Simeon Yates

Gender, identity and CMC

This paper re-examines a number of recent discussions of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the light of debates concerning gender, identity and inequality. There have been many claims made by disparate groups and institutions, from educators and technologists, through to the advertising of communications companies, which have claimed that CMC-based interactions lack the overt structures of inequality found in other communicative situations. This ideology of ‘on-line equality’ is partly based upon a number of research findings, as well as popularised accounts of ‘life on the screen’. Set against this is a growing body of research into CMC and gender, as well as other structures of inequality, which has made apparent the differences in both access and practice. By re-examining the various claims underlying both positions, as well as deploying recent research into the cultural aspects of gender identities, this paper aims to make clear the centrality of gender to CMC interactions.

UNDERSTANDING COMPUTER GAME CULTURES A situated approach

This article uses data and theory from psychological and sociological sources in order to examine computer gamers engagement with computer games. The article employs data from studies of gender difference in computer game interactions in order to theoretically open up the rich diversity of gamers interactions with games. The theoretical discussion employs a mix of psychological ideas, especially those of affordances, effectivities and attunement, with ideas from cultural studies, especially those of subject positions and preferred readings. The article argues that gaming needs to be viewed as an activity taking place in cultural niches that arise in the complex interaction between games, gamers and gaming cultures.

Gender, language and CMC for education

Abstract This paper overviews research into the role of gender in computer-mediated communication (CMC) interactions. It uses linguistic and sociological research to criticise the frequent claim that CMC is free from gender-based inequalities due to the lack of face-to-face cues. In examining the research to date, the paper makes clear the important role of social context in both providing and limiting opportunities for equality in instructional interactions taking place via CMC systems.

Digital genres and the new burden of fixity

Stability in the production and transmission of texts has been a taken-for-granted feature of communicative acts for much of history. In the past, this fixity (i.e., the reliability of texts not to change over space and time) has arisen from the interaction between immutable technologies (used to produce text) and social rigidity (in the structure and practices of discourse communities where texts are produced and consumed). These interactions provided stable settings fostering the gradual development of rich communicative genres which, in turn, further contributed to fixity in communicative acts. In the current era of virtual communities and digital documents, this relationship between technology, social context, and fixity has been loosened. We claim the new burden for providing fixity in communications is being met by increased reliance on genre. To support this claim, we examine the four-way relationship between technologies, social contexts, social practices and genre by considering example digital documents produced by two different discourse communities.

Writing research into professional e-mail communication

At one time, the office was a physical place, and employees congregated in the same location to work together on projects. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, however, not only made the unthinkable possible, it forever changed the way persons view both the office and work. The Handbook of Research on Virtual Workplaces and the New Nature of Business Practices compiles authoritative research from XX scholars from over XX countries, covering the issues surrounding the influx of information technology to the office environment, from choice and effective use of technologies to necessary participants in the virtual workplace.

Scrum down: a software engineer and a sociologist explore the implementation of an agile method

This paper provides an overview and position statement on the work undertaken as part of a project to explore the implementation of Scrum in the context of an interactive digital media software development company. The project is being undertaken in the Communication and Computing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University.

Gender, Identity and CMC

Riflessioni sul concetto di identita’ nella comunicazione mediata da computer . Gli indicatori della nostra identita’ possono sparire? Secondo l’autore, anche in questo contesto, dal nostro modo di usare la lingua, dai temi che scegliamo e da come li affrontiamo emergono segni precisi della nostra identita’ sociale.

Digital Media Use: Differences and Inequalities in Relation to Class and Age

This paper takes a national perspective on issues of digital media use. The paper draws upon the OfCom Media Literacy 2013 survey to explore how digital media use varies in regard to two major social variables – class and age. Both class and age feature predominantly in UK policy on digital access and use. Class and age are invoked as either things that create barriers to access or as issues to be addressed and managed through using digital media. Despite the large body of work on the ‘digital divide’ there is a more limited literature that explicitly addresses class. The paper seeks to act as an empirical reference point for the development of further debate around the links between class and digital media use. The paper presents a factor analysis of the OfCom data that identifies five main areas of digital media use. These five factors are then subjected to a multiple analysis of variance to explore the effects across, between and within age and class categories. A cluster analysis based on the factors identifies seven main ‘User Types’ that are again compared across class and age. The paper finds that class and age act relatively independently as predicators of digital media use and neither compound nor mitigate each others effects. Importantly the paper notes that the greatest levels and breadth of Internet use can be found in NRS social class groups AB and to an extent C1. In contrast the greatest levels of non-use and limited use can be found in NRS social class groups DE. In conclusion the paper notes that age still acts as the major explanatory variable for overall use and some specific types of use, but that class also independently acts to explain patterns of digital media use. As a result any simplistic policy expectations that digital access and use issues will become less relevant as age demographics change have to be questioned.

The Mediation of Political Disconnection

The term ‘disconnection’ in the title of our chapter refers to a disjuncture between individuals and officialdom. According to Easton and Dennis (1967, p. 26), a politically efficacious person is able ‘to construct a psychic map of the political world with strong lines of force running from himself to the place of officialdom’. In this sense, we present a study of the relationship between Internet use and political efficacy, people’s belief that a relationship exists between themselves and the institutions that govern society.

Writing geology: Key communication competencies for geoscience

Abstract Science is fundamentally about communication. Un-communicated science in essence does not exist. This study analysed both expert and undergraduate writing in geology to explore key weaknesses in students’ writing. Skills found lacking included use of the academic register, in the writing process and in the structure, referencing and ‘argumentation’ of work. Action research seminars have identified possible strategies for dealing with these.