paper. Include
selected examples from your body of research logs as an appendix at the
end of the paper.
Building a Home on the Web
The act of building a web page, like all computer mediated communications
(cmc), is a construction of identity. It provides an occasion for us think
about relationships and identity in a new way. Understanding that "topos"
is place, we can analyse the "topics" and "topography" of the web as a
social environment. Hyperteext forms of computer-mediated communication
are more like writing than like talking, yet they are more interactive
than books. They are a new form of communication that both borrows from
other forms and presents unique features.
Do some Online Research
Choose three web pages for comparison and analysis. You may want
to print out the pages to work on in detail. One of the pages should be a
personal homepage, another should be a "community" page like for an IRC
channel or MUDs homepage. The third can be a commercial or institutional
site.
Analyse your Research
Analyse your pages, using either qualitative or quantitative methods,
or a combination of both. If you prepare quantitative talbes, keep your
statistics simple. You may focus on one of more of the following themes:
1) the linguistic and typographic features of writing on the pages; 2)
types of welcomes or "roadsign" messages to the visitor; 3) linguistic and
content features of name of the homepage, if any; 3) the construction of
identity through play with language, placement of images, use of
interactive features.
The following books and articles are especially relevant to this
assignment:
- Daniel Chandler, "Construction of Identity in Home Pages on the Web"
http://www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/munich.html)
- Sherry Turkle _Life on the Screen_ (1995)
- Howard Rheingold _Virtual Communties_ (1993)
- David Bolter _Writing Space: The Computer Hypertext, and the History
of Writing_ (1991)
- Hugh Miller, "The Presentation of Self in Electronic Life: Goffman on
the Internet," University of London, (1995)
http://www.ntu.ac.uk/soc/psych/miller/goffman.htm.
- Tom Erickson, "The World Wide Web as Social Hypertext"
Communications of the ACM, January, (1996)
http://www.atg.apple.com/personal/Tom_Erickson/SocialHypertext.html.
Questions and ideas for analysis:
(these are guidelines. You may modify these research questions or add
others of your own)..
- what are the "topics" of the page. How is it defined and structured?
with words, images, sounds?
- compare the pages to one or more genres. i.e. like a bulletin board,
a
diary, a grocery list, etc.
- what forms of playfulness do you find on your web pages?
- what is the relationship between professional and personal
information
on the pages? Do they feel like a private or public space? If both, how
are the two related/separated?
- what kind of linguistic and typographic elements or features are on
the
page?
- Is there is a web chatboard? If so, how is integrated into the page.
And what is its relationship to the rest of the page?
- are there links on the page? If so, what do they tell you about the
creator of the page?
- Who do you think the creator of the page is? Describe your sense of
his/her/their identity.
- Is there a sense of community on this page? If so, how is this
achieved? If not, why not?
Write a Paper:
Write a paper 10-12 pages long, double spaced and typed, not including the
full set of texts of the messages you analyze. Refer specifically to at
least 5 readings listed above. You may write your paper as an html page,
email, or on paper. Organize the paper in the following manner:
- Personal introduction (optional)
- General theoretical introduction (what questions/problems are you
exploring? and what readings/ideas are you drawing on?)
- Description of the corpus and presentation of the main research
questions and topics investigated.
- Analysis
- Summary and Discussion
Give many examples in the text. Cite all references in the usual academic
manner and include a bibliography at the end of the paper. Include
selected examples from your body of research logs as an appendix at the
end of the paper.
Instructor: Lucia Wright
Email:
lucia@lrw.net
Phone: (212) 254-3551
Class Page:
http://lrw.net/impacts
(c) Copyright 1998 Lucia Wright