mediated immediacy

Patrick B. O’Sullivan, Stephen K. Hunt, Lance R. Lippert (2004)

Mediated Immediacy, A Language of Affiliation in a technological Age

Journal of Language and Social Psychology,23,464-490

Mediated immediacy

proposed as a p468 ‘way to better understand the communicative practices that convey affiliation and foster relationships via communication technologies’

defined as p471 ‘ communicative clues in mediated channels that can shape perceptions of psychological closeness between interactants. Stated another way, immediacy cues can be seen as a language of affiliation’

Authors, alongside Walther, Loh & Granta began to focus on this area. This paper reviews idea of CMC as a relational space from a historical perspective ( 3 stages) before describing how immediacy may enhance learning and determining how to identify it for CMC.

Some notes

Draws attention to the difference between novice and expert users of mediated communication and comments on how expertise develops.

Based on instructional learning through a tutor mediated website . No collaborative learning but still relevant.

CMC from efficiency to affiliation ( 3 stages)

1. Only effective for information exchange
2. Then , could be effective for personal relationships
3. Now attention on p465‘understanding the communication practices that contribute to effective CMC use in social and personal relationships’

Above roughly based on four underlying themes in the research literature namely , novice versus expert users, co-presence, conventional non-verbals, frequent interaction

Stage 1 p466 ‘when compared to face-to-face CMC was considered inferior in conveying elements of interaction considered essential for developing and maintaining relationships, which depended heavily on non-verbal communication and co-presence ( e.g. Lea & Spears, 1995) ie “conventional wisdom was that CMC was ineffective and inappropriate for anything other than clear, unequivocal information exchange’

Stage 2 Lea & Spears, 1995 can be identified as watershed paper between stage 1 and stage 2. new area of study p466 ‘ that bridged traditional interpersonal communication scholarship, with its focus on verbal and non-verbal communication in face-to-face dyads (often in relationships) and scholarship on communication technologies ( including early work in organizational CMC). P466-467 ‘ documentation of widespread and successful relationships based on CMC suggested that elements long considered essential for anything labelled a relationship (co-presence, conventional non-verbals, frequent interaction) may not be as indispensable as scholars had assumed’

Stage 3 As technologies gained new capabilities ( authors include font colour an other presentational affordances here as well as the ability to attach a photo etc. P468 ‘ the artefacts of the channels themselves were appropriated as expressive devices, and are applied to interpersonal purposes, in ways that become a language in and of themselves’. At the same time as users move from novice to expert they can choose to eshew the affordances of certain channels when they are perceived as not contributing to a personal relational goal is they gradually become skilled choosers and users of channels.

i.e. Ideas about the importance of media richness changed and the focus moved from the technological ( as the channel for interaction) to a more comprehensive understanding of mediated communication’ In trun this led to a view that users could be guided on tactical use ( KRO however it di not address the voluntary)

Immediacy

Face-to-face

P469 ‘ immediacy refers to communicative behaviours that reduce physical or psychological distance and foster affiliation ( Mehrabian, 1971). Mehrabian (1971) linked immediacy to an approach-avoidance construct – the proposition that people generally approach things that they like and avoid things that they dislike or that induce fear. Scholars have identified a range of nonverbal and verbal behaviours that communicate immediacy (Anderson & Anderson, 1982; Barringer & McCroskey, 2000; Gorham, 1988; Mehrabian, 1971). Immediacy includes non linguistic approach behaviours, signals of availability for communication, and communication of interpersonal closeness.

Non-verbal immediacy behaviours include reducing physical distance, displaying relaxed postures, and movements, using gestures, smiling, using vocal variety, and engaging in eye contact during interactions.

Verbal immediacy behaviours include using personal examples, asking questions, using humour, addressing others by name, and using inclusive pronouns ( we vs I)

That ‘most people would tend to be positive about someone who smiles, is expressive, appears relaxed, addressed them by name, asks them questions, and discloses personal anecdotes’ seems a reasonable assumption.

Immediacy and learning

P469 “Research on immediacy in instructional settings consistently has found a positive and robust relationship between frequency of immediacy behaviour and a range of desired educational outcomes ( Chrisophel, 1990).

