Political discourse covers not only governments and elections but also what governments do and do not do. The Journal of Computer Mediated Communicated published a special issue last year on war coverage in cyberspace.
Take a look here and pick an article that is of interest to you. What issue is covered in the article (identity, any of the CMC theories, linguistics, etc). What scope do you see for further research out of that particular article?
Thinking about political issues, how credible and reliable do you think political blogs are? Put differently, if you wanted to get information on a certain politcal issue, if you wanted to find out as many opinions on an issue as possible, where would you look?
Read this article which reports on an online survey of how reliable readers felt blogs were. Are you surprised by the findings of the survey? What other reasons can you give for the reported results, other than those mentioned by the authors? Do you think the situation may be different for your country and your age group?
Here’s an article published in the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication on email flaming behaviours. Before you read, think about what YOU would consider as flaming in an email. Read the article and let us know in how far your ideas corresponded to the findings by the author. Was there anything surprising in the article?
Take a look at any of the following sites covering various political issues.
How is CMC being used in any of these domains? Try to define the purpose of communication as narrowly as possible: increasing political awareness, pure informative function, getting readers to participate?
How media rich or media poor are these sites? What makes them media rich or poor? What can you say about psychological distance, identity and community here?
We had a discussion on how extensive texting and other forms of language use in CMC appears to affect pupils’ abilities to read and write properly. What were some of the issues mentioned?
Now read this article from BBC News, which actually claims that texting does not hinder literacy. In fact, the article reports on a study conducted by researchers at Coventry University and highlights that the research subjects in the study who texted frequently also scored very well in school tests and spelling exams.
Why then, are there concerns over literacy among our school pupils? What suggestions does the text give for further research and exploration?
As promised, here is the article on the extent of text messaging among British school pupils. Does this article change some of the views you had during our class discussion? Are you aware of any similar problems with your L1?
Take a look at the following discussion on BBC News. Users have shared their opinions on whether the language of texting is ruining the English language. Which arguments can you agree with? Which do you feel are not really rational? From a linguistic perspective, how can you explain the changes to the English language as brought about by CMC and CMD?
Katharina sent this link to an article on, amongst other things, the so-called ‘Google generation’. Before you read the article itself, think about what traits you believe this ‘Google generation’ would possess. Assuming that you believe that this generation is extremely web-literate (think about Nick Floro’s presentation and the demographics of web use), what accounts for this assumption.
Reading the article, why is the so-called ‘Google generation’ a myth? Data notwithstanding, are any of the findings reported in the article plausible at all to you?
Steve Jone’s (2002) article highlights that compared to the rest of the population of the USA, students are heavy users of the internet. Additionally, he claims that students are pioneers of the internet.
As his study is based on a survey of internet use among students in the United States, could his findings also reflect internet use among German students? What do college and university students use the internet for? How do you think usage (either in terms of demographics or function) may have changed since Jone’s report?
On a lighter note, the author of this article (not to be taken seriously, of course) gives a number of tips on how one could participate in a flame war.
The question is this: do people really fly off the handle that easily, so much so that practically any little thing could result in a flame war? In reality though, what are some situations, events or behaviours that could trigger a flame war?
This article is already linked to Blackboard, but nevertheless, here it is again. In a study, psychologist Nicholas Epley highlights that emails are not always as correctly interpreted as they should be, leading at times, to flame wars.
What can you add to the discussion and in how far do you think that we do indeed have difficulty in detaching ourselves from our own perspectives?
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| Marc Puschmann on The Internet goes to coll… |
| Marc Puschmann on Flame Wars 3 |
| Marc Puschmann on asociality vs. antisociality |
 | Katharina on The Internet goes to coll… |
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