This came to the list over the weekend - Hope you find it useful. pm
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Following is an announcement of the second issue of the Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC), and a pre-announcement
of issues 3 and 4. JCMC is available at
http://www.usc.edu/dept/annenberg/journal.html
or
http://shum.huji.ac.il/jcmc/jcmc.html
JCMC Volume 1, No. 2: Play and Performance in CMC : AVAILABLE NOW
JCMC Volume 1, No. 3: Electronic Commerce : December 1995
JCMC Volume 1, No. 4: The Net (joint with Journal of Communication) : March
1996
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A NEW ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION:
Volume 1, No. 2:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/annenberg/vol1/issue2
http://shum.huji.ac.il/jcmc/vol1/issue2/
PLAY AND PERFORMANCE IN COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
Edited by Brenda Danet
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Department of Communication & Journalism
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Contents and Abstracts:
Spoof, Spam, Lurk and Lag: the Aesthetics of Text-based
Virtual Realities
Lee-Ellen Marvin
Department of Folklore and Folklife
University of Pennsylvania
This paper explores communication in six text-based virtual realities
through four items of jargon: spoof, spam, lurk, and lag. Research was
conducted using the ethnographic tools of participant observation and
close analysis of actual interactions of MOOs (Multiple-user Object
Oriented environments). Examples of how these terms are used in real-time
interaction were analyzed for what they communicate about the aesthetics
of interaction. Close examination suggests that these articulated
aesthetics serve as rules for proper behavior, markers of experience
and belonging, metaphor for poetic expression and resources for play and
challenge within the community.
From <Bonehead> to <cLoNehEAd>: Nicknames, Play and Identity
on Internet Relay Chat
Haya Bechar-Israeli
Department of Communication and Journalism
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
This article examines nicknames of IRC users. On IRC, a person's
physical existence and identity must be condensed textually into a
single line which states his or her nickname, the electronic address,
and a slogan or the person's real name. IRC users attempt to make these
representational elements as prominent as possible, by choosing an
original nick which will tempt other participants to strike up a
conversation. In this paper I demonstrate that although people play many
kinds of games with their nicknames, the nicks they choose are very
important to them. They are an inherent part of their Net identity,
and even of their "real-life" identity. Two hundred sixty nicknames
were collected from IRC logs, and were analyzed and classified. Only
rarely did the IRCers in this study use their real names. The largest
category was that of nicks related to the self in some way, referring to
character traits, physical appearance, the physiological or psychological
state of the self, or the person's profession or hobbies. The list of
nicknames and the relative frequency of the different categories
illustrate prominent features of electronic culture, a culture in
which the individual is placed at the center. Participants in this
culture have a high awareness of technology and technological change.
They value linguistic virtuosity, yet they show contempt for the rules
of the language. Although there is freedom to engage in constantly
changing identity games through the manipulation of nicks, most people
tend to keep to one nick for a long period of time.
Curtain Time 20:00 GMT: Experiments in Virtual Theater
on Internet Relay Chat
Brenda Danet, Tsameret Wachenhauser, Amos Cividalli, Haya
Bechar-Israeli, and Yehudit Rosenbaum-Tamari
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Department of Communication & Journalism
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
This is an interdisciplinary study of a group called the Hamnet Players,
who have scripted and performed parodies of Shakespeare and
Tennessee Williams on IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Our approach draws on
sociolinguistics and discourse analysis; the study of oral genres of
verbal art, as practiced by folklorists and ethnographers of
communication; Shakespearean studies and analyses of genres in literature;
research on communication and popular culture; and recent studies of
language, play and performance in computer-mediated communication. We
focus primarily on the first production of the Hamnet Players, a
hilarious, 80-line parody of Hamlet, called "Hamnet". The main source
of humor is the playfully irreverent juxtaposition of Shakespearean
plot, characters and language with materials drawn from Net culture and
from IRC specifically. Hamnet productions are currently primarily
textual-- participants type their lines in real time, or load them in
prepared mini-files--but the players have already begun to experiment
with graphics and sound, as well.
The Performance of Humor in Computer-Mediated Communication
Nancy Baym
Department of Communication
Wayne State University
There has been very little work on humor in computer-mediated
communication (CMC). Indeed, the implication of some CMC work is
that the medium is inhospitable to humor. This essay argues that humor
can be accomplished in CMC and can be critical to creating social meaning
on-line. The humor of the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.tv.soaps (r.a.t.s.),
which discusses soap operas, is analyzed. The method combines user
surveys with message analysis to show the prevalence and importance of
humor in r.a.t.s. Close analysis of five exemplary humorous messages
shows how the group's humor arises from the juxtaposition of close and
distant readings of the soap opera, which place the participants in close
relationships to one another, and distance them from the soap opera's
writers and producers. Group solidarity is also created as participants
draw extensively on previous messages to ground their own humor. Humor is
also shown to be a primary mechanism for the establishment of
individuality, as participants combine the shared meanings and play
with the shared parameters of the group in idiosyncratic ways.