Range of measures and references are at the bottom of page 469

Explanatory models

• 4 step model: teacher immediacy is related to arousal, which is related to attention, which is related to memory, which is related to cognitive learning (Kelley & Gorham (1988)
• motivational. Teacher immediacy firstly directly affects students’ state motivation, which then positively affects their learning. ( Christophel, 1990)
• affective learning model – immediacy’s influence on cognitive learning is mediated by affective learning ( Rodriguez, Plax, & Kearney, 1996)

‘despite differences in the models, the literature indicates that immediacy plays an important role in student arousal, affect, motivation and learning (LaRose & Whitten, 2000).

Mediated Immediacy

P470 ‘The implicit assumption that immediacy only occurs face-to-face ignores the important and increasingly pervasive role of technologically mediated communication (O’Sullivan et al, 2001).

Bottom p 470 for references to date including Walther, Loh & Granka in press)

Led to 3 studies looking specifically at immediacy

Study 1 investigating the forms of mediated immediacy, Sullivan et al (2001)

RQ: ‘what forms can immediacy cues take in mediated communication channels?’

Participants: 24 relatively experienced uni students 18-24 into 3 focus groups

Text based communication

Web based & multi-media communication

Mass media

Each focus group provided with a widely used conventional definition of immediacy and then asked to describe what communication practices ( if any) convey immediacy via their target focus

Cyclic process of coding & concensus by the researchers led to 2 emergent macrocategories that encompassed all microcategories

1. Approachability ( you can approach me)
2. Regard for others ( I am approaching you)

Approachability and micro categories

1. Self-disclosure Intentionally revealing personal information that allows others to feel that they know source

e.g. referring to experiences outside official role, photos portraying experiences outside official role

2. Expressiveness Varying emphasis, intensity, vividness, tone of message

e.g. using vocal inflection using punctuation using colors

3. Accessibility Being accessible for communication

•e.g. indicating availability, providing contact information, setting time aside for contacts

4. Informality Portraying informality and casualness

e.g. informal postures/settings in images, use of slang, colloquialisms

5. Similarity Displaying personality qualities/ personal history shared by receiver

e.g. revealing interests, experiences, opinions, backgrounds, and so on, that match receivers’

6. Familiarity Providing for repeated contacts over time

e.g. frequent encounters and/or interactions

7. Humor Using humor

eg sharing jokes, playful interactions

8. Attractiveness Displaying characteristics perceived as appealing

eg presenting attractive appearance displaying appealing personality

9. Expertise Displaying competence and skill related to source’s role

e.g. demonstrating knowledge

Regard and micro categories

1. Personalness Conveying that source views receivers as individualise.

e.g using synchronous, richer channels remembering, using names incorporating knowledge of person in interactions

2. Engagement Indicating attentiveness and practicing responsiveness to receivers

e.g. returning phone messages/e-mails listening to/reading carefully messages inviting future interaction

3. Helpfulness Assisting receivers’ efforts to pursue needs and goals

e.g. clearly designed Web site to aid navigation, providing needed into on outgoing messages

4. Politeness Following etiquette, courtesies, and other communication procedural norms

e.g. word choices practicing common courtesies in interactions

There is no assumption that either the macro or the micro categories are independent of each other.

Study 2 appliying the categories identified by study 1 to look at anxiety, uncertainty, attitudes to course and instructor

Uses Anxiety-Uncertainty Management theory ( Gudykurst, 1988, 1995), an intercultural communication theory, as the theoretical framework for the study. The assumption being that p474 ‘ students encountering a new course, new instructor and the relatively new use of communication technology for instruction would experience anxiety and uncertainty similar to those encountering individuals in an unfamiliar culture’

Participants: 95 undergraduates randomly assigned to one of two websites ( Matched for content, links and instructor with one having high immediacy and the other low immediacy)

High immediacy: colour, graphics, photo, language incorporated first and second person pronouns, informed friendly language. Links to instructor and personal homepage’

Hypotheses:

Mediated immediacy cues which convey the instructors approachability and regard will be

H1 negatively related to anxiety ( NS)

H2 negatively related to uncertainty(Sig)

H3 positively related to attitudes (Sig)

H4 positively related to the instructor (Sig).

