[Air-L] Announcement: EJC, Vol 29 (3 & 4), Special Issue on Digital Interactions in Social Spaces

[Harrison, Teresa M]

Digital Interactions in Social Spaces:
Proxemics, Digital Media, and Human-Machine Communication

Editor's Introduction: Digital Interactions in Social Spaces: Proxemics, Digital Media, and Human-Machine Communication <http://www.cios.org/www/ejc/v29n34toc.htm#introduction> /

John A. McArthur
Furman University


Proxemics, Social Media, and Structural Transformations in the Private Sphere

Bolanle A. Olaniran

Texas Tech University


Abstract: This paper explores the transformations occurring in the private sphere as a result of increased use of information communication technologies (ICT), in particular, mobile phones and social media. Specifically, the paper addresses the dissipation of boundaries between public and private spheres—especially in communication interactions, which characterize relationships. Communication media (such as emails, instant messaging, network forums, and videoconferencing) are viewed as tools for transformations; thus the implications on social, cultural, and economic levels will be addressed throughout this paper. Furthermore, this paper argues the presence of social media has eroded—and is constantly eroding—distinctions between the two spheres to the degree that what counts, as either public or private, is difficult to distinguish.

Place and Discourse in Virtual Environments

Lynnette G. Leonard
American University in Bulgaria

Lesley A. Withers
Central Michigan University


Abstract: In the fervor over new technologies, we often fail to see connections to the past, to recognize the similar characteristics among various communication media, and to value the knowledge gleaned from previous experiences and familiar places. Places such as coffee shops, pubs, churches, statehouses, townhalls, and even classrooms have certain characteristics that stimulate discourse in part because they establish expectations for appropriate communication. Do these preferences for place and the expectations for appropriate communication that attend them change as we meet others in virtual environments? The characteristics of the virtual environment allow for many different options for communication places; the sky and sea are no limit. This article explores groups’ choices for place as they collaborated in virtual space, demonstrating that our offline preferences and expectations for appropriate rhetorical places are reflected in our online choices.



Proxemics of Screen Mediation:
Engagement With Reading on Screen Manifests as Diminished Variation due to Self-Control, Rather Than Diminished Mean Distance From Screen

Harry J. Witchel
Carlos P. Santos
James K. Ackah
Brighton and Sussex Medical School
University of Sussex

Nachiappan Chockalingam
CSHER, Staffordshire University​

Carina E. I. Westling
Bournemouth University


Abstract: Objective: Burgoon's theory of conversational involvement suggests that when people engage with a person, they will move slightly closer to them, often subtly and subconsciously. However, some studies have failed to extend this to human-computer interaction. Our hypothesis is that during online reading, engagement is associated with an expenditure of effort to hold the head upright, still and centrally. Method: We presented to 27 participants (ages 21.00 ± 2.89, 15 female) seated in front of 47.5x27 cm monitor two reading stimuli in a counterbalanced order, one (interesting) based on a best selling novel and the other (boring) based on European Union banking regulations. The participants were video-recorded during their reading while they wore reflective motion tracking markers. The markers were video-tracked off-line using Kinovea 0.8. Results: Subjective VAS ratings showed that the stimuli elicited the bored and interested states as expected. Video tracking showed that the boring stimulus (compared to the interesting reading) elicited a greater head-to-screen velocity, a greater head-to-screen distance range, a greater head-to-screen distance standard deviation, but not a further away head-to-screen mean distance. Conclusions: The more interesting reading led to efforts to control the head to a more central viewing position while suppressing head fidgeting.

What is Violence Now?:
A Grounded Theory Approach to Conceptualizing Technology-Mediated Abuse (TMA) as Spatial and Participatory

Jessica J. Eckstein
Western Connecticut State University


Abstract: Intimate partner violence (IPV) continues to evolve in technological and legal/political ways. The currently sparse scholarship examining how digital technologies and spaces facilitate abusive, coercive, and/or intrusive behaviors among adults in romantic relationships tends to focus on digital abuse methods as mere enhancements or facilitators of abuse – this, despite any clear study of how current digital-users actually utilize and understand technology-mediated abuse (TMA). This study fills that foundational void by probing the full nature/content of TMA possibilities as understood by a U.S. community-based social network sample (N = 551). Participants’ M = 7.43 unique examples (SD = 4.00, range = 1 to 30) resulted in N = 4,092 distinct data units examined via hierarchical qualitative analyses. Grounded-theory results suggest TMA is a unique cultural and spatial phenomenon in which inanimate objects or programs (through human-assigned “agency”) serve to perpetrate a new, modified form of IPV, rather than a mere augmentation of existing abuser-tactics. Themes are discussed for future IPV theory and measurement implications and practitioner and policy applications.

We’ll do it Live! Unpacking the Community-Building Labor of Twitch Streamers Accounts

Brandon C. Harris
University of Oregon


Abstract: Twitch.tv’s meteoric popularity demonstrates live streaming’s increasing importance to the contemporary media landscape. This paper examines how Twitch streamers perform various types of aspirational, emotional, and entrepreneurial labor in order to construct communities of like-minded individuals. This research presents a case study that shows how Twitch streamers simultaneously perform various types of community-building labor during their live streams, highlighting their uniqueness from influencers on static social networks like Instagram or Facebook. Finally, this paper outlines how Twitch’s casual viewing aesthetic can hide the types of labor that Twitch streamers perform while building community, permitting a cycle of precarious and aspirational labor to continue.

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Original Research Article
Fact or Fiction:
Believability of News Content From Opposing Media Outlets

Robin Blom
Ball State University


Abstract: A news headline about an alleged population increase of polar bears was evaluated by 1,329 U.S. adults in an online experiment. Participants were told that the headline was originally obtained from either CNN or Fox News, or was presented without source identification. The results demonstrated that believability of a headline was predicted by an interaction between news source trust and the extent to which participants were surprised that the headline was attributed to that particular news source. The data indicated that distrusted sources could be highly believable when presenting unanticipated content, and vice versa. This has important implications for understanding cognitive bias in processing news coverage of public affairs.