Online Communication: Linking Technology, Identity & Culture, by Andrew F. Wood and Matthew J. Smith. (2001). (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 225 pp. $27.50)
Even today, education remains the one sector of our society in which the potential of the communications revolution have not been fully utilized or even completely understood . . . Aside from the usual resistance of educational institutions and teachers to new ways or means of communicating, the primary reason that educational technology did not incorporate communication within its conceptual framework to any great degree is that behaviorism began to exert its influence in the early 1960s, just about the time that communication was beginning to have some impact on educational technology . . . Whether this vital part of educational technology will ever be recovered and incorporated into its theory and practice remains a question for the future. Paul Saettler, 1990
Not very long ago, Saettler (1990) mentioned that the study of communication could have contributed more to the development of educational technology if psychology’s influence had not been so strong. Over the years, psychology (especially studies on human learning) has influenced research and practice in the field of educational technology. However, with the rapid growth of online learning due mainly to the emergence of computer networks, the study of communication has attracted the attention of the educational technologists, especially those working in distance education.
Today, one can easily observe incorporation of communication into theory and practice of distance education. There are many qualitative and quantitative studies investigating communication in online learning environments (e.g., Angeli, Valanides, & Bork, 2003; Leh, 2001; Lock, 2002). Social presence, virtual communities, privacy, access, language, emoticons, interactions, and types of communication tools are among the concepts and issues that have been examined in these studies. Distance education practitioners are designing their courses and programs with these concepts and issues in mind.
In Online Communication: Linking Technology, Identity & Culture, the authors briefly review many of these hot concepts and issues. Although they bring a communication point of view, they provide a good beginning for researchers and practitioners in distance education as well as in other social sciences such as politics, law, and humanities.
Target Audience
Online Communication has been designed primarily as a textbook for graduate students. It aims to provide an introduction to both the technologies of the Internet Age and their social implications. However, anyone interested in issues of technology, culture, and education might find this book very helpful to start thinking of the role of technology and mediated communication in today’s society.
Organization and Content
The authors have organized the ten chapters of this book into three sections. In the two chapters of the first section, “The Internet as Social Technology,” the authors introduce Internet technologies and some of the key concepts from a social perspective. In the first chapter, for instance, they introduce the five forms of Internet technologies not in technical terms but in social terms, describing how people have conceptualized and used those technologies rather than giving their technical specifications. Similarly, the second chapter starts with a brief history of the Internet as a social force and concludes with explanations about essential characteristics of the Internet that differentiate it from other interpersonal and mass communication contexts.
The second section of the book, “The Self among Others,” discusses more deeply the technical and social aspects of online communication. For example, in Chapter 3, the authors focus on questions that are as old as humanity’s search for knowledge and are still present in this electronic era: Who am I? How can I get others to understand me? Can I accept that these people are who and what they claim to be? Later in this chapter, the authors provide guidelines that enable people to present themselves on the Internet, and also warn about dangers of the Internet such as identity fraud and shadow identities.
Chapter 4 covers the establishment of online relationships. Readers are introduced to different forms of online relationships: impersonal, interpersonal and hyperpersonal. With regard to impersonal relationships, the authors examine theories of social presence and context cues as well as forms of emoticons. Under the heading “interpersonal relationship,” they explain the social identification/deindividuation (SIDE) model. Finally, a new form of relationship, hyperpersonal, is introduced.
The authors have chosen to discuss one of the problems resulting from developments in electronic communications: Internet Addiction Disorders (IAD). It is defined as a psychological condition associated with Internet use that leads to adverse effects with one’s psychological, physical, or social well-being. The authors claim that this condition occurs as a result of the combination of accessibility, convenience, and excitement. On the other hand, they also present how online technologies can cure IAD or similar problems. Online therapy and virtual support groups, for instance, can contribute to the lives of those who might otherwise not receive any help.
The last chapter of the second section, Chapter 6, concentrates on one of the current topics of almost every field of study in the social sciences: virtual communities. The chapter starts with a brief history of virtual communities where fantasy communities are especially examined. Then a profile of a good Internet citizen, a netizen, is drawn.
The third and the final section of the book, “Internet Culture and Critique,” includes four chapters that focus on the effects of the Internet on people’s lives and their responses to those changes. Chapter 7 takes the corporate side of online communication into consideration. First, the role and use of computer networks to enforce corporate discipline is examined. Later, the authors explore several techniques that corporations use to survey and influence consumer behavior, such as cookies, data mining, and voluntary data submission. Lastly, the authors explore the theory of diffusion of innovations, which has been defined as communication about new ideas through certain channels over time among members of a social system. Interaction and diversity are identified as factors linked to the effective diffusion of innovations. At the end, the relationship between corporate convergence and online communication is examined.