Web site with multiple immediacy cues produced lower uncertainty and higher motivation for the course and more positive attitudes toward the course and instructor i.e results consistent with findings from face to face ( Christophel, 1990). These results are consistent with a view that immediacy cues can be conveyed effectively via mediated channels and that mediated immediacy can shape the perceptions of the communicator.

Study 3 Linguistic & non linguistic text based immediacy cues – how do they impact.

Text based immediacy cues identified in study 1 can be organised into

1. Those dealing with language

2. Those dealing with visual presentation ( non linguistic) setting for the language.

Used 4 hypothetical websites ( linguistic immediacy high/low, visual presentation high/low) in a 2x2 design.

170 participants randomly assigned to one condition. Each explored the assigned website for 15-20 minutes then filled out an instrument designed to measure stuudents’ appraisal of immediacy. Dependent variable was the motivation to take the course.

Results

Main effect	Web site immediacy	Motivation to take the course	Instructor appraisal
Presentational immediacy	√	√
Linguistic immediacy	√		√

Interestingly, based on this study ( which does not involve anything collaborative) linguistic immediacy does not have any influence on motivation to take the course

Conclusion

P485

‘these research studies have begun to identify specific forms of mediated immediacy as well as illuminating their role in shaping receivers attitudes and perceptions of the source’

p486 ‘immediacy cues ( mediated and f-f) could be viewed as the relational portion of a message.

Findings suggest that ‘the long standing linkage of message content to verbal communication and relational messages to non-verbal communication should be re-examined , which might prompt new insights into the intertwined roles of verbal and non verbal communication’

social presence rourke 1999

Liam Rourke, Terry Anderson, D. Randy Garrison, Walter Archer (1999)

Assessing Social Presence In Asynchronous Text-based Computer Conferencing

The Journal of Distance Education / Revue de l'Éducation à Distance, Vol 14, No 2 (1999)

Community of inquiry Model -

was specifically designed to guide the use of computer conferencing to support critical thinking in higher education.

Models learning occurring in the space where cognitive, social and teacher influences overlap

Cognitive presence - the extent to which the participants in any particular configuration of a community of inquiry are able to construct meaning through sustained communication.

social presence, defined as the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally in a community of inquiry. – therefore it supports the cognitive and affective elements of learning. IN CMC, unlike FTF instructional contexts, It is a function of both learners and teachers

“Teacher immediacy is conceptualized as those nonverbal behaviors that reduce physical and/or psychological distance between teachers and students” (p. 544). She found that engaging in eye contact with students, adopting a relaxed body posture, using gestures, and smiling improved students affect toward the practices promoted in the course, the subject matter of the course, and the course instructor.

Gorham (1988) expanded the definition of teacher immediacy behaviors to include oral behaviors such as talking about experiences that have occurred outside class, using humor, addressing students by name, and praising students’ work or comments. Her results suggest that these types of behavior also contributed significantly to students’ affective learning

immediacy

traced back to Mehrabian (1969, p203 ) ‘those communication behaviors that enhance closeness to and nonverbal interaction with another” - not implies that immediacy is given by the non verbal

Sproull and Keisler (1986) regarded the implications of Mehrabian’s (1969) work from a different perspective. They argued that the critical difference between face-to-face communication and mediated communication was the absence of social context cues. Their research indicated that the lack of cues to define the nature of a social situation led to uninhibited communication such as hostile and intense language (i.e., flaming), greater self-absorption, and a resistance to defer speaking turns to higher-status participants.

CMC & immediacy

The capacity of CMC to support highly affective interpersonal interactions is supported by studies that focus on its use in educational settings. Angeli, Bonk, and Hara (1998) conducted a content analysis of a course conducted entirely through CMC. They found that 27% of the total message content consisted of expressions of feeling, self-introductions, jokes, compliments, greetings, and closures. McDonald (1998) studied the development of group dynamics in educational computer conference settings and found that expressions of openness and solidarity were significant elements, rising from 18% and 40% of the total respectively when the conference began to 36% and 54% at its conclusion.

