The Performance of Humor in Computer-Mediated Communication

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.There has been very little work on humor in computer-mediated communication. Indeed, the implication of some CMC work is that the medium is inhospitable to humor. This essay argues that humor can be accomplished in CMC and can be critical to creating social meaning on-line. The humor of the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.tv.soaps (r.a.t.s.), which discusses soap operas, is analyzed. The method combines user surveys with message analysis to show the prevalence and importance of humor in r.a.t.s. Close analysis of five exemplary humorous messages shows how the group’s humor arises from the juxtaposition of close and distant readings of the soap opera, which place the participants in close relationships to one another, and distance them from the soap opera’s writers and producers. Group solidarity is also created as participants draw extensively on previous messages to ground their own humor. Humor is also shown to be a primary mechanism for the establishment of individuality, as participants combine the shared meanings and play with the shared parameters of the group in idiosyncratic ways

Stress and Coping Due to Global Virtual Teamwork

Global virtual teams (GVTs), project teams composed of individuals working across time and space via electronic platforms, are becoming increasingly commonplace in most organizations today and in global organizations specifically. The aim of this study was to explore issues employees experienced when working virtually in GVTs in order to develop recommendations for addressing those issues and encouraging solutions to benefit the employees, teams, and organizations as a whole. This paper presents findings from 27 interviews on coping and strain reactions to participation in intercultural computer-mediated communication (CMC). Analyses of the qualitative data suggest that intercultural training were helpful in reducing miscommunication and strains or helping individuals to cope (e.g., using problem-focused coping) with strains, although analyses were not statistically significant. In addition to sample size, tenure, experience, and personality might also contribute to few reported negative emotions and the need to actively cope with intercultural CMC stressor. Implications of the findings are discussed

Cognitive and Social Help Giving in Online Teaching: An Exploratory Study

While literature suggests that college students may be less reluctant to seek help in online rather than traditional courses, little is known about how online instructors give help in ways that lead to increased student help seeking and academic success. In this study, we used theories and research on learning assistance and scaffolding, teacher immediacy, social presence, and academic help seeking to explore through a cross-case study design how three online instructors differed in their use of cognitive and social supports and how those differences related to student perceptions of support, help seeking, and performance. Primary data sources included all course postings by the instructors, interviews with the instructors, observational field notes on course discussions, student interviews, and final student grades. Archived course documents and student discussion postings were secondary data sources. Data analysis revealed that while all instructors provided cognitive and social support, they varied in their level of questioning, use of direct instruction, support for task structuring, and attention to group dynamics. This variation in teaching presence related to differences across the courses in student perceptions of support, student help seeking in course discussions, and final course grades. Implications for online teaching and suggestions for further research are offered

Differences in use and function of verbal irony between real and fictional discourse: (mis)interpretation and irony blindness

This paper presents a contrastive approach to the presence of two distinct types of verbal irony in real (natural, unscripted) versus fictional (scripted) discourse, with a special focus on irony blindness, i.e. the inability to recognize ironic utterances. Irony strategies are categorized into two general types, based on the relationship between the expressed and the intended meaning (Type 1: meaning reversal and Type 2: meaning replacement). First, the differences between these two types are discussed in terms of use, interpretation, and misinterpretation. It is found that the first type of irony strongly prevails in natural discourse, while the second type is considerably more present in fictional discourse than it is in natural discourse. At the same time, the first type of irony appears to be more at risk of misinterpretation in natural discourse, as opposed to the second type, which seems to be a safer (even though less frequently selected) option. These findings are then further analyzed in light of the discussion concerning fictional (comedic, in particular) irony blindness and the construction and role of the irony blind characters. Interestingly, the causes of fictional irony blindness are found to correlate more strongly with the (more humorous) misinterpretation of the second type of irony

No Grice: Computers that Lie, Deceive and Conceal

In the future our daily life interactions with other people, with computers, robots and smart environments will be recorded and interpreted by computers or embedded intelligence in environments, furniture, robots, displays, and wearables. These sensors record our activities, our behavior, and our interactions. Fusion of such information and reasoning about such information makes it possible, using computational models of human behavior and activities, to provide context- and person-aware interpretations of human behavior and activities, including determination of attitudes, moods, and emotions. Sensors include cameras, microphones, eye trackers, position and proximity sensors, tactile or smell sensors, et cetera. Sensors can be embedded in an environment, but they can also move around, for example, if they are part of a mobile social robot or if they are part of devices we carry around or are embedded in our clothes or body. \ud \ud Our daily life behavior and daily life interactions are recorded and interpreted. How can we use such environments and how can such environments use us? Do we always want to cooperate with these environments; do these environments always want to cooperate with us? In this paper we argue that there are many reasons that users or rather human partners of these environments do want to keep information about their intentions and their emotions hidden from these smart environments. On the other hand, their artificial interaction partner may have similar reasons to not give away all information they have or to treat their human partner as an opponent rather than someone that has to be supported by smart technology.\ud \ud This will be elaborated in this paper. We will survey examples of human-computer interactions where there is not necessarily a goal to be explicit about intentions and feelings. In subsequent sections we will look at (1) the computer as a conversational partner, (2) the computer as a butler or diary companion, (3) the computer as a teacher or a trainer, acting in a virtual training environment (a serious game), (4) sports applications (that are not necessarily different from serious game or education environments), and games and entertainment applications

The media equation and team formation: Further evidence for experience as a moderator

This study extends previous media equation research, which showed that interdependence but not identity leads to team affiliation effects with computers. The current study used an identity manipulation that more closely replicated the manipulation used in traditional team and group formation research than the original media equation research in this area. The study also sought further evidence for the relationship between experience with computers and behaviour reflecting a media equation pattern of results. Sixty students from the University of Queensland voluntarily participated in the study. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: control, human team (a team made of only humans) or human-computer team (a team made of computers and humans). Questionnaire measures assessing participants’ affective experience, attitudes and opinions were taken. Participants of high experience, but not low experience, when assigned to either of the team conditions enjoyed the tasks completed on the computer more than participants who worked on their own. When assigned to a team that involved a computer, participants of high experience, but not low experience, reacted negatively towards the computer (in comparison to high experience participants working on their own or on a team without a computer as a team member) – rating the information provided by the computer lower, rating themselves as less influenced by the computer and changing their own ratings and rankings to be less like those of the computer. These results are interpreted in light of the ‘Black Sheep’ literature and recognized as a media equation pattern of results