My master's thesis on online communication

[[wcip]Angel]

I just got my topic for my Master's thesis presentation:

Freedom of expression, freedom of style and means of control in Computer-Mediated Communication: how do the premises differ from those of traditional writing and publication?

My first thought was: "What do I know about traditional writing and publication?" The answer is "nothing". :(

The way this works is:

May 3rd - Hand in thesis
May 24th - Get topic for presentation (45 minutes + 15 minute discussion)
June 9th - Presentation

The presentation will be awarded with a "fail/pass" grade, and my overall grade will solely be based on my thesis. That being said, I still need to prepare a proper presentation in the topic I've been given. Would you mind if I picked your brains for ideas?:)

I just got my topic a few minutes ago, so I haven't spent that much time thinking about it, but my initial thoughts are:
* CMC freedom of expression and style varies from medium to medium. Surely there are no restrictions in private 1-to-1 conversastions. However in online message boards or in chat-groups, there may be some limitations on language-use (e.g profanity, obscene language, flaming/trolling behaviour (although the latter has more to do with the content than the mode of expression. Edit: just came to me: "freedom of expression" means content, right? As in what people can write?). In regards to style, I don't see there being many restrictions, as there are few regulations on style in most modes of CMC. Of course, if you want to fit in with a group which has adopted a very unique style (e.g. 1337-speak), you may want to conform to that style in order to blend in with the crowd...

* Means of control.. I'm not entirely sure what they're referring to. Are they talking about a poster/chatter's control of his own text before/after submission, or do they refer to the notion of having a superimposed authority checking and controlling the content and style of your text? ... Hmm, but give this a good thinking.

* Then there's the whole issue of "traditional writing and publication" which I have no idea how to handle. Panic-level: <strike>6</strike>..7 out of 10.

I'm not even going to try to start writing today. I'll spend today thinking about my topic and see if I can get some feedback from my classmates (and hopefully from you:)). Hopefully I'll come up witha few pointers.

Feel free to offer any thoughts you might have on the subject:)

- [wcip]Angel

[kandrathe]

6[/s]..7 out of 10.

I'm not even going to try to start writing today. I'll spend today thinking about my topic and see if I can get some feedback from my classmates (and hopefully from you:)). Hopefully I'll come up witha few pointers.

Feel free to offer any thoughts you might have on the subject:)

- [wcip]Angel

Medium and context has much to do with it. Look at poetry. e.e.cummings comes to mind. In literature, I'm thinking of the most notorius in outrageous gonzo literary style, like Hunter S. Thompson. Mark Twain, was an embarassment to proper literary customs of that day. I doubt this phenomena you've captured is limited to a literary domain. Is there a similiar transformation occuring in other mediums? Probably, but outside the scope of your discussion. I would explore the force driving the change, in this case the internet.

Check out Spunk & Bite : A writer's guide to punchier, more engaging language & style

Another idea: What are the similiarities between the forces that inspired the art revolutions of bauhaus, dada, fluxus and post modernism, and the transformation of literature, and media for that matter by the advent of the internet? Perhaps changes in technologies might be catalysts for re-addressing the "rules" to see if they still apply. Is the advent of the internet and it's evolution into a global social soup a force for redefining the norm of literary sensibility?

[[wcip]Angel]

Thanks for the tips, Kandrathe:)I've made a note about both e.e. cummings the gonzo journalistic style and done some preliminary investigating into these subjects. (Nothing heavy, just reading up on these subjects on Wikipedia to get an impression. I had heard about e.e. cummings but was unfamiliar with his poetry. Had not heard of gonzo journalism, but I now have a better understanding of Bob Bulldog Brisco's sports show:P)

Although I've made some general notes, I still feel rather directionless. I've put my aims into words:

My aim is to discuss the limitations on content and style of publicised texts in two domains: the virtual realm of CMC and the real realm of traditional writing and also to explain what sets these limitations.

.. but I'm still struggling to get a good handle on how to approach this. I feel like the subject-matter is just out of my reach.

What is meant by "traditional writing and publication"? Newspaper articles, poetry, fiction, letters? When I got the topic for my presentation, I automatically assumed that I would be comparing two similar media in two different domains (e.g. emails vs letters; they're both 1-1 correspondence and they're both (often) personal). But then again, private letters are not "published" in the strictest sense of the word?

Moreover, what about forum posts (the main medium of my thesis)? To my knowledge, there really isn't a direct equivalent to this in the "traditional" realm of writing and publication. Perhaps I'm putting too much emphasis on the "publication". When I read the word "publication", I think about bound books, copyists, publicisists, book stores, reviewers, etc. Perhaps "publication" only refers to the fact that the written material is somehow delivered to the reader (e.g a letter sent via mail).. I don't know. I'm still feeling a bit flustered.

