Computer-Mediated Communication
Spring 2008
Tuesday, 6:30-9:00 p.m., Smith 232
Stephen D. Cooper, Ph.D.
Smith Hall 246
696-2733
Monday 12:00-3:00 pm
Wednesday 12:00-3:00 pm
Friday 12:00-2:00 pm
Other times by appointment.
From its infancy as a federally-funded experiment in military communications, through its adolescence as the federally-funded plaything of academicians, to its maturity as a self-supporting and self-organizing global network, the World Wide Web has continued to confound the pundits and delight its users. Personal computers have made serious computing power available to people of ordinary means. E-commerce has influenced the commercial marketplace in both obvious and subtle ways.
While prior communication innovations such as the telephone and television reshaped our notions of time and space, there is good reason to see the widespread adoption of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as unique in its simultaneous impact on our social institutions, our organizations, and our personal identities.
In this course we will survey some major dimensions of this innovation. Our goal is to get a sense of the breadth and depth of the institutional, workplace, and personal transformations catalyzed by computer-mediated communication.
Another goal of this course is to further develop your skills in writing thoughtful, concise papers. In lieu of exams (no exams? yay!) all students, undergraduate and graduate, write a number of short papers relating to CMC issues we study in the readings. Graduate students also write two case studies of CMC in the real world. FYI, undergrads: this counts as a Writing Intensive class on your transcript.
If you feel a bit of anxiety about this aspect of the course, it’s a sign you realize that analytical writing is a skill you need to work on. Keep in mind that important opportunities often present themselves as challenges.
So what’s the payoff, exactly, for all your hard work in this course?
· Understanding of fundamental concepts and constructs applicable to CMC.
· Familiarity with analytical models for CMC behaviors.
· Introduction to major scholarly issues regarding CMC.
· Greater skill in analytical writing.
Your success in this course is in your own hands. As in so many other activities, your commitment is crucial. At one level, this is simple: come to class, be prepared for the class, and participate fully in the class. At a deeper level, this is complex: only you can promise yourself you will do that, and then keep that promise to yourself.
What it boils down to is that when you do your best, you can be OK with yourself. But when you don’t do your best...
Eggenschweiler, J., & Biggs, E. D. (2001). Writing: Grammar, usage, and style. New York, NY: Wiley.
The XanEdu reading packet for this course. This will be on the shelf on the MU bookstore. (Yeah, the thing is pricey—but it’s cheaper than buying all the books the readings come from.)
The development of the World Wide Web has opened a great many wonderful opportunities to all of us. It has also made it easier than ever to misrepresent someone else’s work as our own.
Don’t do it.
Plagiarism is a fool’s shortcut. Not only do you cheat yourself of the opportunity to learn and grow, but you expose yourself to severe academic penalties.
Plagiarism is dishonest. In the I Ching there is a saying that sincerity inspires respect. Earn your self-respect through your own efforts.
Try this technique for reading course materials. It’s especially useful for the higher-level readings we’ll be doing in this class.
· First browse the entire reading you’ve been assigned. Let your eyes go where they want to: headings, bold-faced terms, diagrams, figures, whatever paragraphs catch your attention. Get a sense of how the reading is put together, and what the main ideas might be.
· Next, look for summary materials the reading might include. There at least ought to be a conclusion; you might get lucky and have a table of main ideas. Whatever forms the summary materials may be in, read them slowly and carefully. Let those ideas sink in.
· Then read through the assignment in sequence. Highlight passages, make margin notes, write things in your notebook. Take your time with this reading, and let the familiarity you gained by browsing guide your highlighting and note taking.
· Finally, jot down ideas or terms you don’t feel rock solid about understanding, after doing the reading. Jot down ideas you understand but disagree with, and ideas you think are especially insightful. We’ll devote much of our meeting time to collectively chewing on these readings, so make notes about them while they’re fresh in your mind.
This four-step process won’t require much more time, but I think you’ll find you get a lot more out of the readings. Try it and see.
Clarity in Writing, Clarity in Thinking.
Reading assignment for this class:
The syllabus. (Yeah, I know we gave it a glance in the first meeting—but we actually follow the syllabus in this course, so you need to read it through.)
Reading assignment for this class:
Spend a full hour browsing Eggenschwiler & Biggs—the whole thing. (Time yourself, K? And it’s OK to spend longer...) Linger and read carefully, when an item seems especially pertinent to you.
Writing assignment for this class (#1):
1. Pick eight grammar/usage/punctuation rules which you didn’t know, or got wrong. These would come from the first ten chapters.
2. For each of the eight items you chose, find a passage which violates that principle in your own academic writing (any course, in any discipline) or would especially benefit from it.
3. For each principle:
· Quote the rule, from Egg & Biggs.
· Quote the original passage in your work which violated it, and explain what was wrong in it.
· Revise that passage so it’s correct.
What’s the Big Deal About CMC?
Reading assignment for this class:
Hunt & Ruben; Adams & Clark.
Writing assignment for this class (#2):
Identify five interesting questions about CMC in particular, or the information society in general. Put each question in its own section with an appropriate heading, and write a few paragraphs stating the question precisely, explaining why the question matters, and sketching your own thoughts about possible answers. No fluff, no blah-blah, no pretentious wording, K? Get your thinking clear, then express your thought clearly.
Here’s the point of the assignment: this is your personal agenda for this class. Don’t be limited by the authors’ ideas; think for yourself! Do give specific examples, events, personal experiences, or any other evidence which leads you to see CMC that way, or wonder about CMC, at this point.
Reading assignment for this class:
Find another high-quality source related to this topic. Prepare an informal briefing on it for us.
Writing assignment for this class (#3):
Create an executive summary of the readings for this unit (both the packet, and the one you found). Concisely summarize the most important ideas about the information society. Be sure to include a glossary of key terms. Figure you’ll run about two or three typed pages. No fluff, no blah blah, OK? Bullet lists work great for this kind of document.
As an appendix to your executive summary, include three relevant discussion questions that would merit a piece of our face-to-face time.
Diffusion of CMC.
Reading assignment for this class:
Rogers; Markus.
Writing assignment for this class (#4):
Put together a two-page summary of Rogers’s diffusion theory. Strip the thing down to its essential ideas, but make sure you’ve covered all the essentials. Then add another page or so summarizing how Markus adapted diffusion theory to interactive media. Format this assignment as bullet points with brief explanations of each.
Closing the CMC as Innovation Loop.
Reading assignment for this class:
Find another high-quality source related to this topic. Prepare an informal briefing on it for us.
Writing assignment for this class (#5):
Create an executive summary of the readings for this entire unit (both the packet, and the one you found). Concisely summarize the most important ideas about CMC as an innovation which diffused throughout the social structure. Be sure to include a glossary of key terms. Figure you’ll run about two or three typed pages. No fluff, no blah blah—use bullet points.
As an appendix to your executive summary, include three relevant discussion questions that would merit a piece of our face-to-face time.
Reading assignment for this class:
Sproull & Faraj; Wellman.
Writing assignment for this class (#6):
Think of yourself as a social being (as in Table 2.1, in Sproull & Faraj). Go through both readings and cherrypick the ideas which seem to best explain you, as a social being—identity, emotions, needs, behaviors, associations, interactions, whatever. Bullet list those ideas, and give a few explanatory sentences for each to show its application to you.
Closing the Mediated Interpersonal Comm Loop
Reading assignment for this class:
Find another high-quality source related to this topic. Prepare an informal briefing on it for us.
Writing assignment for this class (#7):
Create an executive summary of the readings for this unit (both the packet, and the one you found). Concisely summarize the most important ideas about CMC as interpersonal communication. Be sure to include a glossary of key terms. Figure you’ll run about two or three typed pages. No fluff, no blah blah—just high-quality bullet points with brief explanations.
As an appendix to your executive summary, include three relevant discussion questions that would merit a piece of our face-to-face time.
It’s Just Bidness
Reading assignment for this class:
Contractor & Eisenberg; Sproull & Kiesler.
Writing assignment for this class (#8):
Imagine yourself as the boss of a place where you used to work (or currently do work), then think of some new network technology you might introduce into it. Write up an implementation plan, drawing on these readings as justification for the moves you’ll make. Talk about problems, opportunities, necessary resources, possible unintended consequences. Don’t just rattle on and on; keep it under three pages, and tie your main points into the readings explicitly. Since it’s an implementation plan, it makes sense to structure this assignment around a temporal sequence of steps, right?
Closing the Mediated Organizational Comm Loop.
Reading assignment for this class:
Find another high-quality source related to this topic. Prepare an informal briefing on it for us.
Writing assignment for this class (#9):
Create an executive summary of the readings for this unit (both the packet, and the one you found). Concisely summarize the most important ideas about CMC in organizations. Be sure to include a glossary of key terms. Figure you’ll run about two or three typed pages. No fluff, no blah blah—just high-quality bullet points with brief explanations.
As an appendix to your executive summary, include three relevant discussion questions that would merit a piece of our face-to-face time.
Reading assignment for this class:
Papacharissi; Carnevale & Probst.
Writing assignment for this class (#10):
Push your pessimism button. In two pages or less (well, OK—just barely into three), make the most compelling case you can that CMC is screwing the social world up. This thing is a persuasive essay, so it’ll be running text—but think through the logical structure of your argument before you start banging on the keys, K?
Utopia.
Reading assignment for this class:
Kedzie; Cooper.
Writing assignment for this class (#11):
Now push your optimist button. Make the most compelling case you can that CMC is yet another fabulous evolution in the best of all possible social worlds. (Just don’t gush too much about the Cooper article, K?)
Closing the Public Sphere Loop.
Reading assignment for this class:
Find another high-quality source related to this topic. Prepare an informal briefing on it for us.
