The dynamics of gender perception and status in email-mediated group interaction V1.0
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Jan 21, 2008
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Abstract
This paper takes the position that identity is not located in the individual but in the community in which each individual is recognised as a legitimate participant. Markers of identity such as gender, race, and socio-economic class are not visible in written interaction, but socialisation produces expectations regarding the positions, status and behaviour of dual gender roles, and such expectations can colour the ways in which participants in a mailing list respond to each other. Despite the fact that technological mediation appears to render social markers invisible, social categories such as gender can become even more relevant for interactants in these contexts. The study of interactional patterns on the mailing list Cybermind uses a scheme to classify posts in order to highlight participants’ responses to their projected addressees according to perceived gender. The findings indicate that style of response both to and by each ‘identified’ gender can be differentiated, and suggests that interactive behaviour contributes to the legitimation of local status of participants, but that this is not just a function of gender alone.
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References
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Ho, Caroline (2002) Online Communication: A Study of the Construction of Discourse and Community in an Electronic Discussion Forum. Unpublished Phd Thesis: Department of English Language and Literature, University of Birmingham, UK.
Kress, G. (1985) Linguistic Processes in Sociocultural Practice. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.
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Okamoto, G. G. & L. Smith-Lovin (2001) "Changing the subject: gender, status and the dynamics of topic change", in American Sociological Review . 66 (6): 852-873. https://doi.org/10.2307/3088876
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Postmes, T. & Russell Spears (2002) "Behavior online: Does anonymous computer communication reduce gender inequality?", in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 (8). https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672022811006
Reid, S. A., Keerie, N. & N. A. Palomares (2003) "Language, gender salience, and social influence" in Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 22(2): 210-33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X03022002004
Ridgeway, C. L. & L. Smith-Lovin (1999) "The gender system and interaction", in Annual review of Sociology. 25: 191-216. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.191
Rogers, P. & M. Lee (2005) "Social presence in distributed group environments: The role of social identity", in Behaviour and Information Technology. 24 (2): 151-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290410001723472
Rodino, M. (1997) "Breaking out of binaries: Reconceptualizing gender and its relationship to language in Computer-mediated communication", in Journal of Computer-mediated Communication. 3 (3). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00074.x
Ruesch, J. & G. Bateson (1951) Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry (3rd Edition: 1987). London & New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Savicki, V., Lingenfelter, D. & Merle Kelley (1996) "Gender language style and group composition in internet discussion groups", in Journal of Computer-mediated Communication. 2 (3). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1996.tb00191.x
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Swales, J. M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomson, R. (2006) "The effect of topic of discussion on gendered language in computer-mediated discussion", in Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 25 (2): 167-178. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X06286452
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932
Watzlawick, P., Beavin, J. H. & Don D. Jackson 1967: Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes. New York: W. W. Norton.
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Yates, S. J. (1996) "Oral and written linguistic aspects of computer conferencing", in Herring, Susan C. (ed) Computer Mediated Communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.39.05yat
Yates, S. J. (1997) "Gender, identity and CMC", in Journal of computer assisted Learning. 13: 281-290. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2729.1997.00031.x
Bateson, G. (1972/ 2000) Steps to an ecology of mind. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.
Baym, N. K. (1996) "Agreements and disagreements in computer-mediated discussion", Research on Language and Social Interaction 29 (4): 315-345. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi2904_2
Bhatia, V. K. (2004) Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-based View. London & New York: Continuum.
Bergvall, V. L. (1999) "Toward a comprehensive theory of language and gender", Language in Society 28 (2): 273-93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404599002080
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Bucholtz, M., Liang, A. C., & L. A. Sutton (1999) Reinventing identities: The gendered self in discourse. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Bucholtz, M & K. Hall (2005) "Identity and interaction: A sociolinguistic approach", Discourse Studies. 7 (4-5): 585-614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Caldas-Coulthard and Coulthard (eds) (1996) Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.
Chouliaraki, L. & N. Fairclough (1999) Discourse in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Coates, J. (ed) (1998) Language and Gender: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Eckert, P. & S. McConnell-Ginet (1998) "Communities of practice: where language, gender, and power all live", in Coates, J. (ed) Language and Gender: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Ekeblad, E. (1998) "Contact, Community and Multilogue. Electronic Communication in the Practice of Scholarship. Paper presented at The Fourth Congress of the International Society for Cultural Research and Activity Theory, ISCRAT Aarhus University, Denmark, June 7-11, 1998. available: http://hyperion.math.upatras.gr/commorg/ekeblad/cocomu.html [Accessed November 2002].
Ellemers, N., Spears, R. & B. Doosje (eds) (1999) Social Identity. Oxford & Malden: Blackwell.
Erikson, T. (1996) "Social Interaction on the Net: Virtual Community as Participatory Genre". available: http://www.research.apple.com/personal/Tom_Erickson/html [Accessed June 1997].
Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and power. Harlow: Longman (1992) Discourse and Social Change. London: Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis. London & New York: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (2003) Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research, London & New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M. (1972) The archaeology of knowledge. (translated Sheridan Smith) New York: Pantheon Books.
Giese, M. (1998) "Self without Body: Textual Self-Representation in an Electronic Community", in First Monday, 3 (4). Available: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_4/giese/ [Accessed December 2007]. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v3i4.587
Goffman, E. (1974) Frame Analysis, New York: Harper & Row.