I've made this preliminary outline to get my thoughts going:

Code:

Outline
•    Introduction: What am I going to talk about?
    o    What are my aims?
    o    Give a preliminarly definition of Computer-Mediated Communication. Which media am I talking about?
         Forum post, email, chatting?
    o    Give a preliminary definition  traditional writing and publication! Which media am I talking about here?
         Poetry, newspapers, literature?
    o    CMC is an interactional form of communication between (groups of) individuals, traditional writing is
         informational. What effect does this have an freedom of expression, style and control?
    o    CMC is a form of communication used by ordinary people. Traditional writing is usually carried out by
         professional authors, journalists or poets. Does this mean that their form of expression is more    
         restricted or less so than that of CMC?
    o    What about means of control? Who controls CMC? (Moderators) Who controls traditional writing and
         publication?
•    Main section
    o    Define and explain CMC
    o    Define and explain traditional writing and publication
    o    Freedom of expression:
         In CMC
         In traditional writing
    o    Freedom of Style
         In CMC
         In traditional writing
    o    Meants of Control
         In CMC
         In Traditional writing
•    Summing up and comparing findings
•    Conclusion – What have I talked about?
    o    Answer questions and aims from introduction. What are the main differences and similarities between
         these two media of writing in terms of expression, style and control?
•    References

Keep in mind, these are just some thoughts I've jotted down on paper in a word-file. I'm still struggling to collect my thoughts and get a good handle on how I'm going to approach this. Obviously, I need to make some sort of comparison between one or more media of CMC and of traditional writing. The questions are

1. Which ones do I choose? (Forum posts, emails, chatting, web pages) (Newspapers, letters, fiction?)
2. How do I go about comparing them? Should I do a text type analysis of the media like I did with forum posts and emails in my thesis? IIRC, Görlach's categories did touch on the issues of expression, style and control.
3. Obviously, I could make a note of e.e. cummings and gonzo journalism if these are the text types I choose to focus on, but even so, these are not conventional and representative examples of their respective genres, but merely examples of the most extreme uses.

Hmmm.. I guess the most important thing for me right now is trying to figure out which text types to focus on, and try to figure out what is meant by "publication", because I have the nagging feeling that this word is tripping me up more than necessary.

[kandrathe]

One anecdote for you; There is a local news outlet in my city that has a vibrant heavily moderated forum for guided political discussion, and they occasionally extract forum posts for publication on their main website. They excerpted a part of one of my posts, edited it and made my words say something I did not intend, and in a way I didn't actually believe in. I was pretty upset with that. I had a flurry of e-mail exchanges with the editor in charge, and I eventually realized that the forum posters were just being used by yet another media machine as tools to get better ratings. No different I would guess from "letters to the editor" being manipulated. So, in my experience, it is refreshing to have a vehicle for expressing oneself where there is enough moderation to keep the garbage posting out, but no editing or unwarranted censorship or manipulation of content.

Another difference would be in velocity and temporal relevance. If you take a vacation for a week and come back here, the hot topics have mostly changed and people have moved on to discuss new things. Or, when something newsworthy happens in the world a discussion begins almost immediatly following the event. Sometimes too soon, before all the "facts" are exposed, but there are still good discussions based on people's gut instincts or guesses on what those facts might be. It is interesting to see who makes the best guesses, and who misses the mark. I guess Internet news outlets, or daily newspapers would be the second closest print source in speed, however, a CMC is very different from those.

If you look at the continuum of publishing from books, to magazines, to newspapers, to news websites, to CMC I think their is a correlation between time to press, freedom of expression, editing, and acceptable quality. So, in a way, even though there is a cacaphony of noise, the internet has become a liberation from corporate media censorship of the voices of the common people. I think this need for self expression fuels the popularity of CMC's, and blogs. The next Patrick Henry will just be a very popular blogger.

This place, the Lounge, feels more like the town square, where most anyone can come along and engage in the conversation. Yeah, it's a gaming site, but then again, who isn't a gamer? :) If they aren't, then they don't have much in common with us. So I guess the Lounge is more the town square you can only get to by walking though the arcade.

[Occhidiangela]

Angel' date='May 30 2006, 08:39 AM' post='110900']

Although I've made some general notes, I still feel rather directionless. I've put my aims into words:

My aim is to discuss the limitations on content and style of publicised texts in two domains: the virtual realm of CMC and the real realm of traditional writing and also to explain what sets these limitations.


What is meant by "traditional writing and publication"? Newspaper articles, poetry, fiction, letters? When I got the topic for my presentation, I automatically assumed that I would be comparing two similar media in two different domains (e.g. emails vs letters; they're both 1-1 correspondence and they're both (often) personal). But then again, private letters are not "published" in the strictest sense of the word?

Moreover, what about forum posts (the main medium of my thesis)?

