Thesis description


Preliminary title

 

”Making sense digitally:
Conversational coherence in online and mixed-mode contexts”

 


 

Main aim


To identify practices of coherence establishment and maintenance in technology rich communication situations based on four case studies.

 

 

Questions explored

Situational:

- What characterizes some technology rich communication situations and the interaction taking place there?

Communicative:

- What characterizes the strategies for coherence establishment and maintenance in these situations?

Theoretical:

- What is the relation between strategies for sense-making and context of interaction in these situations?

Applied:

- How might the results be applied in the design of tools for communication?

 

 

Theoretical and methodological framework

 

Some basic assumptions:

- Computer-mediated communication is best analyzed in context

- Situational factors, including the material qualities of the environment and the tools used, influence language use

- Coherence is negotiated in interaction and can be investigated by analyzing conversations as they unfold

 

Theoretical foundation:

The analysis builds on an interactional and ecological approach to sense-making, drawing on theories of:

- Interactional linguistics/Conversation analysis

- Conversational coherence

- Collaborative theory/Common ground theory

- /Communicative/ affordances

 

 

Methodology and material:

Ethnographic approach to data collection:
- Observations and log files; digitally mediated conversations at the core of analysis

Four case studies at different levels of analysis (tools and environments), investigating the following practical problems:

 


How do participants establish and maintain coherence when…

Study 1

… conversational threads are intertwined?

Study 2

… turn-taking is governed by the tool and when multiple modes are available?

Study 3

… multitasking leads to involvement in several conversations simultaneously?

Study 4

… interaction can take place both via digital tools and face-to-face?

 

 

Some results

- The communication situations are often polyfocal and polycontextual.

- Coherence is established multimodally, and explicit strategies are the most successful.

- Both material context and other contextual dimensions influence sense-making strategies in significant ways.

- The results point to the importance of keeping “balanced awareness” in mind when designing tools for interaction, as the most complicated practical problems seem to relate to difficulties in determining availability while retaining control over the interaction (see Applied for more information).

 

 

Significance

- Applying a common linguistic analytical focus to “new” types of texts:

Analyzing coherence within and across modes and conversations in digitally-supported conversations in multiplex and multimodal communication situations (while multitasking, in shared online environments and in shared physical environments)

 
- Introducing an extended framework for analyzing CMC:

Investigating log files in the “complete” context of interaction and in relation to material qualities and communicative affordances (a rich situational analysis)

 
- Exploring the interrelation between discourse and physical/digital material surroundings:

Focusing on a relatively unexplored area of research, combining interactional and ecological approaches

 
- Interrelating linguistic findings with suggestions for interaction design