Chapter 8 is mainly about the digital divide. The authors state that according to recent studies in the United States, the digital divide is still a big problem in terms of race, ethnicity, and class. However, these studies show that the gender divide is diminishing. The authors give details about government and community-based efforts to close the digital divide.
Chapter 9 has to do with issues of the power and control. The authors discuss the notion of discursive resistance through which individuals and groups find opportunities to express their thoughts against or toward economic and social systems. They also mention agonistic and utopian sorts of discourse, and they conclude the chapter with a discussion of online hate groups. According to the authors, although the number of these types of hate groups is small, their impact is pervasive.
The last chapter of the book is related to the ways in which tools of popular culture–especially books and movies–try to manipulate people’s understanding about the role of technology in their daily lives. The authors attempt to explain the relationship among traditional media such as books and films, online technologies, and popular culture.
Strengths
One of the main contributions of Online Communication is its emphasis on the social aspects of online communication. Although many resources explain technological matters, few focus on social characteristics of this technology. So, this book might help those who are interested in investigating the social aspects of online communication that occur in education and other settings. For instance, those who are in the field of distance education and would like to examine social presence in online learning environments might find this book beneficial.
An additional strength of this book is in bringing together current work in varying fields like communication sciences, political sciences, philosophy, sociology, history, economics, business, education, and engineering to present an examination of the theoretical and critical issues in the study of computer-mediated communication. This structure provides readers from different fields see the big picture–a systemic view–about online communication. This interdisciplinary approach might help researchers in the field of distance education as well as other fields have a better and maybe more reliable perspective while investigating online communication in educational settings.
Moreover, the design of its chapters can be regarded as one of the main strengths of Online Communication. Each chapter starts with an impressive anecdote or a case study to introduce the content of the chapter. The authors consistently refer to these cases throughout the book, relating the content to these real life examples. In addition to content, as one of the two special components, Hyperlinks not only enriches the content but also provides readers insight into some additional issues not explored in depth in the main part of the text. The other component, Online Communication and Law alerts readers to some of the legal issues related to online communication. Each chapter ends with a chapter summary, glossary, topics for discussion, and references.
Online Communication is an excellent textbook. The content is designed in a way that facilitates learning. It covers reviews of studies as well as theories. Transitions between chapters are smooth and well organized. The real life examples help comprehension of theoretical explanations, the glossary of terms serves as a quick reference for definitions, the concise chapter summaries provide valuable review, discussion topics are outstanding follow-up activities, and the references help those who want to go into greater depth.
The Web site, www.onlinecommunication. ws, also optimizes the use of Online Communication as a textbook. The Web site is simple and well-designed. It provides abstracts of chapters as well as interesting instructional activities to the faculty who would like to use Online Communication as a textbook. It also offers PowerPoint presentations, links to online resources, and titles of other resources related to the topics discussed in each chapter. One of the attention-grabbing parts of this site is the part “In the News,” which consists of current news related to the chapter topics taken from newspapers or magazines. I think the news is very useful to relate the information presented in the chapters with real-life situations. Similarly, the part “Other Media” relates movies such as Tron, The Net, and Johnny Mnemonic with the content of each chapter. The Web site does not provide examples of test questions.
Weaknesses
Bringing together current work from varying fields can also be considered a drawback of Online Communication. The book attempts to cover many important issues in the social sciences, which limits the depth of inquiry allotted to important topics such as virtual communities. For the novice graduate or undergraduate student, this structure can be helpful but, for those who need more, the content of the book might be a little light.
Another shortcoming is the language. As a nonnative English speaker I find the language used in this book quite culturally biased. By “culturally biased” I mean that the book mainly targets native English speakers. So, some of the terms, phrases, and expressions might be difficult to understand for those who are nonnative English speakers like me. In addition to language, most of the examples are related to the American society and the cases, such as the one given in Chapter 1 about Ellen Ullman, may change in different cultures. It would have been better if international perspectives could have been included.
Similarly, I also find the resources and examples of activities and movies included on the Web site to be culturally biased. All these resources, activities, and movies can work well for the U.S. audience, but may not work others.
Conclusion
Overall, for those who want a thorough and knowledgeable introduction to social aspects of online communication, Wood and Smith’s book, Online Communication, can be a good start. It can be especially helpful for those who would like to investigate the social side of online learning. This book could be very beneficial if it is used with other resources that concentrate specifically on the use of computer-mediated communication in educational settings, such as Mason and Kaye’s (1989)Mindweave, and Berge and Collins’ (1995)Computer mediated communication and the online classroom.
