Conversational Analysis of Chat Room Talk PHD thesis by Dr. Terrell Neuage University of South Australia National Library of Australia.
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Name and qualifications of Investigator
conducting the research:
TERRELL NEUAGE
MA Literature, Deakin University, 1998
Honours Literature, Deakin University, 1996
BA Journalism, Deakin University, 1995
School and Faculty:
School of Communication and Information
Studies
Division of Education, Arts and Social
Sciences
Terrell.Neuage@unisa.edu.au
Room:
Phone:
Home address:
4 Tenterton Road, Christie Downs, SA 5164;
ph 83265519
TITLE OF RESEARCH PROJECT:
"Discourse Analysis in Internet
Chatrooms"
Human Research Ethics
Ethics Protocol Proforma
Section 1 Purpose or aims of the research
1.1 Give information about any
preliminary studies that have been conducted and the results of those studies.
Describe concisely your research in a way which can be understood by someone
who is not a professional in the area of your study.
The project aims to examine conversation
within chat rooms in the Internet, seeking to establish how social relations
are constructed in virtual environments.
I am seeking ethics approval for two parts
to this research involving data collection.
1. The setting up of an on-line journal,
titled SouthernExpressway
2. The use of data gathered within a
particular area of the journal: chatrooms.
The journal will be available for students
and staff of the University of South Australia to submit material. I will
monitor material sent in order to position it within the journal sections; e.g.
reviews or material for different departments and schools. There will be a
standard disclaimer on the journal's front page, to dissociate the University
from any problematic content inadvertently accepted and retained on the site:
"The views expressed in SouthernExpressway
are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of its
editor. The University of South Australia provides the web-space only for this
journal. All material from SouthernExpressway is copyright and the
copyright belongs to the contributors. Contributions to the chatrooms are
archived for use in research into conversational analysis in Internet milieus
for the degree of Ph.D."
1.2 Provide a succinct statement establishing
the context or basis for your research and state briefly how your research
contributes to current knowledge.
Despite the growing use of electronic
communication, and especially the growing involvement in chatrooms, little
attention has been paid to this medium in regards to its uses as social
communications, or texts indicating changes in social-relational uses of
electronic communications.
The methodological basis for my research
borrows from Conversational Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Speech
Act Theory. These three theoretical techniqes have examined conversation as
interaction between participants with conversation being understood as spoken
communication. One primary characteristic of conversation is that it is fully
interactive - at least two people must participate in it, and they exchange
messages in a real-time basis. Participants take turns in exchanging these
messages, so conversation is fundamentally a sequential activity (Nofsinger
1991: p.3). I am extending 'speech' to include on-line dialogue as it exists in
chatrooms. On-line interactivity has similarities to speech in its notion of
immediate turn taking and therefore differs from other written forms of
communication such as e-mails, letter writing etc. There is a sense of virtual
speech and especially of regulated turn taking between participants. There are
also however significant differences, which this research aims to isolate, and
analyse.
1. Conversational Analysis is the
study of casual conversation. Casual conversation is the turn-taking-talk
between individuals. Current Conversational Analysis (CA) is based on the
techniques of the American sociological movement of the1970s, most notably from
the works of Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson, in their work in ethnomethodology.
The central concern was to determine how individuals experience, make sense of,
and report their interactions. In CA, the data thus consists of tape recordings
of natural conversation, and their associated transcriptions. These are then
systematically analysed to determine what properties govern the ways in which a
conversation proceeds. The approach emphasizes the need for empirical,
inductive work, and in this it is sometimes contrasted with 'discourse
analysis', which has often been more concerned with formal methods of analysis,
such as the nature of the rules governing the structure of texts.
Earlier studies into verbal communication
were done by sociologist G. H. Mead (1934) and philosophers John Austin (1962)
and J. R. Searle (1969). Whilst Mead looked at conversation from a sociological
perspective, Austin and Searle drew attention to the many functions performed
by utterances as part of interpersonal communication.
2. Austin and Searle's Speech Act Theory
studies the exchange of messages in real-time between participants. My focus
too is on the "speech-act", and the effects of "written
conversation" and how dialogue is structured within the new formats
available through the World Wide Web.
3. The term Discourse Analysis does
not refer to a particular method of analysis. It does not describe a
theoretical perspective or methodological framework but instead describes the
object of study: language beyond the sentence. (Tannen, 1989, p6). Discourse
Analysis studies complete text (both written and spoken), giving attention to
textual form, structure and organization at all levels; phonological,
grammatical, lexical and higher levels of textual organization in terms of
exchange systems, structures of argumentation, and generic structures: within social,
political and institutional practices of dialogue (see Fairclough 1982, 1989,
1995). Its analysis then extends out to its social and cultural context - a
feature which my own research will pick up.