Writing assignment for this class (#12):
Create an executive summary of the readings for this unit (both the packet, and the one you found). Concisely summarize the most important ideas about the impact of CMC on the public sphere. Be sure to include a glossary of key terms. Figure you’ll run about two or three typed pages. No fluff, no blah blah—just high-quality bullet points with brief explanations.
As an appendix to your executive summary, include three relevant discussion questions that would merit a piece of our face-to-face time.
Week 14 – April 22
The Workshop.
Bring all your draft materials for the portfolio, and we’ll flog ‘em good.
Gimme that portfolio! Put it in my mailbox by the close of business on this day.
The formal written works—revised memos, weekly assignments, case studies, and portfolio—are the backbone of this course. These have different point values in computing your course grade, but the criteria on which they will be graded is the same. Here are the criteria, and the proportions each contribute to the grade:
· Writing mechanics: 30%.
(Includes spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, word choice, general appearance of the page.)
· Relevance to the assignment’s question or topic: 30%.
(How well does your paper do what the assignment asked for?)
· Use of concepts to answer the question: 40%.
(How well does your paper use the discipline’s big ideas? Do they reveal insights into the phenomenon?)
Do yourself a big favor, and avoid using a thesaurus when you work on these. The thesaurus makes it convenient and easy to totally foul up what you’re trying to say. The dictionary—not the thesaurus—is the right tool for clarifying your understanding of words. And by all means, write notes about the ideas you struggle with as you do these pieces. Ask questions in class! That’s what our meetings are for.
Keep this in mind, always: fancy language is no substitute for clear thinking.
The Case Studies
Grad students, you’re on the hook for two case studies in addition to the other written work. One case study will be about a weblog and the other about the use of CMC in a particular organization.
In both case studies, you describe the phenomenon (i.e., the blog, the organizational CMC implementation) concisely but thoroughly, then use concepts from our readings to make sense of it. Relax! We’ll spend some of our class time clarifying what case studies are supposed to look like. But do start thinking, early in the semester, about what cases you’d like to write up. These pieces need to strongly connect the concrete details of the case to the abstractions of CMC theory.
The portfolio is your chance to strut your stuff. For the portfolio you choose three memoranda and three of the weekly assignments to revise and develop. Please be sure to include both the original submission of the document, and your revised version. For the sake of professionalism, put it all in some sort of binder or folder.
Be clear about this: the idea is NOT just to fix a couple typos or mechanical errors that I flagged in the original version. The idea is that the originals were first drafts which you then revised and substantially developed. If that development isn’t apparent, then the grade suffers.
In other words, you take a selection of your works in this course to the next level.
Here are the point values which add up to your course grade:
In-class Memoranda 50 points, total 50 possible
Total 700 possible for grad students
500 possible for undergrads
Grad students: A = 630 or better
B = 560-629
C = 490-559
D = 420-489
F = 419 or below
Undergrads: A = 450 or better
B = 400-449
C = 350-399
D = 300-349
F = 299 or below
I reserve the right to reject assignments after their deadlines pass. If you know you’ll have trouble making a due date on any of the work, get in touch with me before the deadline so we can make some arrangement. The key to success in this course is simple: take the course seriously, and think ahead.
That makes the attendance policy obvious: if you take this course, come to class. The worst penalty for not showing up is losing the knowledge you would have gained from our activity that day, but you’ll also lose the points you would have earned toward your course grade that day.
That’s the tough part. Here’s the love part: if something is going on in your life such that you will not be able to meet a deadline for written work or a presentation, contact me in advance of that date so we can work something out. Keep in mind, though, that missing a deadline and making lame excuses afterward just won’t cut it.
You can understand what I mean, then, by calling this tough love. I want you to do well in this course. But if I were to let you get away with doing less than your best, or to give you the impression that life is about doing the minimum necessary to get by, I’d be devaluing you. Again, sincerity inspires respect. I want to earn your respect, and I hope you want to earn mine.
Remember that you are a student at a first-class state university, and this is a professional context for all of us. Be sure that the papers you turn in reflect your professionalism. All your written work must be typed, double spaced, with normal margins and font size. Be sure your name, the course number, and the assignment number are on the top of the page. Written work is written work; unless we make arrangements before the deadline passes, email is not acceptable as a way to submit an assignment.
When you’re having trouble with an assignment or a presentation, don’t suffer in silence. Call me! That’s what I’m here for. My office hours are listed on this syllabus, and we can meet other times by appointment.
Here’s what it all comes down to:
My job is to create an environment in which you can succeed.
Your job is to succeed.
but wait! there’s more...
The University wants to be sure you know about these things:
academic dishonesty policy
http://www.marshall.edu/president/Board/Policies/MUBOG%20AA-12%20Academic%20Dishonesty.pdf
accomodations for students with disabilities
http://www.marshall.edu/disabled
computing services acceptable use policy
http://www.marshall.edu/ucs/CS/accptuse.asp
weather closings
http://www.marshall.edu/www/policy_07.html
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