[Air-l] Communication failures

[Daniel Menchik]

Dear colleagues -

I am hoping that members of this list might be able to help a coauthor and I. We
are looking for literature on incidences of *communication failure* in
internet-mediated interaction. When are interactions deemed unsuccessful, and
what explanations are suggested?  We are especially interested in cases
involving misunderstanding by one or more participants in an interaction
(one-to-one or otherwise). Where is there evidence of what Goffman called ‘the
breakdown of an encounter’?

Cases may include serious research involving the professions -- difficulties in
‘successful’ interactions around: a ‘virtual classroom’, medically-oriented
relationships [btw. patient/doctor, among docs etc.], international business
transactions. Or it might focus upon collaboration more generally, reporting
findings believed intrinsic to the medium or group structure. We’re simply
looking for troubles.

Thanks in advance for this. Please send cites (or texts, if available in digital
format) directly, and I’ll report them back to the list in a few days.

Dan 

Daniel Menchik
Department of Sociology
University of Chicago