New Media for Technical Communicators

For more than forty years, the Society for Technical Communication (STC) has helped its members explore new ways to communicate. The theme of the STC's 41st annual conference held recently in Minneapolis, 'Explore Communication,' was therefore apt. Participants at the conference discussed new ideas for communication via computer, and charted the beginnings of STC's foray into Internet-based scholarship.

December, John A. Computer-Mediated Communication (1995). Articles>TC>Multimedia

Politexts, Hypertexts, and Other Cultural Formations in the Late Age of Print

I have twisted the language to contrive the title of this essay because I want to interrogate the future of literacy, both its electronic formations (if indeed these differ from its pre-electronic ones) and its social origins and effects. Hence: I am using the unpronounceable locution e-literacies in two different ways: first, to mean those reading and writing processes specific to electronic texts (by texts, I mean a whole range of digitally encoded materials -- words, sounds, pictures, video clips, simulations, etc.); second, to signify elite-racies as in those socio-economic elites whose interests might be served by electronic literacies of one sort or another, or who might come to be elites by virtue of their ability to shape electronic literacies.

Kaplan, Nancy. Computer-Mediated Communication (1995). Articles>Information Design>Hypertext

Toward Broadening our Research Agenda in Cyberspace

Competing visions of society's future in the online world continue to abound, tending most often to offer dichotomous scenarios of such a society: on the one hand are the cautionary tales of the new information technology as a potential danger, which 'threaten[s] a loss of tens of millions of jobs in the years ahead' and brings with it the potential to 'isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience'. On the other hand are the technological optimists who see great possibilities for community and humanity; for 'drawing people into greater world harmony' and creating orderly, efficient, and fun electronic worlds with few negative side effects. How, then, within the context of such dichotomous positions can we critically analyze the possible social and humanistic outcomes of life in cyberspace?

Gurak, Laura J. Computer-Mediated Communication (1996). Articles>Cyberculture

Usable?...Or Not?...Factors Affecting the Usability of Web Sites

This article contemplates factors affecting the usabilty of web sites. It addresses issues from both the disciplines of psychology and computing and attempts to consider the relevance of these issues with regards to a study carried out at the Centre for Information Environments Research at BrunelUniversity. The study was developed in order to investigate issues affecting the usability of web sites. A test site was created and investigations revealed some interesting findings.

Rajani, Rakhi and Duska Rosenberg. Computer-Mediated Communication (1999). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Web Rings as Computer-Mediated Communication

As recently as 1994, academic journals such as Communication Education were continuing to define 'computer-mediated communication' as a decidedly dialogic or conversational phenomenon. Focusing on such technologies as electronic bulletin boards, the Usenet and email, the journal's articles attempted to come to grips with the 'virtual' dimension of text-based, computerized communication. Four short years later, the Internet has become a much more complex, commercialized, politicized and increasingly networked environment, to the extent that web-based resources--particularly home page addresses-- have become fully integrated and hypertextually linked into 'traditional' CMC dialogic technologies. The widespread use of email and usenet interfaces from Netscape and Microsoft, for instance, have enabled the linking of web addresses within the body of posts. In addition to conversing one-on one, users now increasingly refer, via an automated link, to web-based resources. Granted, users don't communicate with each o

Elmer, Greg. Computer-Mediated Communication (1999). Articles>Information Design>Web Design

Web Usability and Technology

Usability implies purpose and audience. Part of the difficulty of defining 'Web Usability' is the diversity of purposes and audiences within the Internet community. The original audiences were heavily weighted in favor of academics with high levels of computer savvy. Early users were fault tolerant of unsophisticated interface design, satisfied with an absence of pictures, and happy in a world of keystrokes that could flow between the Internet and simple text editors.

Murphy, Arthur R. Computer-Mediated Communication (1999). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship  

Social network sites (SNSs) are increasingly attracting the attention of academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach. This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together scholarship on these emergent phenomena. In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition. We then present one perspective on the history of such sites, discussing key changes and developments. After briefly summarizing existing scholarship concerning SNSs, we discuss the articles in this special section and conclude with considerations for future research.

Boyd, Danah and Nicole B. Ellison. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (2007). Articles>Web Design>Research>Social Networking