Analysis Framework for social presence

An important step in content analysis is the development of categories and indicators that researchers can then use to analyze the transcripts. We arrived at the categories for social presence that we used through an iterative process. First, behavioral indices were derived from the three categories of social presence articulated by Garrison et al. (2000, i.e., emotional expression, open communication, and group cohesion). Second, indicators of social interaction that had been derived from the media capacity, teacher presence, and group interaction literature were applied deductively to the analysis. Third, additional indices were deduced from careful readings of the transcripts and then added to the coding scheme. This process culminated in the formation of three broad categories of communicative responses that contribute to social presence. These categories correspond directly to Garrison et al.’s original categories. However, they were relabeled to reflect better the nature of the emergent indicators that define them in this study. Open communication is now referred to as interactive responses, referring to indices of threaded interchanges combined with messages of a socially appreciative nature. Emotional presence has been renamed as affective responses and group cohesion as cohesive responses.

Affective

Kuehn (1993) noted that text-based, asynchronous interlocutors employ unconventional symbolic representations such as emoticons to facilitate expressiveness in the medium. Gunawardena and Zittle (1997) found that conference participants “enhanced their socioemotional experience by using emoticons to express missing nonverbal cues in written form” (p. 8).

Teacher immediacy literature has identified the use of humor as a contributory factor to immediacy and subsequently to learning (Christenson & Menzel, 1998;

Cutler (1995) explains that “the more one discloses personal information, the more others will reciprocate, and the more individuals know about each other the more likely they are to establish trust, seek support, and thus find satisfaction” (p. 17)

Interaction

Eggins and Slade (1997) add that responses and rejoinders serve several beneficial purposes in conversation. They build and sustain relationships, express a willingness to maintain and prolong contact, and tacitly indicate interpersonal support, encouragement, and acceptance of the initiator. Using the “reply” feature to post messages, quoting directly from the conference transcript, and referring explicitly to the content of others’ messages are all types of interactive response in CMC.

Walberg (1984) conducted a meta-analysis of 3,000 studies that examined the effects of educational interventions designed to improve academic achievement. Reinforcement was at the top of his list and had an effect size of 1.17.

Complimenting and acknowledging, and expressing appreciation are ways of communicating reinforcement in a text-based medium.

Cohesive

This category is exemplified by activities that build and sustain a sense of group commitment.

Phatics are defined as communication “used to share feelings or to establish a mood of sociability rather than to communicate information or ideas” (GuruNet, 1999)

Vocatives, that is, addressing participants by name, are also an important expression of cohesion.

A variation of the vocative effect occurs at the group level when participants refer to the group with inclusive pronouns such as we, our, us, or group.

Eggins and Slade (1997) note, disagreement and critical evaluation are more characteristic of those who share strong bonds, rather than of new or transient acquaintances.

Method

Corpus extracted from week 5 of two( 14 members in 1 and 17 in the other) text based 13 week modules. New topic each week,

Discussion

the presence of replies and quoted messages may be a superficial artifact of conferencing communication rather than a defining indicator of social presence. The remaining indicators represent a more labor-intensive, and thus a more conscious and willful, effort on the part of the student to interact with others. According to this hypothesis, referring to other students by name and referring explicitly to the contents of another’s message are better indicators of interaction than having another student’s name or message appear automatically due to software features.

online silence

Michael Zemblyas & Charalambos (2007)

Listening for Silence in Text-Based Online encounters.

Distance Education, 28, 1, 5-24

Note: lots of examples of illocutionary force in the examples.

Silence as an aspect of social presence.

When and why are student silent – assumes p 7 the multidimensional meanings of online silence are a critical component of social presence

FTF

They have nothing to say/add

They may feel that contributions are not valued and therefore choose to remain silent

They may feel insecure and/or shy

They may need time to think

However in online environments silence is often assumed to be down to non participation or marginialization.

Research questions

RQ1 p8 ‘ What forms and meanings do online silences take within text-based communications, and how are those forms and meanings enacted?

RQ2 “how do online instructors address silence in constructive ways, considering that silence is an important part of text-based communication?’

