Electronic discourse
Subtitle: linguistic individuals in virtual space
By: Boyd H. Davis and Jeutonne P. Brewer.
Contributors: Brewer, Jeutonne, 1939-
Series: SUNY series in computer-mediated communication
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: Discourse analysis -- Data processing
Description: This book examines interactive electronic discourse, exposing use of language that has the immediacy characteristic of speech and the permanence characteristic of writing. The authors created an asynchronous mainframe conference for language and linguistics classes in which they presented students with the task of analyzing the language used in original newspaper reports of the 1960s Civil Rights Sit-Ins.

The authors observed how students wrote to each other across a wide range of social and virtual settings, how they built a real, if short-lived community within and across campus boundaries, and how they handled conflict while avoiding confrontation on sensitive issues of race and power. The result is a study that details how people use language when their social interaction is exclusively enacted through text on screens, and how their exchange is affected by computer conferencing.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-207) and index.