Discussion groups can thus be about anything even, as the Eggins and Slade "textual" function indicates, about their own practices. They start off though with specific purposes. What I propose to do with
There are two notices on this particular academic discussion group site located at http://lists.cmhc.com/research/about.htm. The first notice describes the site:
EXAMPLE III
I am pleased to announce the creation of a mailing list to discuss research and theory on the psychology of the Internet. This list was created on March 15, 1996.
The topics that are appropriate to this list are broadly defined, but can include such things as:
Recently the following was posted on the site.
"Okay, everyone. I think this thread is totally out of control.
We are adults, and I have been really surprised and disappointed by the
name-calling and general lack of professionalism from all sides. I hope
everyone settles down soon so we can focus on something other than who
can sling more electronic mud."
Name ***
Department of Psychology
238 Burnett Hall *
University of Nebraska * ".. demented and sad, but social."
Lincoln, NE 68588-0308 * -The Breakfast Club
How discussion groups are maintained is the issue here. Are they monitored or just open for anyone to have a say? If a site is monitored then it is possible to edit the site and delete the unwanted "voices". If a site is open for anyone to have a say then there is the possibility of it being 'taken over' by a certain ideology, person, or "talk" which is not within the current conversation. A recent posting in the above discussion group sums up this dilemma:
"Perhaps the most important kind of social concern
deals with issues of control and flow of information, freedom
of speech, and cybernetic ethics.
Few mailing lists in the world have established truly democratic
processes of participation-control, ie. in most mailing lists
"moderation" means that the list-owners or companies running the list
have absolute control over form and content and participation within
the lists."
This obviously will be a topic which will need to be addressed in relation to the establishment of
southernexpressway, both in my analysis and with the University ethics committee. Freedom of speech and uncensored dialogue are important to many. I would like to observe both a moderated list and an un-moderated one. If advised to have only moderated lists on the zine, I will monitor another site, which is not moderated, for comparison. This is an important methodological issue in conversational analysis, where power in relation to the flow of "talk" is a big concern (see below) and where the genres or formats in which conversation is framed work to control the repertoire of talk.INSTANT MESSENGER
The third area that I am proposing to observe is America On-line's Instant Messenger. Here someone steers the conversation into a particular area of discussion, establishing, in CA terms, the "flow" or speaking space for a topic. Unlike chatrooms and discussion groups no one else can enter the dialogue. Here the "talk-text" dynamic comes especially close to that isolated in Conversational Analysis, so that IM can operate as a foundational text for other Net forms.
In the recent film "You got mail", Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan dialogue through this particular environment. As I will point out in METHODOLOGY, I am interested in establishing at what point the dialogue between strangers or even acquaintances changes in the on-line environment. For example, in the movie 'You Got Mail' the dynamics between the two strangers change when one of the participants (Tom Hanks) writes, "we should meet". This is however a fictional dialogue - one which parallels a major "moral problem" discourse in relation to IRC and the constitution of electronic persona. The degree to which IRC dialogue reproduces such moments of change, or reveals other strategies of affects, will be examined.
EXAMPLE IV.
Here is a fragment of an IM conversation between mutual acquaintance, who have never met physically. The conversation had started out about spirituality but the male (speaking in capital letters) quickly turned it into a sexual theme with the female finally ending with "thats (sic) what i (sic) thought you were going to say.....but i didnt want to go there!" At this stage the female writer (lower case text) could have been revealing a familiarity with social norms (ie. Male sexual behaviour) or with IRC practices or both. Without other cues: visual, knowledge of the participants and their familiarity with one another, it will be difficult to define the "talk". Here the grammar, fonts and abbreviations are all significant. Several of the abbreviations are shorthand for several words. Two in this IM I am not familiar with: IBE in line 14 and OBE in line 11. In line 10, LOL is shorthand for lots of laughs. It is also used for "lots of love", but in this context I believe it is "lots of laughs" as it follows the word "HE", as in "he he he". To some extent the textual "appearance" of IRC script is accidental. If people are not skilled at typing, they make a lot of errors trying to keep up with IRC conversation. This is especially true in chatrooms where there are several people all 'speaking' at the same time. Nevertheless, contributors do also use text forms in deliberative ways. I will reproduce the extract first as it downloads from the IM screen, where limited window and scroll capacity makes it visually confusing. Then I will provide a provisional transcription, highlighting some of the interpretive complexities of this dialogue.