Method

Ethnographic perspective ‘ an ethnographioc perspective does not focus on understanding an entire culture, but rather can be used to take a more focused look at the actions of members of a group.

Two phases

1. Content analysis of all content

2. Interviews

Interviewed instructors with ‘ a focus on the different meanings and forms that silence took in their online encounters with learners’.

Used purposive sampling to select 4 students for interview ie the ones that ‘would provide optimal variation ( Patton, 2002) of interpretations about online silence’

Semi structured – prompted to make reference to events that made them feel uncomfortable, confused or concerned

Joyful and pleased

With prompts used to explore whether these feelings were related to online silence.

All interviewees asked to check researcher interpretations.

Analysis

Thematic analysis - Going from the particular meaning to generalizations p10 ‘propositional statements that indicate relationships and generalizations in the data’

Four themes

1. Silence as ‘non participation’ ie conscious decision not to participate

‘ I thought we were doing this online course because it allows us flexibility’

‘not keen on hearing the same old stuff’

‘pretty soon is was kind of pitiful’

2. Silence as confusion

Without gaze information it may not be obvious to whom a response is directed that can then lead to confusion. Emoticons , when used, did not always disambiguate.

P15 ‘ one thing, I was thinking something else, and it just didn’t match, until we talked later on the phone’

3. Silence as marginalization

P16 ‘But some postings receive no responses or are responded to without addressing the real issue…. Humour is usually a means to dismiss serious discussions…… I complained about this to my instructor. I feel that I am silenced, you know? I don’t feel welcomed and so I don’t participate in the online discussions as often as I used to’

4. Silence as thoughtful reflection

P18 ‘ not an emoppty silence but a thoughtful silence’

Due to my cultural background ‘ Having the opportunity to think and phrase my response carefully before i post it , is really important to me…..’

problem arises ‘how long do you wait for a response in a threaded discussion ….. if you go ahead and continue with the discussion , wouldn’t this be interpreted as disregarding this individual?’ In FTF some judgement could be made from NVC

Suggestions for tutors based on interview data from tutors

Ask students to post a certain number of responses and to participate

Review online discussions for quality and provide more or less facilitation as a consequence where facilitation involves 9 synthesising themes or conflicting opinions, redirecting a lagging discussion

Asking good open ended questions

Have frequent and consistent interaction with students to encourage openness and trust.

Ie fit with Salmon advice

immediacy mediated & face to face

Patrick B. O’Sullivan, Stephen K. Hunt, Lance R. Lippert (2004)

Mediated Immediacy, A Language of Affiliation in a technological Age

Journal of Language and Social Psychology,23,464-490

Mediated immediacy

proposed as a p468 ‘way to better understand the communicative practices that convey affiliation and foster relationships via communication technologies’

defined as p471 ‘ communicative clues in mediated channels that can shape perceptions of psychological closeness between interactants. Stated another way, immediacy cues can be seen as a language of affiliation’

Authors, alongside Walther, Loh & Granta began to focus on this area. This paper reviews idea of CMC as a relational space from a historical perspective ( 3 stages) before describing how immediacy may enhance learning and determining how to identify it for CMC.

Some notes

Draws attention to the difference between novice and expert users of mediated communication and comments on how expertise develops.

Based on instructional learning through a tutor mediated website . No collaborative learning but still relevant.

CMC from efficiency to affiliation ( 3 stages)

1. Only effective for information exchange
2. Then , could be effective for personal relationships
3. Now attention on p465‘understanding the communication practices that contribute to effective CMC use in social and personal relationships’

Above roughly based on four underlying themes in the research literature namely , novice versus expert users, co-presence, conventional non-verbals, frequent interaction

Stage 1 p466 ‘when compared to face-to-face CMC was considered inferior in conveying elements of interaction considered essential for developing and maintaining relationships, which depended heavily on non-verbal communication and co-presence ( e.g. Lea & Spears, 1995) ie “conventional wisdom was that CMC was ineffective and inappropriate for anything other than clear, unequivocal information exchange’