4. Pragmatics is the study of
linguistic communication, of actual language use in specific situations. It
studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction
and the effects of our choice on others (Levinson, 1983; Nofsinger, 1991).
Amongst the areas of linguistic inquiry, several main areas overlap. Pragmatics
and semantics both take into account such notions as the intentions of the
speaker, the effects of an utterance on listeners, the implications that follow
from expressing something in a certain way, and the knowledge, beliefs, and
presuppositions about the world upon which speakers and listeners rely when
they interact. Pragmatics also overlaps with stylistics and sociolinguistics,
and psycholinguistics, as well as discourse analysis. These areas are all
concerned with the analysis of conversation and will be translated across to
the study of conversation in chatrooms.
My research will add to current knowledge by
taking conversational analysis into electronic environments. Previously
conversational analysis was based on person to person dialogue which relied on
the physical cues of body language or/and the voice. With increasing amounts of
"conversation" occurring electronically, new and compensatory systems
are evolving. This research examines what is lost, what is gained, and what is
new.
1.3 List the aim, research questions
or hypothises for your research.
AIM: To study how the process of exchanging meaning is
functionally motivated within electronic 'talk'.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
* How is turn-taking negotiated within
chatrooms?
* With the taking away of many identifying
cues of participants (gender, nationality, age etc.) are issues of sexism and
political correctness as prevalent as in face-to-face talk?
Research Hypotheses:
The research project is built around the
following hypotheses:
* that people create a different 'textual
self' for each electronic environment they are in, and that we should not
continue to regard all electronic textual practices as equal.
* that conversation within chatrooms,
without all the cues of previous forms of conversation (physical or phone
meeting and dialogues) will change how we come to know others and new cues
based on written conversation will become more important than the physical ones
which we rely on now.
* that observational study of chatroom
conversation can capture some of the adaptations of conversational behaviours
* that this work will assist in
understanding of how, and why, chatrooms are an important area in which to
create a new conversational research theory.
Of particular study will be the references
in appendix 1, Among them the most important research comes from Discourse
Analysis: Halliday, 1978; Kristeva, 1980; Bakhtin, 1981; Casual
Conversation: Eggins and Slade, 1997; Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson, 1974;
and Speech Act Theory: Austin, 1962; Searle, 1965. and Habermas, 1989; Pragmatics:
Levinson, 1983; Nofsinger, 1987 and Hypertext: Landow, 1992.
1.4 Indicate briefly the implications
of the research.
1. As there has been little study
done on Internet communication this study seeks to utilize and extend a
rigorous research methodology which was begun by Landow, 1992; Cicognani, 1998;
Hamman, 1996; Turkle, 1995. To do this I will develop a transcription
system to accommodate and "capture" IRC multilogue. I will use
symbols, for instance, to indicate interaction between participants, change of
topic, and introduction. Interaction between participants will also need to
indicate retrograde speech referencing. "Speakers" can refer to what
has already been said, but in electronic conversation the capacity exists to
"recall" exchanges several layers down. The transcription and coding
protocols therefore used in CA and CDA require careful re-development.
2. This study seeks to enhance understanding
of communications within electronic textual sites. There have been several
attempts at discussing the Internet and communications within electronic sites
(see Rheingold, 1985, 1991, 1994; Poster, 1988, 1990; Mattelart, 1996; Woolley,
1992; Eco, 1987; Gibson, 1986; Turkle, 1995) as well as by an increasing number
of Internet based academics, such as Chandler, Landow and Cicognani. The French
philosopher and social critic (hyperrealistic reporter), Jean Baudrillard is
continuing his work in cyberspace, and is currently listed as an editor in CTHEORY,
a weekly international journal of cultural theory, technology and philosophy.
3. One of the aims of this project is
a contribution to improved program design on Internet text-talk sites.
There are thousands of chatrooms available through Internet Relay Chat on the
World Wide Web. For example, 'talkcity' (http://www.talkcity.com), has hundreds
of chatrooms listed in categories such as Family which is broken
down into 'Cuisine', 'Education', 'Health and Recovery', 'Home and Family',
'Home Improvement', 'Home Arts', 'Pets', 'Shopping', 'Well-Being' and 'Women'.
Yahoo has multiple chatrooms (http://chat.yahoo.com), and Geocities has hundreds of chatrooms (http://www.geocities.com). As technology continues to improve chatrooms will
include sight and sound. Currently most chats are done textually. This study
will be constructed during the changeover from text conversation to voice and
visual chat. The biggest advantage in text chatrooms is that several people can
speak at the same time - how this will translate with voice remains to be seen.
One of the drawbacks with the three chat servers mentioned above is that it is
difficult to 'capture' the dialogue. Because the chatrooms uses frames they can
not be printed, saved or copied. By having chatrooms in the on-line journal I
will establish, I will be able to 'capture' conversation to analyse, and
overcome this problem.