To my knowledge, there really isn't a direct equivalent to this in the "traditional" realm of writing and publication. Perhaps I'm putting too much emphasis on the "publication".
I've made this preliminary outline to get my thoughts going:
[code]
1. Which ones do I choose? (Forum posts, emails, chatting, web pages) (Newspapers, letters, fiction?)
2. How do I go about comparing them? Should I do a text type analysis of the media like I did with forum posts and emails in my thesis? IIRC, Görlach's categories did touch on the issues of expression, style and control.
3. Obviously, I could make a note of e.e. cummings and gonzo journalism if these are the text types I choose to focus on, but even so, these are not conventional and representative examples of their respective genres, but merely examples of the most extreme uses.

A few thoughts.

Traditional publishing in books (ficiton and non fiction) periodicals, and newspapers all have an editorial process. The publisher prints an edited work for books and periodicals, the newspaper prints after the editors, and often the editorial board, approved each artical.

A message board with any moderation has an editorial board in the shape of admins and mods. They tend to exercise command by negation here, in other boards they control content more closely. Command by negation means "the editors" will only step in if something already published/posted falls outside their editorial philosophy, or outside the scope of the board's intent. They won't edit the words in the post. Admins who do so create immense friction on a site, due to perceived need for freedom of expression. It means the content provider, poster, probably leaves, or the boards rep/circulation suffers. Similar problems ensue when editorial boards approve badly researched or false stories, see last year's New York Times scandal for a great example.

On the Lounge, the editors let a lot of stuff get by, more than an editor in a newspaper would. Posts on cheating are edited out / deleted as a matter of policy. Similarly, an editor removes pornographic cartoons or obscene language from a news article, and often changes a story's slant to fit the paper's editorial bias, or sends the story back to the writer with comments before it prints.

Syndicated columnists tend to enjoy a bit more freedom as content providers -- Cal Thomas, Molly Ivins, Art Buchwals, te al -- since they tend to edit themselves, write to a high standard, and attract customers.

Message boards that are run not for profit, like the Lounge, have a very different motivation for attracting readers than do papers run for profit. The idea is to build a critical mass of content providers, not circulation. For papers and magazines, circulation sometimes lives on sensation, so sensational news gets different treatment than does mundane news, as it tends to get more readers, subscribers.

Periodicals tend to select for quality of input. My favorite examples are Scientific American and The Atlantic Monthly, both of which I have always admired for the broad range of topics, and the quality of writing they attract. They are more likle the Lounge, in that they target a particular style, content, and quality of writing.

Forums. Editorial board = mods, but mods don't edit the content of posts other than by deletion of narrowly defined taboos.

General discussion forums are very similar to "letters to the editor" with little to no editing, but clearly objectionable content gets unpublished AFTER the fact by an edit. The "print" command for a forum article is at the writer's control, while the "Print" command for a paper or magazine is in the editor's control. "Stop the presses!" :w00t: This makes retracting a forum letter less onerous, as it is merely deleted, thought it at times leaves "bad" content or "content not consistent with editorial policy" availble to the customer/reader base until a "correction" can be issues by a deletion. A newspaper can't retract a published article, thought it can additionally publish, at a later date, a retraction/correction notice.

Most forums now allow for "after the fact" editing, which can't be done in print. The older message boards, pre edit, put a greater premium on proofreading by posters to ensure the message came across correctly and clearly. Now, with new tools, Preview is our friend, even if we neglect it too often. That relieves editors of the proofreading responsibility.

I hope this helps.

Occhi

[[wcip]Angel]

Guess who got an A on his master's thesis..:P(despite 17 concord errors ;))

Occhi: Thank you very much for your comments. They were really useful and I included lots of what you mentioned). Now I've been awake for about 35 hours or so, so it's time for bed.

Not a bad day..

Again, to everyone who contributed to my thesis: thank you very much for all your help.:)

[Occhidiangela]

Angel' date='Jun 9 2006, 03:41 PM' post='111583']

Again, to everyone who contributed to my thesis: thank you very much for all your help.:)

Send check or money order to . . . J/K

Well done! :D

*dances a happy dance*

Occhi

[--Pete]

Hi,

Angel' date='Jun 9 2006, 01:41 PM' post='111583']
Guess who got an A on his master's thesis..:P(despite 17 concord errors ;))

Congratulations:)

So, what's next? The job search or onward to piled higher and deeper?

--Pete

[[wcip]Angel]

My teacher keeps mentioning this thing they call a "Ph.D"?.. I don't know.. Although I do smirk at the idea of being called "Doctor Jakobsen", I don't know if I want to take on that much work at this point in my life. Plus, to quote George: "I need some time to decompress":P

Next year I'm taking my teacher's training (pedagogy). After that I'd really like to get out there and start pulling in those big high-school teacher-bucks:P

"So, what'll it be Doctor Jakobsen? Another beer?"

"Doctor Jakobsen, could you not play so loudly in [G]? .. it's only mezzoforte!"

"Will you have fries with that, Doctor Jakobsen"?

:lol:

[Griselda]

My dad has a PhD, and he finds that the only people who call him "Doctor" are the people who call from his college asking for money. :rolleyes: