Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Caleb T. Carr
Michigan State University
Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media
David B. Schrock
Ferris State University
Department of Humanities
Patricia R. Dauterman
Abstract
This research was conducted in an attempt to expand previous research of speech acts and
online messaging, by examining how individuals use the status messages of social
network sites (specifically Facebook and MySpace) to communicate socially and
construct their identity. Seventy-four students' SNS status messages were captured three
times daily over fourteen consecutive days. Content analysis of these data revealed that
status messages are primarily constructed with expressive speech acts, followed by
assertives. Additionally, humor was integrated into almost 20% of status messages. These
findings demonstrate differences in how users express themselves in alternate media, and
are framed not only to discuss self-presentation in social networks, but also to offer
suggestions for theoretical implications for computer-mediated communication research.
Review of Literature
As new media technologies emerge, it is important to look at the commonalities
and differences in traits and usages of these communication tools. One emergent
technology quickly becoming a societal staple is the social network site (d. m. boyd &
Ellison, 2008). Facebook.com, one of the more popular of these web services, currently
has over 68 million active users (Facebook, 2008). With millions of users on these social
network sites (SNSs) engaging in both self-presentation and interpersonal
communication, SNSs afford a new lens through which to examine human interaction.
The present study is an attempt to expand upon previous research which examined the
content of Instant Messenger away messages (Nastri, Pena, & Hancock, 2006) by
exploring similar messages presented in social network sites. This study drew heavily
from Nastri et al.s study in an attempt to see if language is used in these asynchronous
media in ways that are similar or different from the ways language is used in the
asynchronous applications of a traditionally-synchronous media such as Instant
Messaging applications. Especially in the field of communication technology there is a
tendency for empirical research to be application-specific, even though most theories and
models are developed relatively independent of individual applications being used to
mediate communication. One way to begin closing the rifts that have begin to emerge in
the body of literature is to expand upon previous research by replicating (or at least
recreating) studies in a wider variety of online contexts and with differing virtual
affordances. This study sought to understand how language (and consequently identity) is
constructed in emergent SNSs.
Speech Acts
application is that of Egner (2006), who looked at how cultural differences between
Africans and Westerners affected meaning of the speech act of promising in
international relations. A third example can be seen in Chirreys (2003) work looking at
the way messages were constructed and used by homosexuals as they outed their
sexual orientation. Although the applications of speech act research are broad, the
unilateral application of speech acts is to understand how individuals construct messages
to communicate and create meaning through language, and specifically the construction
and purposes of messages.
Searle (1969) proposed a model of speech acts which addresses categories of
phrases, each with a specific communicative purpose and each classification mutually
exclusive of others. Searle (1969) explicated five categories of speech acts: assertives,
directives, commissives, expressives and declarations. Clark (1996) later distinguished
two subsets that existed within declarations: effective and verdictive speech acts. Nastri
et al. (2006), guided by Baron, Squires, Tench and Thompsons (2005) findings, further
considered quotations as a seventh type of speech act. Explanations and examples of the
resultant scheme of seven mutually exclusive speech acts can be seen in Table 1.
Guiding Research
Nastri, Pena and Hancock (2006) were interested in several aspects of the speech
acts utilized to construct away messages in an application of a synchronous chat program.
Firstly, Nastri et al. (2006) wanted to understand how various specific speech acts were
used in away messages. Based on the earlier suggestions of Baron et al. (2005), Nastri et
al. (2006) hypothesized assertive, commissive and expressive speech acts should be most
commonly observed, as they may serve informative and entertainment purposes; whereas
directives, verdictives, and effectives should be observed the least. In other words, based
on the predicted role of away messages in developing messages, Nastri and colleagues
expected to find away message users would construct messages primarily to inform or
entertain the message recipients, most likely friends of the message creator. Additionally,
the authors sought to understand the role of humor in away messages, specifically by
examining the frequency of humor produced in speech acts. Their exploration of away
messages was an attempt to establish speech acts as a useful framework for studying
computer-mediated communication, as well as to determine how away messages were
used to achieve social functions beyond the intended design of away messageshow
asynchronous away messages were being actively and cognitively put to use in an
asynchronous feature of a synchronous computer-mediated communication program.
To examine speech acts in away messages, Nastri et al. (2006) looked at 483
Instant Messenger away messages posted over the course of fourteen consecutive days by
44 participants between 18 and 22 years of age. After completing questions about their
experience using America Onlines Instant Messenger chat program, their screen names
were collected by the researchers. Away messages posted by those screen names were
collected for either seven (n=28) or fourteen (n=21) days three times daily: 10 a.m., 5
p.m., and 10 p.m. Two raters individually first parsed each of the 483 collected away
messages into individual speech acts, then coded for number of speech acts in each away
message (finding a total of 574) the type of speech act, use of non-standard orthography,
and finally for humor content.
A content analysis of speech acts found that assertives were the most common
(M=.68, s.d.=.03), followed by expressives (M=.14, s.d.=.02), commissives (M=.12,
s.d.=.03), and directives (M=.06, s.d.=.01). These findings, supported using Wilcoxon
signed-rank tests, were consistent with the hypothesis that away messages were
constructed primarily through assertive, expressive and commissive speech acts. Nastri et
al.s (2006) other area of inquiry relevant to this study regarded the use of humor in away
messages, and identified that approximately one-fifth (M=16%, s.d.=21%) of the
messages produced by each participant were humorous.
Nastri, Pena and Hancocks (2006) study illustrated several key aspects of the
way people construct asynchronous messages within a synchronous computer-mediated
communication application. Firstly, their study showed that away messages were used
frequently (participants each posted an average of .93 message each day), more so than
the message features of other communication technologies like answering machines.
Secondly, this research supported previous findings (Baron et al., 2005) that away
messages explain ones absence while simultaneously providing either informational or
entertainment value to the recipient. Thirdly, this research demonstrated that users
adapted their language to the constraints of the medium through the strategic use of
CMC- based orthographies such as common abbreviations, emoticons, intentional
misspellings and non-standard usage of punctuation. Finally, although Nastri et al.s
conclusion that humor is often (p. 1040) used in away messages may be overstated (as
humor only appeared in about one-fifth of posted messages), the fact that humor appeared
more often than all but assertive speech acts (in 68% of away messages) and quotations
(in 17% of away messages) indicates that humor should be considered a significant
aspect of away message construction, both in conceptualizing message construction and
in future research. The authors concluded their findings with the suggestion that
participants made active use of away messages for self-presentation purposes (p. 1041),
noting that the demonstrated ability to express a personal identity while maintaining ties
with acquaintances was not necessarily part of the applications original design.
Based on these findings, it seems pertinent to consider how messages are
constructed in other media, particularly those dealing heavily with self-presentation and
relationship maintenance. One means of executing such an extension is to look at the
construction of messages within a popular new telecommunicative application: social
networking sites. By looking at how individuals on these web applications construct
messages, Nastri et al.s work may be continued and compared against messages in
emergent media.
Social Network Sites
boyd and Ellison (2008) defined social network sites (SNSs) as web-based
applications allowing three functions: 1) users construct a public or semi-public profile;
2) present a list of other users to whom an individual is connected; and 3) view and
follow that list and the lists of others within the system. These emerging technologies,
enabling users to articulate and make visible their social networks, have recently taken
the forefront of both commercial and academic interest (d. m. boyd & Ellison, 2008, p.
211). The two SNS frontrunners, MySpace and Facebook, serve exclusively as virtual
social networks where an individual is able to present and maintain a personal image of
themselves [sic] for others to observe and interpret (Reese, Ziegerer-Behnken, Sundar,
& Kleck, 2007, p. 3). These sites allow users to (amongst other functions) post
information about themselves, friend and interact with other users, and build
associations with others, both on an interpersonal level and through social groups.
Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2007) found Facebook users utilized the service to
maintain and reinforce social bonds, primarily within preexisting relationships. However,
the first function most users are exposed to is constructing their profile, not unlike
creating a personal homepage, albeit with a number of specific existing information fields
to begin developing an identity on the site. Providing information about yourself,
affording entertainment to yourself and others (both familiar and unknown to the user)
and the fulfillment of goals of self-expression are common utilities afforded by such
expressions online (Papacharissi, 2002). Indeed, it has been posited that the ability to
relate to others online has the potential to both provide a healthy outlet for demonstration
and construction of identity (Turkle, 1995) as well as facilitate deeper and more
meaningful relationships (Walther, 1992; Walther & Burgoon, 1992). The rise in the
popularity of these sites not only affords an opportunity to explore interpersonal and
group relationships online, but to further examine how people construct their identity
(Donath & boyd, 2004) and interpersonally relate to others (d. boyd, 2008; N. B. Ellison
et al., 2007) in an online environment.
Because of both the technological and social affordances of SNSs, the phenomena
of speech acts are especially relevant. Previous research has illustrated the affordances of
new media to construct an identity online (e.g., N. Ellison, Heino, & Gibbs, 2006;
Filiciak, 2003; Turkle, 1995), and SNS consequently present a new medium in which to
explore how individuals construct messages to create and maintain their presence and
connections with others online. Although users can both post and transmit pictures,
videos and music in SNSs, the primary means of communication is still text. Messages
are composed and read in text-format, group affiliations and interests are denoted
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textually, and users interact via written messages. Consequently, although SNSs afford a
tapestry of images and sounds, the cornerstone of communication is still at the messagelevel. It therefore seems appropriate and relevant to extend Nastri et al.s (2006) work
and findings into a new medium. This extension of previous empirical work has two
potential benefits. First, it allows a type of replication of the previous work on speech
acts in computer-mediated communication, so as to determine the validity of Nastri et
al.s (2006) findings and discussion of the role of messages in CMC. Secondly, such an
extension allows the findings of speech acts to be moved out from a specific
communication tool (instant messaging) and be more generalized to CMC holistically,
rather than limited to specific technological or social practices within a certain medium.
Current Study
Nastri et al. (2006) examined the speech acts constructed in an asynchronous
application of a synchronous mediumaway messages in instant messaging. The nature
of away messages is such that even if a user is not at his/her computer for synchronous
chat, they can still receive information through posted (and more asynchronous) away
messages (Baron et al., 2005; Carr, 2008). Status messages in SNSs serve a similar
purpose to away messagesthey afford an open text field for an individual to provide his
status for others to view. For example, Facebook.com allows a user to type in is excited
for the Louis Hamiltons Grand Prix win this weekend! that others will see when
viewing the users profile. What makes studying status messages in SNSs interesting is
the reverse in media characteristicsSNSs are certainly asynchronous media, not
facilitating direct interpersonal communication, yet status messages can be used for more
immediate communication to those who view it. In the SNS world, status messages are a
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using instant messaging. As use of a technology increases as populations have more time
to become familiar with the technology (Nowak & Rauh, 2006; Rogers, 2003), it can be
expected that many users, even those that use social network sites regularly, have not yet
taken to using status updates. However, while instant messengers are installed with a
default away message, social network sites have no default and simply leave the status
update blank until created or updated. An additional difference between away messages
and SNS status messages is that status messages can be left stable over many days, even
while the user is communicating on the SNS, unlike instant messengers which typically
require users to turn off their away message to resume the programs functionality. This
critical difference guides the second research question:
RQ2: How often do social network site users modify their status message?
The study of status messages in SNSs affords an opportunity to see how
users of these sites are using language to communicate, both interpersonally and
to manage their identity. As more people continue to turn to social network sites
as a means of communication and relationship maintenance, developing a deeper
understanding of the messages used to socially construct these relationships and
identities provides an application for technology-based theories. As discussed
previously, expanding the scope of applications of technology-based theories
offers empirical validation of the theory by increasing the theorys reliability by
expanding its applicability to technologies in a more holistic and general manner
than theories tied to a specific medium, or at least not tested in alternate media.
Method
Participants
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In-line with the methodology of Nastri et al.s (2006) study, this study used a
convenience sample of students recruited from a telecommunication survey course at a
large public university in the Midwest United States. The 74 participants (18 females),
whose ages ranged from 18 to 22 years old (M=19.9, SD=.95), were given course extra
credit for their participation. Twenty-eight participants did not produce any status
messages during the two weeks of investigation, resulting in an ultimate sample size of
46 participants. These results are comparable to Nastri et al.s (2006) participants in age,
class standing and number of subjects, though are skewed with male respondents.
Materials
Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire about their computer and social
network site usage at their personal computers, so as to acquire more accurate and precise
responses to items such as number of SNS friends, as respondents would have access to
their SNS profile as they would be able to check their specific number of friends, thereby
increasing the accuracy and specificity of responses. Survey instruments inquired about
participants online habits, including how much time they spent online each day, time
spent on social network websites, number of months of experience using social network
sites and the number of friends in their networksboth their primary network and total
friends throughout networks. Additionally, participants completed the Facebook Intensity
Scale (N. B. Ellison et al., 2007), including items such as How many Facebook friends
do you have and Facebook is part of my daily routine, as well as an adapted version
pertaining to MySpace usage (Appendix A) to gauge how connected and reliant
participants were on these SNSs as a means of communicating with friends.
