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Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1

"Searching for Cyberspace"

In This Issue:

Impression Formation in Cyberspace: Online Expectations and Offline Experiences in Text-based Virtual Communities David Jacobson Brandeis University How do people in cyberspace picture one another? More specifically, how do individuals engaged in text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC), with its paucity of visual and auditory cues, form impressions of those with whom they interact? And how do expectations formed online compare with offline experiences? Researchers have begun to answer these questions, drawing primarily on theories of stereotyping. This paper uses prototype theory and related models to extend previous research and to account for discrepancies between online image and offline reality. It draws on interviews with individuals who first met others online and subsequently moved to face-to-face interaction; it also utilizes comparisons between text-based impressions formed online and photographs displayed on web pages. The Performance of Cyberspace: An Exploration Into Computer Mediated Reality Gretchen Barbatsis and Michael Fegan Michigan State University Kenneth Hansen Aalborg University, Denmark This phenomenological enquiry into cyberspace examines the concept of space and metaphor, explaining 'cyber'space as a figurative term and a figurative space, as something projected as a shared mental concept. Reception theory is used to theorize this figurative space as an ideational object constituted by a 'text-reader' relationship. The performance of 'cyber'space is described as a self-reflexive ideation about meaning-making itself, and examined as discursive, liminal, and transformative. Examination includes examples from e-mail, chat, and 3D conference systems. Virtual Community Presence in Internet Relay Chatting Geoffrey Z. Liu San Jose State University This article presents a method based on Jones' "virtual settlement" theory for empirically testing for the presence of virtual community in Internet Relay Chatting (IRC), The conditions for virtual community proposed by Jones are related to the technological context of IRC and formulated as conceptual hypotheses. The author argues that a sustained level of co-appearance and nickname stability should be included in testing. Interactivity analysis should include both verbal exchanges and action-simulating messages. Analysis of message references should be done in terms of message content as well as message syntax. Major issues related to research design and implementation are discussed in depth. Characteristics of the WWW Text: Tracing Discursive Strategies Ananda Mitra Wake Forest University This paper considers the uniqueness of the texts and discourses produced by a specific group of World Wide Web (WWW) users. These characteristics include the intertextuality of the WWW text and the resulting formation of textual domains where no particular text can claim centrality. This decentering is reported as the result of a process of reciprocal intertextuality. These unique characteristics of the WWW text eventually produce an image of the group of people who write and read the text. The specific characteristics of the Web discourse suggests alternative ways of thinking of cyber-communities around the specific discursive strategies used by the authors. Interactive Options in Online Journalism: A Content Analysis of 100 U.S. Newspapers Tanjev Schultz University of Bremen The article discusses the challenge of providing interactivity within journalism. It views interactivity as a variable of responsiveness in interpersonal and societal communication. The Internet has the potential to increase interactive attempts in journalism. However, media organizations do not necessarily exploit this opportunity effectively. An exploratory content analysis of 100 U.S. online newspapers reveals that many provide only token interactive options. Editors of Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: Margaret McLaughlin, University of Southern California Sheizaf Rafaeli, Haifa University