1. ######: WE WERE TOGETHER IN THE HAREMS OF CHINAS THRONE, THE GOOD OLDL DAYS
2. ######: MINE
3. ******: ah...one of those past life miracles
4. ######: COOL LETTERS. I LIKE GRAPHICS AND BIG BLACK LETTERS, COOLNESS
5. ******: oops....better get a little more humble again
6. ######: WE WERE INDIANS IN THE NEW WORLD TOGETHER TOO
7. ******: WOW! far out man!
8. ######: YES, I GET TO CALL HER IN ABOUT 2 HOURS
9. ******: lucky you
10. ######: I PRACTICE THE 4 RULE. I HOPE YOUR NOT INTO THE EQUALITY TRIP BUT I FEEL THE MAN ONE THE WOMAN 4. THAT WORKS GOOD, SHE REALLY SMILES A LOT AFTER THAT HE LOL
11. ******: and where does she live....I hope not in Australia.....thats too far even for a good old fashioned OBE
12. ######: IN THE SOUTH OF SANTA CLARA, COUNTY
13. ######: CA
14. ######: WE DO A LOT IBE
15. ######: THE I FOR IN
16. ******: so she is near....that is good.......and a peice of down to earth advice from mother earth.....dont contract any viruses
17. ######: WE IS PURE AS THE FRESH FALLEN SNOW
18. ******: as long as it doesnt include too much nuclear fall out
19. ######: BUT IT MELTS AFTER A SHORT WHILE AND WERE IN THE CARRIBEAN
20. ******: dont want to loose any hair....that would be a real shame
21. ******: oh...ok........sounds like a plan
22. ######: NOT YET ON THE FALL OUT, BUT I HAVE HIT SPIRITUAL ATOMICS AND IT PUCHES HOLES IN THE ATOMOSPHERE LIKE THE EARTH ATOMICS
23. ######: HOW DID YOU KNOW MAMA MY HAIR IS THINING, BUT ONLY ON THE HEAD HE HE LOL
24. ******: I'm sure........we could invent a fix a flat for sub atomic stuff and get rich then, huh?
25. ######: HUUUMMMMM??? NOT BAD IDEA
26. ######: IF I GET RICH I M DOWNIN THE CARRIBEAN. WELL I WAS A PIRATE IN A PAST TIME HE HE .. IT WAS STILL GREAT AND WORTH IT.
27. ******: sorry........cant rewind that one....so forget it ever happened....your here now big guy!
28. ######: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY 4 RULE?
29. ******: but I got your parrot...hahahaha
30. ######: HE HE I LOVE TUCANS, THE BIG BEAK ONES
31. ******: dont get it...please explain better for us illiterate unpsychic ones 4 what?....ask i thus
32. ######: THE WOMAN HAS FOUR ORGASIMS, A LEAST ONE VERY BIG TWO MEDIUM AND ONE OR MORE SMALL THE MAN HAS ONE BIG AND MAYBE A FEW SMALL ONES
33. ######: THIS RATIO KEEPS THE NIGHT ALL NIGHT.
34. ******: oh my god!...thats what i thought you were going to say.....but i didnt want to go there!