Procedure
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mutually exclusive and exhaustiveall speech acts could only be assigned to one and
only one of category.
Status messages were first analyzed for the number of component speech acts that
comprised the update. Second, utilizing the Speech Act Taxonomy described in Table 1,
the speech acts were coded as assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, effective, or
verdictive. Following Nastri et al.s (2006) protocol, quotations within status messages
were coded as a separate category and not categorized into speech acts.
Two raters independently coded all messages. Initial intercoder reliability of
individual speech acts (i.e., parsing a complex status message into unique speech acts)
was acceptable (kappa=.54, p<.001), and a moderate intercoder reliability of humor
(alpha=.65, p<.05). Coders were asked to first resolve disagreement through discussing
the particular speech act, resolving the acts categorization amongst themselves. When
coders could not agree on the categorization of a speech act, a third trained coder was
asked to code the speech act in question, and the agreement of the third coders
assessment with one of the first two coders was used for the speech act.
Results
A total of 207 unique SNS status messages were recorded during the two week period,
with a mean of .18 (SD=.25) messages produced per day by each participant. Of the 207
messages produced, only 3 were posted on MySpace; the remaining 204 were posted on
Facebook profiles. Because of the lack of use of MySpace status updates, the three
messages produced were subsequently excluded from analysis. Twenty-eight participants
did not post a status message in either Facebook or MySpace during the 14-day period,
and were excluded from further analysis.
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Descriptive Analysis
Forty-six participants were ultimately used for analysis. Participants reported a
mean of 266 (S.D. = 202.79) Facebook and 231 (S.D. = 593.44) MySpace friends.
Furthermore, results of the Facebook and MySpace Intensity scales, the latter adapted
illustrated that participants were more ingrained into Facebook than MySpace, with a
mean Facebook intensity score of 0.22 (S.D. = .95), and a mean intensity score of -.66
(S.D. = .81) for MySpace. Comparative results of this study and the results of Ellison et
al.s (2007) can be seen in Table 2. Consequently, these participants represent a slightly
younger and male-dominated sample, but an increased adoption of Facebook, up to 100%
from 94% from surveys conducted on a similar sample the previous year.
Speech Act Analysis
Status messages were analyzed according to speech act(s). Following Nardi et.
als protocol, quotations were excluded from analysis. Consequently, all remaining
speech acts were coded and analyzed as one of six exhaustive and mutually exclusive
speech act categories: assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, effective or
verdictive. This yielded a total of 233 speech acts, or an average of 2.54 (SD = 3.50) per
message.
The proportion of each speech act category produced per participant was
calculated by dividing the number of speech acts in a given category by the total number
of speech acts produced by the participant, so as to understand how status messages were
constructed at the level of the individual. There were no effective speech acts and no
verdictive speech acts produced by participants, and these types consequently were not
included in the analysis. Means and standard deviations for all speech act categories are
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presented in Figure 1. Due to the categorical nature of the data, non-parametric statistics
were employed for the speech act analysis (Siegel, 1956). Pairwise comparisons among
the four remaining speech act categories (expressives, assertives, commissives and
directives) using on signed-rank tests demonstrated that participants constructed status
messages with expressives more than any other speech act (z = -1.86, p = .063),
providing weaker support than desired (=.05) for Hypothesis 1, but illustrating
expressives are most commonly used to develop status messages. Assertives were
produced more frequently than commissives (z = -4.464, p < .001) or directives (z = 4.465, p < .001); however, commissives and directives were not significantly different
from one another with regards to frequency of construction (z = -1.514, p > .1). This
finding provides partial support for Hypothesis 1a. These analyses are described in Table
3. Taken together, the data suggest that status messages are constructed primarily with
expressive and assertive speech acts, consistent with Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 1a.
Humor
Recalling the second hypothesis that humor should appear in greater than 16% of
status messages, the proportion of humor per message was calculated by dividing the
total number of status messages containing humor by the total number of messages
produced per person. On average, 21% (SD=31%) of status messages contained some
modicum of humor. A t-test illustrates the participants of this study did use humor more
frequently in Facebook than reported by Nastri et al. (2006) with regard to away
messages (t=1.36, p<.05, one-tailed). Consequently, H2 was supported. Complete
comparisons between the results of this study and the results of Nastri et al. (2006) are
provided in Table 4. The implications of the support of H1 and H2, as well as the
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implications of H1a will be discussed in the next section, specifically with relation to the
research questions.
Discussion
This study sought to understand how status messages are constructed in social
networking sites. An analysis of speech acts illustrated that expressive and assertive acts
were used most commonly, whereas humor was present in almost 20% of status
messages. The findings illustrate differences between SNS status messages and IM away
messages as reported by Nastri et al. (2006). These findings help us develop a greater
understanding not only of the creation and display of messages within the context of
SNS, but also begin to shed light on the differences of messages created in comparable
media applications.
Of immediate note is the disparity between the use of Instant Messaging away
messages reported by Nastri et al.s (2006) and the use of Social Networking Site status
messages reported here. The comparable participant pool in this study produced
approximately two-fifths the messages produced by Nastri et al.s (2006) participants.
During the observation period, only 2 of the 26 participants who had a MySpace profile
posted status messages and only 46 of 86 participants who had a Facebook profile posted
status updates. Compared to the mean .93 (S.D. = .63) away messages produced per day
reported by Nastri et al. (2006), SNS users (posting a mean of .181, S.D.=.249 messages
per day) do not appear as predisposed to regularly post status updates as do IM users to
post away messages. One potential reason for this disparity between media may be the
relative novelty of status messages. At the time of the study, status messages had only
been recently added features to both SNS tools. As SNS are typically considered means
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of asynchronous communication, it is possible SNS users are not yet aware of or readily
adopting the new tool for constructing messages targeted at friends. However, with users
posting an average of .18 messages per day after only a few months of the feature being
made available, it seems that the status message feature is beginning to be adopted. Even
changing ones status messages once every five days, as the data suggests, still means
that individuals are updating their Facebook status more frequently than they update
voice mail or other asynchronous services (Ehrlich, 1987).
Another explanation of the reduced use of status messaged compared to away
messages is the role of status messages in SNSs. Away messages represent an integral
and meaningful part in IMs, indicating that the target is not available for synchronous
chat, and in doing so conveying message about the immediate disposition of the target. In
SNSs, status messages do not play such a necessary role, and their presence may simply
be a means of self expression rather than serving a structural function within the medium.
Consequently, status messages may appear less frequently strictly because they play a
different role within the medium.
Previous research has proposed that SNSs provide a forum for social interaction
and interpersonal exchange (Donath & boyd, 2004). The findings of this research support
such a proposition, with almost 60% of status messages containing an expressive speech
act and reflective almost 52% of the speech acts produced to convey emotion towards the
receiver(s). Further, 39% of speech acts were produced to have the receiver form an
impression or belief (i.e., assertives), 6% to seek to get the receiver(s) to do something
(i.e., directive) and 3% to commit to future action (i.e., commissive). The proportion of
expressive speech acts within status messages was higher than all other categories, and
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expressive and assertive speech acts were significantly higher than other categories. Clark
(1996) noted that effective and verdictive speech acts (statements about the status of an
institution) are typically made within institutional or organizational settings, and as SNSs
do not constitute such an environ the absence of such speech acts may not be surprising.
The role of SNS in supporting interpersonal interactions is further supported by
the presence of humor in 21% of status messages. About one-fifth of Facebook users are
integrating jovial content into their status messages. Instances of humor have been
conceptualized as an indicator of socioemotional communication in previous research
(Hiltz, Johnson, & Turoff, 1986), and its presence in SNS status messages may be
indicative of the same. The amount of humor is significantly greater in SNS status
messages than in IM away messages, indicating that SNS may reflect a medium in which
individuals express themselves more openly and interpersonally, especially as they are
providing the status messages to individuals with whom they are acquainted and have
friended. This increase in humor content also may reflect the parallels between SNS
profiles and personal homepages. Papacharissi (2002), in looking at the content of
personal websites, found that homepages tended to be developed for one of three primary
purposes: to provide information about the individual, communicating with friends and
family , and to entertain friends. In this way, self-presentation seems to be replicating the
role of personal websites. The first two purposes (information and communication) are
inherent in SNS: one constructs a profile (self-presentation) and joins the site to keep in
touch (communicate). This study suggests that the third goal may, too, be sought via
SNSsindividuals may seek to entertain others via humor in their status messages.
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Previous research has thoroughly acknowledged the role and function of specific
types of speech acts within various settings (e.g., Baron et al., 2005; Nastri et al., 2006).
What is of importance to the focus of this research is the notable differences between the
findings of this study and comparable research conducted with similar participants in a
similar yet different communication application, as it illustrates the different messages
constructed in different online media. Culnan and Markus (1987) made two important
notes regarding researching effects of mediation communication. The first was that while
face-to-face communication differs from computer-mediated communication, the
fundamental communicative processes may not be as radically different as many scholars
assume. However, their second note is of great significance to the findings of the present
researchdifferent media have the potential to facilitate different communication and via
different processes. It is the implications of this research mapped onto their second notion
which will drive the remainder of this discussion.
Goal Achievement and Strategic Use. Theorists have long discussed the impacts
of communicative goals on media selection. Early CMC research suggested that CMC
was unable to transmit cues that facilitated interpersonal interaction, and instead focused
on the role of CMC in task-related situations (e.g., Daft & Lengel, 1986; Kiesler, Siegel,
& McGuire, 1984). More recent research has acknowledged the potential for CMC to
foster rich and highly interpersonal interactions, sometimes more so than face-to-face
counterparts (Walther, 1996). While the early theories looked at how individuals selected
media based on the nature of the task-related goals they desired to achieve, subsequent
research on media has instead focused on the mechanisms by which CMC facilitates
interpersonal interactions. The findings of this research, and specifically that expressive
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Ellison et al., 2007). Although the causality behind the preponderance of expressive
speech acts is beyond the scope of this research, it would be of interest to see if the
amount of expressives is a result of interactants having prior knowledge and relationships
with those who are expected to see the status update. Said another way, does the number
of expressives in status message posts reflect the number of expressives individuals use
in their offline communication with the same individuals?
Predictive factors. While the previous issues have been applied in an attempt to
provide explanatory analyses of the research, it is also necessary to address the predictive
role of theory, and its absence in the study. The hypotheses in this study were derived
under the assumption that social networking sites were better suited to facilitating
socioemotional communication specifically of the expressive nature. This assertion was
supported quantitatively within the research. However, the fundamental nature of the
medium may and should not be the only factor to consider when theorizing differences
between media. For a theory to be useful, it must not only be able to retrospectively
explain why a phenomenon occurred, it must also be able to proactively predict results
based on a specified series of precedent variables (Shoemaker, Tankard, & Lasorsa,
2003). Although this study has illustrated different communication resulting from two
media, it not fully predicted why such differentiations occurred in a theoreticallygrounded way. As new media begin to emerge and become integrated into society, it
becomes increasingly important for theories to emerge to enable researchers to not only
conceptualize how specific media are constructed and function, but to further be able to
develop functional models that could detail the mechanisms and interactions that guide
both interaction and use of media.
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Conclusion
This study was conceptualized and executed in an attempt to replicate previous
research (Nastri et al., 2006) to explore how individuals express themselves online, and to
also extend such research into a new medium. Such an extension was intended to explore
how different media may individuals using different media may manifest different types
of expressions. The findings of this study support previous claims that social networking
sites are inherently social and emotive in nature, demonstrating the preponderance of
expressive acts of communication, displaying and sharing emotion amongst other SNS
users. In addition to the predominance of expressive speech acts, the increased proportion
of humor used in SNSs over IMs further demonstrates the social and emotive nature of
SNS and their role in maintaining interpersonal and emotional ties amongst networked
individuals.
The results of this study, while illuminative in their own right, become even more
significant when interpreted in tandem with previous research. The findings presented
here illustrate the role of media on self-presentation and demonstrate that generalizations
of findings across multiple media may not be fairly made based on exploration of a
phenomenon within a single context or technology. As the opportunities and means for
individuals to communicate continues to proliferate, there is a need to begin to develop
theories outside of specific media to begin to explore relational media holistically and
how they impact the nature and processes of communication amongst their users. The
development of such a theory would be advantageous to understand the nature of
communication in multiple situations, especially in online contexts and in situations
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where individuals choose (either strategically or unconsciously) which medium to use for
a specific communicative goal.
27
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32
Appendix A
Male
Year in school:
Local Residence:
On-Campus
Off-Campus
Female
In-State (MI)
Out-of-State
Yes
No
How many on-campus extracurricular groups are you actively participating in?