Stage 2 Lea & Spears, 1995 can be identified as watershed paper between stage 1 and stage 2. new area of study p466 ‘ that bridged traditional interpersonal communication scholarship, with its focus on verbal and non-verbal communication in face-to-face dyads (often in relationships) and scholarship on communication technologies ( including early work in organizational CMC). P466-467 ‘ documentation of widespread and successful relationships based on CMC suggested that elements long considered essential for anything labelled a relationship (co-presence, conventional non-verbals, frequent interaction) may not be as indispensable as scholars had assumed’

Stage 3 As technologies gained new capabilities ( authors include font colour an other presentational affordances here as well as the ability to attach a photo etc. P468 ‘ the artefacts of the channels themselves were appropriated as expressive devices, and are applied to interpersonal purposes, in ways that become a language in and of themselves’. At the same time as users move from novice to expert they can choose to eshew the affordances of certain channels when they are perceived as not contributing to a personal relational goal is they gradually become skilled choosers and users of channels.

i.e. Ideas about the importance of media richness changed and the focus moved from the technological ( as the channel for interaction) to a more comprehensive understanding of mediated communication’ In trun this led to a view that users could be guided on tactical use ( KRO however it di not address the voluntary)

Immediacy

Face-to-face

P469 ‘ immediacy refers to communicative behaviours that reduce physical or psychological distance and foster affiliation ( Mehrabian, 1971). Mehrabian (1971) linked immediacy to an approach-avoidance construct – the proposition that people generally approach things that they like and avoid things that they dislike or that induce fear. Scholars have identified a range of nonverbal and verbal behaviours that communicate immediacy (Anderson & Anderson, 1982; Barringer & McCroskey, 2000; Gorham, 1988; Mehrabian, 1971). Immediacy includes non linguistic approach behaviours, signals of availability for communication, and communication of interpersonal closeness.

Non-verbal immediacy behaviours include reducing physical distance, displaying relaxed postures, and movements, using gestures, smiling, using vocal variety, and engaging in eye contact during interactions.

Verbal immediacy behaviours include using personal examples, asking questions, using humour, addressing others by name, and using inclusive pronouns ( we vs I)

That ‘most people would tend to be positive about someone who smiles, is expressive, appears relaxed, addressed them by name, asks them questions, and discloses personal anecdotes’ seems a reasonable assumption.

Immediacy and learning

P469 “Research on immediacy in instructional settings consistently has found a positive and robust relationship between frequency of immediacy behaviour and a range of desired educational outcomes ( Chrisophel, 1990).

Range of measures and references are at the bottom of page 469

Explanatory models

• 4 step model: teacher immediacy is related to arousal, which is related to attention, which is related to memory, which is related to cognitive learning (Kelley & Gorham (1988)
• motivational. Teacher immediacy firstly directly affects students’ state motivation, which then positively affects their learning. ( Christophel, 1990)
• affective learning model – immediacy’s influence on cognitive learning is mediated by affective learning ( Rodriguez, Plax, & Kearney, 1996)

‘despite differences in the models, the literature indicates that immediacy plays an important role in student arousal, affect, motivation and learning (LaRose & Whitten, 2000).

Mediated Immediacy

P470 ‘The implicit assumption that immediacy only occurs face-to-face ignores the important and increasingly pervasive role of technologically mediated communication (O’Sullivan et al, 2001).

Bottom p 470 for references to date including Walther, Loh & Granka in press)

Led to 3 studies looking specifically at immediacy

Study 1 investigating the forms of mediated immediacy, Sullivan et al (2001)

RQ: ‘what forms can immediacy cues take in mediated communication channels?’