Technologies of the Self: Michel Foucault Online
Alan Aycock
Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
While some have argued that computing via the Internet offers
a vision of freedom and a shared humanity, others have claimed
with equal vehemence that it may become the instrument of global
surveillance and personal alienation. Foucault's notion of self-
fashioning (souci de soi) exemplifies both sides of this debate, since
fashions may both be imposed and freely chosen. To present a Foucauldian
perspective on fashioning of self online I use instances of recent
postings to the Usenet news group rec.games.chess. Key aspects of
self-fashioning that I identify include romantic and modernist images of
interior experience, the importance of keeping your "cool," the
discussion of techniques designed to improve skill or strength, and the
purchase and use of chess computers as icons of mastery. Finally, I
consider some implications of this Foucauldian approach for future
research on Internet self-constructions.
Enduring Traditions, Ethereal Transmissions:
Recreating Chinese New Year Celebrations on the Internet
Seana Kozar
Department of Folklore
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Department of East Asian Studies
University of Edinburgh
A post-modern discussion of the playful re-creation of Chinese
New Year "cards" by Chinese students through the electronic medium.
"Re-creation" here refers to two distinctive, yet related styles
of performance. Firstly, it describes the recycling of traditional
Chinese motifs and large-character texts to create novel greetings.
Secondly, it signifies the increasingly popular practice of incorporating
festive symbols from other cultures. Through the juxtaposition of
traditional and contemporary, borrowed texts, the seemingly disordered
pastiches are transformed into uniquely Chinese expressions of
celebration. Re-creation and transmission of these greetings also
requires a certain degree of technical performance. At another level of
performance, anonymous Chinese computer artists may use some of these or
similar tools to actually design greetings which then have the
potential for global distribution and reproduction. "The Ten
Thousand-Dimensional Web of Heaven and Net on Earth" (WWW) is quickly
becoming an integral feature of many Chinese students' intra-cultural
communication, a vast rhetorical surface where one can do anything from
peruse a classical novel to select a clever greeting to send to an old
friend now halfway around the world.
============================================================
Coming in December, 1995:
Volume 1, No. 3:
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Edited by Charles Steinfield
Department of Telecommunication
Michigan State University
Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges
Donna L. Hoffman, Thomas P. Novak, and Patrali Chatterjee,
Vanderbilt University
Electronic Commerce and the Banking Industry: The Requirement and
Opportunities for New Payment Systems Using the Internet
Andreas Crede, Science Policy Research Unit,
University of Sussex
The Impact Of Electronic Commerce On Buyer-Seller Relationships
Charles Steinfield, Alice Plummer, Michigan State University
Robert Kraut, Carnegie Mellon University
Living Apart Together in Electronic Commerce: The Use of Information and
Communication Technology to Create Network Organizations
John Nouwens and Harry Bouwman,
University of Amsterdam
Intermediaries and Cybermediaries: A Continuing Role for Mediating Players
in the Electronic Marketplace
Mitra Barun Sarkar, Michigan State University
Brian Butler, Carnegie Mellon University
Charles Steinfield, Michigan State University
Electronic Commerce: Effects on Electronic Markets
Rolf T. Wigand and Robert I. Benjamin,
Syracuse University
The Automation of Capital Markets
Arnold Picot, Christine Bortenldnger, and Heiner Rvhrl,
Institute of Organization, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitdt M|nchen,
============================================================
Coming in March 1996:
Volume 1, No. 4:
(published jointly with the Journal of Communication)
Symposium: The Net
John E. Newhagen, University of Maryland
Sheizaf Rafaeli, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
guest editors
Why Communication Researchers Should Study the Internet
John E. Newhagen, University of Maryland
Sheizaf Rafaeli, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Units of Analysis for Internet Communication
John December, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute
The Internet as Mass Medium
Merrill Morris and Christine Ogan, Indiana University
The Art Site on the World Wide Web
Margaret L. McLaughlin
University of Southern California
Exploring Personal Relationships Formed Through Internet Newsgroups
Malcolm R. Parks
University of Washington
The Internet and U.S. Communication Policymaking
in Historical and Critical Perspective
Robert W. McChesney
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Articles:
Commercial Radio as Communication
Eric W. Rothebuhler
The University of Iowa
Television Use in a Retirement Community
Karen E. Riggs
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
============================================================
JCMC contains ongoing book review and bibliography sections. All our
material is available on the World Wide Web, is searchable, and there are
reader-feedback and commenting sections. JCMC continues to invite
submissions.
Please point your Web browsers at:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/annenberg/journal.html
or
http://shum.huji.ac.il/jcmc/jcmc.html
Margaret L. McLaughlin and Sheizaf Rafaeli
editors
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