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Sticker use is an increasingly popular part of daily messaging activity. However, little is known regarding the types, functions, and outcomes of sticker use in authentic online communications. To investigate these phenomena, we analysed sticker use in five small mobile-messaging-facilitated discussion groups initiated by students for course projects in an Asian university. The students used four types of stickers, among which ‘animated picture without text’ was the most frequent. Sticker functions fell into two main categories: as a tone indicator with scope over a textual message, and as a stand-alone illocutionary act. Based on interviews with seven participants, we found disparities between the sender’s intention and the receiver’s interpretation for 34.7% of the stickers, but these disparities did not adversely affect the communication. Implications of the findings are discussed.

This case study examined patterns in online communication using computer-mediated discourse analysis to better understand how teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence are manifest...

Participants in textual CMC must identify to whom or what a message responds in order to establish conversational coherence. Media sharing sites provide rich prompts that make available multiple, diverse, potential addressees. We conducted an exploratory content analysis of addressee types and how they relate to the content of messages in three YouTube comment threads related to the COVID-19 pandemic, applying addressee and topic coding schemes inspired by [6]'s YouTube participation framework. Some addressee types and content types were mentioned significantly more frequently than others, although there was variation across threads. Also, certain kinds of topics were addressed more with certain addressees, and different topics were addressed in replies than in comments. Thus, the interaction between addressee and message content should be considered in analyses of conversational coherence on YouTube and other rich-prompt CMC platforms. © 2021 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Language and Discourse in Social Media: New Challenges, New Approaches. by Massimiliano Demata, Dermot Heaney and Susan C. Herring TEXTS BY: Michael S. Boyd, Paola Catenaccio, Michelangelo Conoscenti, Giuliana Elena Garzone, Ilaria Moschini, Anna Franca Plastina, Alessandra Rizzo, Marianna Lya Zummo, Altre Modernità, 2018: NUMERO SPECIALE: Language and Discourse in Social Media: New Challenges, New Approaches

Susan Herring, the originator of the computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) paradigm, describes efforts to extend CMDA over time in order to address changes in computer-mediated communication (CMC), such as nontextual communication and the trend toward convergence of multiple modes of CMC in a single platform. Following a review of three broad stages of technological evolution that shaped CMC from 1985 to 2017 and the themes favored by CMDA researchers at each stage, Herring proposes a reconceptualization of CMC itself as inherently multimodal. This reconceptualization includes communication mediated by graphical phenomena such as emoji and avatars in virtual worlds, as well as by certain kinds of robots. She argues that the principles at the core of the CMDA paradigm apply equally to interaction in these nontextual modes.

In this document we explain the need and plans for a SIG Meeting at CHI on telepresence robots. We describe the organization of this SIG, our expected attendees, procedure and schedule of topics to be discussed, as well as our recruitment plan. Our goal is to provide a forum to discuss key issues surrounding the uses and usefulness of telepresence robots, including challenges and best practices.

This study investigates to what extent greetings on a social network site popular with South Asians are associated with the degree of interpersonal closeness of the users, educated middle class Bengalis in the United States. Computer-mediated discourse analysis, face-to-face interviews, and participant observation were employed to analyze the textual comments exchanged in 79 Bengali dyads. The analyses reveal a relationship between degree of social distance and frequencies of Bangla greetings when type of greeting (regular vs. ritualistic) and manner of expression (unmarked vs. intensified) are taken into account. However, some aspects of the interplay between interpersonal closeness and greetings can only be understood if cultural nuances and medium factors are taken into consideration.

We introduce an efficient coding system for dynamic topic analysis (DTA), a computer-mediated discourse analysis technique that codes and visualizes topical development over time in online discussions. Our system provides three main functionalities: intuitive coding with a touch screen interface, automated inter-rater agreement computation, and visualization of the coding results. Using the system, we conducted a preliminary DTA of 28,131 user comments from the popular music distribution sites SoundCloud and Last.fm. The analysis shows that most SoundCloud and Last.FM comments are narrowly on-topic and prompt-focused, as compared to discussions in other social media that exhibit more topical elaboration.

This panel will bring together experts on robotic telepresence from HCI and related fields. Panelists will engage the audience in a discussion of visions, opportunities and challenges for the future of telepresence robots.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) relies heavily on propaganda in the form of videos distributed over social media to recruit supporters and new members to its cause, including from the U.S. The U.S. government has countered with anti-ISIS propaganda videos; however, sources claim that the U.S. is losing the propaganda war. We evaluate that claim through a comparative multimodal content analysis of the ISIS video Flames of War and the videos posted in response on the U.S. Department of State’s (USDS) Think Again Turn Away YouTube channel. Our findings shed light on some of the reasons why the USDS anti-propaganda videos are less rhetorically effective than the ISIS videos, including a one-dimensional narrative, a stance that could appear inauthentic, and a lack of sensitivity to Islamic culture. In concluding, we advance recommendations that the USDS could follow to strengthen its online propaganda defense against ISIS, and extend the implications of our findings to other social media fronts where the ISIS vs. USDS propaganda war is being waged.

This paper analyzes how social network users engaged in discussions under a public post contribute to knowledge dissemination through their verbal behavior in the light of an Austin-based speech-act theoretical framework. We first argue that such a framework can be applied not only to face-to-face interaction, but also to internet-mediated communication, since it identifies kinds of illocutionary acts on the basis of recognizable procedure patterns which can be made manifest through different communication channels. We then examine to what extent the performance of different kinds of illocutionary acts contributes to knowledge dissemination through the achievement of their characteristic effects or other aspects of their procedure patterns. For each of four main classes of illocutionary acts, we discuss examples from comments on Facebook posts concerning health- and politics-related issues.