Participants: 24 relatively experienced uni students 18-24 into 3 focus groups

Text based communication

Web based & multi-media communication

Mass media

Each focus group provided with a widely used conventional definition of immediacy and then asked to describe what communication practices ( if any) convey immediacy via their target focus

Cyclic process of coding & concensus by the researchers led to 2 emergent macrocategories that encompassed all microcategories

1. Approachability ( you can approach me)
2. Regard for others ( I am approaching you)

Approachability and micro categories

1. Self-disclosure Intentionally revealing personal information that allows others to feel that they know source

e.g. referring to experiences outside official role, photos portraying experiences outside official role

2. Expressiveness Varying emphasis, intensity, vividness, tone of message

e.g. using vocal inflection using punctuation using colors

3. Accessibility Being accessible for communication

•e.g. indicating availability, providing contact information, setting time aside for contacts

4. Informality Portraying informality and casualness

e.g. informal postures/settings in images, use of slang, colloquialisms

5. Similarity Displaying personality qualities/ personal history shared by receiver

e.g. revealing interests, experiences, opinions, backgrounds, and so on, that match receivers’

6. Familiarity Providing for repeated contacts over time

e.g. frequent encounters and/or interactions

7. Humor Using humor

eg sharing jokes, playful interactions

8. Attractiveness Displaying characteristics perceived as appealing

eg presenting attractive appearance displaying appealing personality

9. Expertise Displaying competence and skill related to source’s role

e.g. demonstrating knowledge

Regard and micro categories

1. Personalness Conveying that source views receivers as individualise.

e.g using synchronous, richer channels remembering, using names incorporating knowledge of person in interactions

2. Engagement Indicating attentiveness and practicing responsiveness to receivers

e.g. returning phone messages/e-mails listening to/reading carefully messages inviting future interaction

3. Helpfulness Assisting receivers’ efforts to pursue needs and goals

e.g. clearly designed Web site to aid navigation, providing needed into on outgoing messages

4. Politeness Following etiquette, courtesies, and other communication procedural norms

e.g. word choices practicing common courtesies in interactions

There is no assumption that either the macro or the micro categories are independent of each other.

Study 2 appliying the categories identified by study 1 to look at anxiety, uncertainty, attitudes to course and instructor

Uses Anxiety-Uncertainty Management theory ( Gudykurst, 1988, 1995), an intercultural communication theory, as the theoretical framework for the study. The assumption being that p474 ‘ students encountering a new course, new instructor and the relatively new use of communication technology for instruction would experience anxiety and uncertainty similar to those encountering individuals in an unfamiliar culture’

Participants: 95 undergraduates randomly assigned to one of two websites ( Matched for content, links and instructor with one having high immediacy and the other low immediacy)

High immediacy: colour, graphics, photo, language incorporated first and second person pronouns, informed friendly language. Links to instructor and personal homepage’

Hypotheses:

Mediated immediacy cues which convey the instructors approachability and regard will be

H1 negatively related to anxiety ( NS)

H2 negatively related to uncertainty(Sig)

H3 positively related to attitudes (Sig)

H4 positively related to the instructor (Sig).

Web site with multiple immediacy cues produced lower uncertainty and higher motivation for the course and more positive attitudes toward the course and instructor i.e results consistent with findings from face to face ( Christophel, 1990). These results are consistent with a view that immediacy cues can be conveyed effectively via mediated channels and that mediated immediacy can shape the perceptions of the communicator.

Study 3 Linguistic & non linguistic text based immediacy cues – how do they impact.

Text based immediacy cues identified in study 1 can be organised into

1. Those dealing with language

2. Those dealing with visual presentation ( non linguistic) setting for the language.

Used 4 hypothetical websites ( linguistic immediacy high/low, visual presentation high/low) in a 2x2 design.

170 participants randomly assigned to one condition. Each explored the assigned website for 15-20 minutes then filled out an instrument designed to measure stuudents’ appraisal of immediacy. Dependent variable was the motivation to take the course.

Results

Main effect	Web site immediacy	Motivation to take the course	Instructor appraisal
Presentational immediacy	√	√
Linguistic immediacy	√		√

Interestingly, based on this study ( which does not involve anything collaborative) linguistic immediacy does not have any influence on motivation to take the course

Conclusion

P485

‘these research studies have begun to identify specific forms of mediated immediacy as well as illuminating their role in shaping receivers attitudes and perceptions of the source’

p486 ‘immediacy cues ( mediated and f-f) could be viewed as the relational portion of a message.

Findings suggest that ‘the long standing linkage of message content to verbal communication and relational messages to non-verbal communication should be re-examined , which might prompt new insights into the intertwined roles of verbal and non verbal communication’