None
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11+
In an average day, how many hours do you use the Internet for either work or pleasure?
None
Less than 1
1-2
2-3
3-4
4-5
5-6
6-7
7-8
8-9
9-10
10-11
11-12
12-13
13-14
14-15
15-16
16-17
17-18
18+
Do you use some form of Instant Messaging chat program (ex. AIM, ICQ, etc.)?
Yes
No
If yes, about how long have you used an IM program? ____ years & ____months
Facebook
Do you have a Facebook account?
Yes
If No, please move on to the next page.
No
About how long have you had your Facebook account? ____ years & _____ months
33
How many total Facebook friends do you have at MSU or elsewhere? _____
In the past week, on average, approximately how many minutes have you spent on
Facebook each day? _____
How many total Facebook groups do you belong to? ______
Strongly Disagree Neutral
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
Agree
34
MySpace
Do you have a MySpace account?
Yes
No
If No, please move on to the end of this page (**).
About how long have you had your MySpace account? ____ years & _____ months
How many total MySpace friends do you have at MSU or elsewhere? _____
In the past week, on average, approximately how many minutes have you spent on
MySpace each day? _____
How many total MySpace groups do you belong to? ______
Strongly Disagree Neutral
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
Agree
When you are done with this part of the survey, please send a friend request to the display
name, TC Research. It will have a TISM logo for a profile photo.
**Thank you for completing this survey. Please return the completed survey to the
researcher.
35
Table 1 Coding scheme for analyzing speech acts and quotations in Facebook status
messages
Speech Act
Example(s)
Assertive
GRILLING on this
hey do it
something
go
Directive
Commissive
Expressive
Verdictive
Quotation
institution
strike
the sender
Note. Most examples were selected from the status messages collected. Because they did
not appear in this study, effective and verdictive examples were drawn from Nastri et al.
(2006).
36
Table 2 Participant demographic comparison between present study and Ellison et al.
(2007)
Present Study
Present
Ellison et al.
Ellison et
(2008) Mean
Study s.d.
(2007) Mean or
al. s.d.
or % (n)
% (n)
male
76% (56)
34% (98)
female
24% (18)
66% (188)
Gender:
Year in school 1
1.95
0.95
2.55
1.07
Home residence:
in-state
85% (63)
91% (259)
out-of-state
15% (11)
09% (25)
on campus
73% (54)
55% (157)
off campus
27% (20)
45% (127)
08% (6)
08% (23)
Local residence:
Member of fraternity
or sorority
Hours of Internet use
per day
Facebook members
3:08
100% (74)
2 hours 56 min.
1:52
94% (268)
Facebook friends
266.14
202.79
Facebook groups
27.58
30.29
Facebook Intensity
0.22
0.95
MySpace members
5 hours 18 min
28% (20)
-0.08
0.79
N/A
MySpace friends
231.71
593.44
N/A
MySpace groups
1.38
2.77
N/A
MySpace intensity
-0.66
0.81
N/A
37
Effectives/
Effectives/
Effectives/
Assertives/
Assertives/ Commissives/
Assertives
Commissives
Directives
Commissives
Directives
-1.860
-5.095**
-4.907**
-4.907**
-4.564**
-1.514
.063
.000
.000
.000
.000
.130
Directives
Pairwise comparisons were based on the proportion of each speech act category,
calculated by dividing the total of speech acts in a given category by the total number of
speech acts produced by the participant.
* p=.06, two tailed. **p<.01
38
Table 4 Speech Act construction comparison between present study and Nastri et al.
(2006)
Present Study
Present
Nastri et al.
Nastri et
(2008) Mean
Study s.d.
(2006) Mean
al. (2006)
Speech Act/Post
s.d.
Speech Act/Post
Assertive
.19 (86)
0.27
.68
0.03
Directive
.01 (6)
.08
.06
0.01
Commissive
.02 (12)
.06
.12
0.12
Expressive
.27 (110)
.34
.14
0.03
Effective
.00 (0)
.00
.00
0.02
Verdictive
.00 (0)
.00
.00
0.00
Quotation
.05 (22)
.17
.17
.22
Humor
.19 (65)
.29
.16
0.21
Total Messages
204
.18
483
.25
.93
.63
participant
Total Speech Acts
233
2.54
574
3.50
1.14
0.44
*Figures presented are means of speech acts within status messages per person, while
numbers in parentheses are standard deviations.
39