EXAMPLE IV-A (with notations)
1. ######: WE WERE TOGETHER IN THE HAREMS OF CHINAS THRONE, THE GOOD OLDL DAYS
2. ######: MINE
3. ******: ah...one of those past life miracles [3Ù 1]
4. ######: COOL LETTERS. I LIKE GRAPHICS AND BIG BLACK LETTERS, COOLNESS [#]
5. ******: oops....better get a little more humble again [3Ù 1]
6. ######: WE WERE INDIANS IN THE NEW WORLD TOGETHER TOO
7. ******: WOW! far out man! [7Ù 6]
8. ######: YES, I GET TO CALL HER IN ABOUT 2 HOURS [8Ù ?]
9. ******: lucky you [9Ù 8]
10. ######: I PRACTICE THE 4 RULE. I HOPE YOUR NOT INTO THE EQUALITY TRIP BUT I FEEL THE MAN ONE THE WOMAN 4. THAT WORKS GOOD, SHE REALLY SMILES A LOT AFTER THAT HE LOL [#]
11. ******: and where does she live....I hope not in Australia.....thats too far even for a good old fashioned OBE [11Ù 8]
12. ######: IN THE SOUTH OF SANTA CLARA, COUNTY [12Ù 11]
13. ######: CA
14. ######: WE DO A LOT IBE
15. ######: THE I FOR IN
16. ******: so she is near....that is good.......and a peice of down to earth advice from mother earth.....dont contract any viruses [16Ù 12-13]
17. ######: WE IS PURE AS THE FRESH FALLEN SNOW [17Ù 16]
18. ******: as long as it doesnt include too much nuclear fall out [18Ù 17]
19. ######: BUT IT MELTS AFTER A SHORT WHILE AND WERE IN THE CARRIBEAN [# 19Ù 17]
20. ******: dont want to loose any hair....that would be a real shame [# 20Ù 18]
21. ******: oh...ok........sounds like a plan [21Ù 19]
22. ######: NOT YET ON THE FALL OUT, BUT I HAVE HIT SPIRITUAL ATOMICS AND IT PUCHES HOLES IN THE ATOMOSPHERE LIKE THE EARTH ATOMICS [22>18]
23. ######: HOW DID YOU KNOW MAMA MY HAIR IS THINING, BUT ONLY ON THE HEAD HE HE LOL [23Ù 20]
24. ******: I'm sure........we could invent a fix a flat for sub atomic stuff and get rich then, huh? [24Ù 22]
25. ######: HUUUMMMMM??? NOT BAD IDEA [25Ù 24]
26. ######: IF I GET RICH I M DOWNIN THE CARRIBEAN. WELL I WAS A PIRATE IN A PAST TIME HE HE .. IT WAS STILL GREAT AND WORTH IT. [26Ù 24Ù 6Ù 1]
27. ******: sorry........cant rewind that one....so forget it ever happened....your here now big guy! [27Ù 26Ù 6Ù 1]
28. ######: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY 4 RULE? [28Ù 10]
29. ******: but I got your parrot...hahahaha [#]
30. ######: HE HE I LOVE TUCANS, THE BIG BEAK ONES [30Ù 29]
31. ******: dont get it...please explain better for us illiterate unpsychic ones 4 what?....ask i thus [31Ù 29Ù 10]
32. ######: THE WOMAN HAS FOUR ORGASIMS, A LEAST ONE VERY BIG TWO MEDIUM AND ONE OR MORE SMALL THE MAN HAS ONE BIG AND MAYBE A FEW SMALL ONES [32Ù 31Ù 29Ù 10]
33. ######: THIS RATIO KEEPS THE NIGHT ALL NIGHT. [33Ù 32Ù 31Ù 29Ù 10]
34. ******: oh my god!...thats what i thought you were going to say.....but i didnt want to go there! [34Ù 33Ù 32 Ù 31Ù 29Ù 10]
Already evident is the increasing degree of regression in the dialogue. By line 24 participants are referring back across more than one exchange to continue the discussion. By the end, they refer back to multiple exchanges. Part of my analysis will focus on how far this is a specific condition of IRC/IM chat, not depictable in spoken texts.
CONTINUE