4. As more people study Internet
communication and more people go online there will be a need to develop
protocols for managing social relations in electronic settings. The
dilemma is how to produce these without a Panoptic culture of constant surveillance.
In relation to a system of watching and controlling people who chat, a protocol
of permission to observe is needed, which is acceptable to those who are
chatting. The proposed research, like all current work on 'Internt
talk,' must struggle with this dilemma.
1.5 Describe any ecological implications
of the research - not applicable.
1.6 Describe any implications for your
safety, as you conduct the research --
not applicable.
1.7 This is not intended to be a pilot
study.
Section 2 Research Method and project
design considerations
2.1 PROJECT DESIGN: This is
the data collection section of the proposed research program. This research is
based on the setting up of an on-line journal, "SouthernExpressway".
A "zine" (a contemporary term for an on-line print magazine) it will
be "open" to its own users, i.e., a participant interactive magazine
for students and staff of the university and the broader Adelaide community.
Three areas indicated in the example seek texts on: TEXTUALITY, ART and REVIEWS.
The URL for southernexpressway will be: http://se.magil.unisa.edu.au and it will be on
the university's infotrain server.
The project will be promoted to students and
staff at during the second semester of 1999, and their contribution sought.
METHODOLOGY:
The investigation section of the project
traces communicative competence and styles from Oral to On-line, examining the
changing rules of engagement within the "speech act".
The methodology combines several approaches
to linguistic studies, as explained above (Conversational Analysis, Discourse
Analysis, Pragmatics and Speech Act Theory).
The steps taken in the project will be:
* selection of "text-talk"
examples taken from chatrooms within the on-line journal SouthernExpressway
* establishment of an extended and modified transcription protocol to
capture the flow of "text-talk".
* application of analytical tools from
within the linguistic methodologies outlined above
* isolation of major recurrent features
characterising "talk-text" forms, and comparison across varying
sites.
* summary of major categories for
"capture" and analysis of "talk-text" practices and
behaviours.
* establishment of a set of procedures and
models for further study of electronic talk
Section 3 Subject considerations
3.1 List the selection and exclusion
criteria for subjects - there are
none.
3.2 How volunteers will be recruited.
Volunteers will be recruited by engaging in
conversation within the venue I am researching. As there will be a notification
within each area being analysed it will be up to participants to dialogue or
not.
At no stage will I be commenting on the
content, or ideas or opinions, of contributors. My analysis involves the forms
of electronic conversations, and works comparatively across site-types.
Conversation within other chatrooms will be
observed and noted. Such chat is both textually formatted, and is in the public
domain. Only its limitations in relation to collection of extended talk
sequences have made the establishment of a purpose-designed site (southernexpressway)
necessary.
3.3. Access to subjects through referral
by, or cooperation with, another person, institution or organisation - not applicable.
3.4 Subject membership of dependent group - not applicable.
3.5 Notification of special interest
groups - not applicable.
3.6 Informing potential subjects about
this research project. - see
appendix 3.
3.7 Consent to participate.
In order to enter southernexpressway
a participant must click on an "I accept" button, See appendix 3.
This will inform the participant that their conversation is being saved for
research analysis.
3.8 Measures taken to ensure the
subject's well being -The study
contains no research techniques or content areas likely to impinge upon
subjects' well-being.
Section 4 Recording, reporting, storage
and access to the research data and results.
4.1 Research data will be recorded and saved
on CD and/or other electronic retrieval system. It will be stored in the
library of The School of Communication and Information Studies at Magill Campus.
4.2 The research will be reported as a Ph.D.
thesis and in related journal articles and conference/seminar presentations -
including on-line presentations.
4.3 Unless the 'username' is significant,
because it is unusual or indicative within the conversational analysis, numbers
will be used in place of names. What I am researching is not the individual
participants but pieces of dialogue. In any published articles which uses chat
extracts I will edit any aspects likely to identify any individuals which can
be modified without loss of meaning of their chat.
4.4 As the texts will already be available
on the Internet there will be no restrictions to access of data.
4.5 Data will be stored on disc and will be
kept at a nominated place by the University of South Australia. It will also be
kept on the Internet server of the University.
Section 5 Ownership of the Research
5.1 I will hold the copyright on the results
of the research. The complete data which the research will be from will be
available to the public, through the Internet Journal.
5.2 Ownership of intellectual property
arising from research - The full
research report and extracted sections (see 5.1) will be owned by me.
Section 6 Other organisations involved in
the research
6.1 This research does not involve any
significant interaction with Aboriginal or Torrens Strait Islander individuals
of communities or artifacts of cultural and spiritual significance.
6.2 Overseas institutions involvement - not applicable.
6.3 Assistance from other organisations - not applicable.