Goffman, E. (1981) Forms of Talk, Oxford: Blackwell.
Grosz, E. (1994) Volatile Bodies, St Leonards: Allen & Unwin.
Gumperz, John J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1975) Learning how to mean. London: Edward Arnold. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-443701-2.50025-1
Herring, S. C. (1994) "Gender differences in computer-mediated communication: Bringing familiar baggage to the new frontier" Keynote talk at panel entitled "Making the Net*Work*: Is there a Z39.50 in gender communication?", American Library Association annual convention, Miami, June 27 1994. available: http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/Gender_issues/cmc_and_gender.article [Accessed December 2007].
Herring, S. C. (ed) (1996) Computer Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social and Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.39
Herring, S. C. (2000) "Gender Differences in CMC: Findings and Implications", in CPSR Newsletter. 18 (1). Available: http://www.cpsr.org/issues/womenintech/herring [Accessed January 2008].
Herring, S. C. (2001) "Computer-mediated discourse", in Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D. and H. E. Hamilton (eds) The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden, Oxford and Melbourne: Blackwell.
Herring, S. C., Johnson, D. A. & T. DiBenedetto (1998) "Participation in Electronic Discourse in a 'Feminist' Field", in Coates, J. (ed) Language and Gender. Oxford & Malden: Blackwell.
Herring, S. C. & A. Martinson (2004) "Assessing gender authenticity in computermediated language use. Evidence from an identity game", Journal of Language and Social Psychology 23 (4): 424-446. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X04269586
Ho, Caroline (2002) Online Communication: A Study of the Construction of Discourse and Community in an Electronic Discussion Forum. Unpublished Phd Thesis: Department of English Language and Literature, University of Birmingham, UK.
Kress, G. (1985) Linguistic Processes in Sociocultural Practice. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.
Lave, J. & E. Wenger (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815355
Lazar, M. M. (ed) (2005) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, power and ideology in discourse. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599901
Lemke, J. L.(1995) Textual Politics: Discourse and Social Dynamics. London & Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis.
Lemke, J. L. (2000) "Material sign processes and emergent ecosocial organisation", in Andersen, P. B. et al (eds) Downward Causation: Minds, Bodies and Matter. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. A version of this paper is available from: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/aarhus.htm
Li, Q. (2005) "Gender and CMC: A review on conflict and harassment", in Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 12 (3): 382-406. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1327
Okamoto, G. G. & L. Smith-Lovin (2001) "Changing the subject: gender, status and the dynamics of topic change", in American Sociological Review . 66 (6): 852-873. https://doi.org/10.2307/3088876
O'Donnell, M. (2002) Systemic Coder 4.63. http://www.wagsoft.com/
O'Sullivan, P., Hunt, S. K. & L. R. Lippert (2004) "Mediated immediacy A Language of Affiliation in a Technological Age" in Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 23 (4): 464-490. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X04269588
Postmes, T., Spears, R. & Martin Lea (1999) "Social identity, normative content, and 'deindividuation' in computer-mediated groups", in Ellemers, E., Spears, R. and Bertjan Doosje (eds) Social Identity. Oxford & Malden: Blackwell.
Postmes, T. & Russell Spears (2002) "Behavior online: Does anonymous computer communication reduce gender inequality?", in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 (8). https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672022811006
Reid, S. A., Keerie, N. & N. A. Palomares (2003) "Language, gender salience, and social influence" in Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 22(2): 210-33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X03022002004
Ridgeway, C. L. & L. Smith-Lovin (1999) "The gender system and interaction", in Annual review of Sociology. 25: 191-216. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.191
Rogers, P. & M. Lee (2005) "Social presence in distributed group environments: The role of social identity", in Behaviour and Information Technology. 24 (2): 151-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290410001723472
Rodino, M. (1997) "Breaking out of binaries: Reconceptualizing gender and its relationship to language in Computer-mediated communication", in Journal of Computer-mediated Communication. 3 (3). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00074.x
Ruesch, J. & G. Bateson (1951) Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry (3rd Edition: 1987). London & New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Savicki, V., Lingenfelter, D. & Merle Kelley (1996) "Gender language style and group composition in internet discussion groups", in Journal of Computer-mediated Communication. 2 (3). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1996.tb00191.x
Spears, R. & M. Lea (1994) "Panacea or Panopticon: The hidden power in computermediated communication", in Communication Research. 21 (4): 427-459. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365094021004001
Swales, J. M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomson, R. (2006) "The effect of topic of discussion on gendered language in computer-mediated discussion", in Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 25 (2): 167-178. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X06286452
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932
Watzlawick, P., Beavin, J. H. & Don D. Jackson 1967: Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes. New York: W. W. Norton.
Witmer, D. F. & Katzman, S. L. (1997) "On-Line Smiles: Does Gender Make a Difference in the Use of Graphic Accents?", in Journal of Computer-mediated communication. 2 (4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00192.x
Yates, S. J. (1996) "Oral and written linguistic aspects of computer conferencing", in Herring, Susan C. (ed) Computer Mediated Communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.39.05yat
Yates, S. J. (1997) "Gender, identity and CMC", in Journal of computer assisted Learning. 13: 281-290. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2729.1997.00031.x