research interests
The Internet has prompted new ways to communicate and share information by offering a profusion of information easily sought and shared around the globe. Communication can occur with just a few simple clicks of a mouse or by the press of a button or touchpad on a mobile device. The increasing use of online communication and information sharing tools, such as Twitter, instant messaging (IM), blogs, and chat, is reshaping the way people communicate and relate to the information they send and receive. I am interested in exploring the ways these online tools and services influence and shape communication and information behavior and how people creatively adapt their communication and information strategies to technological change.
dissertation research
My dissertation research focuses on a specific instance of this relationship between technology and communication: the modification of general English to suit the online environment. Specifically, I am analyzing the language used in online, social media such as chat, instant messaging (IM), text messaging, games, forums, and the like (hereafter referred to as cyberlanguage). Cyberlanguage is the recoding of standard English into abbreviated and often pictographic representations of existing concepts, where layers of meaning are packed into a few keystrokes. This way of encapsulating information exemplifies the creativity users employ when responding and adapting to the constraints and affordances imposed by these online media. I am interested in testing assertions made in prior work that certain media characteristics (e.g., message length restrictions, synchronicity, number of simultaneous participants permitted) and certain situational, genre-related factors (e.g., topic, purpose of communicating) result in certain types of linguistic features (e.g., acronyms, vowel reduction, emoticons). For example, media that limit the length of messages, such as chat, IM, and text messaging, are thought to encourage more abbreviated forms such as acronyms and shortenings (e.g., prob for problem). My purpose in this analysis is to understand how users creatively modify their communication (and therefore the ways in which they encode information) based on the technology and the underlying situation.
My dissertation research aims to contribute to the field by establishing a description of this language, including a lexicon of terms and a grammar of linguistic features. This type of analysis is important to information professionals who wish to respond to the expanding technological landscape by designing tools and techniques for searching, capturing, organizing, analyzing, and monitoring online text for the valuable information it may contain.
related work
My dissertation research addresses a specific example of the influence technology may have on communication and information behavior, but my overarching research interests involve examining this interaction in a variety of contexts (e.g., health information seeking, teaching and learning, social support, collaborative activities, hobbies, business communication) and in a variety of online venues (e.g., Twitter, office IM, virtual worlds, games).
For example, research on virtual reference services (VRS), which are often conducted over IM, suggests that mirroring a patron’s speech will help improve patron satisfaction. I recently conducted a study to determine if librarians are mirroring patrons’ use of cyberlanguage in VRS conversations. The results of this preliminary study showed that the librarians in the 30 conversations sampled do not substantially mimic a patron’s use of cyberlanguage. However, it is possible that cyberlanguage accommodation is not the best predictor of patron satisfaction; accommodating in other ways, such as the use of politeness markers, may be a more effective strategy. This study sets the stage for a future, more detailed analysis, using more conversations, to further assess the degree to which librarians accommodate patron speech, and to determine which accommodation techniques are most effective in evoking patron satisfaction.
Related to my interest in social information behavior, some colleagues and I have submitted a case study paper describing the design and development of UNC’s first alternate reality game (ARG) which was launched in 2009. ARGs invite players to solve a mystery by seeking clues and completing puzzles located both online and in the physical world. They are typically used for recreational purposes, but we believe they have potential as pedagogical tools because they encourage collaborative information seeking and social construction of knowledge to piece together the underlying mystery. This project examines the effects gaming technology may have on information seeking and learning behavior, and we hope the paper will serve as a guide to other campuses that may wish to introduce games into their curricula.
With Dr. Christine Bevc and my advisor, Dr. Stephanie W. Haas, I work on a project for the North Carolina Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center (NCPERRC) evaluating the communication and information sharing behavior of public health professionals faced with an emergency, communicable disease outbreak. Using social network analysis, we will describe the network of information activity that occurred during the H1N1 outbreak between public health professionals and a variety of information sources. So far, our analysis is revealing that in emergency situations, public health professionals communicate with and seek information from more sources (electronic sources, organizations, and individuals) more frequently than in routine situations; the network becomes more dense during emergencies, exhibiting more communication ties between professionals and information sources.
future work
I am interested in continuing to explore language as information, cognitive and emotional responses to technological change, and the effects technology has on social, work-related, and learning behavior. I believe these threads intertwine to weave a complete picture of the individual in an ever-changing, technologically advancing society, with a view toward understanding how people adapt to change and innovate when face with new information problems.
As I continue my research, I want to expand my analysis of cyberlanguage to other online venues to ensure its description is as comprehensive as needed for use by information professionals. I also want to devote efforts toward exploring other dimensions of cyberlanguage, such as how the absence of face-to-face cues affects the communication and perception of messages. Is it possible to determine if there are syntactical or word-formation patterns that might indicate sarcasm? Detecting the underlying sentiment in such messages may help natural language processing tools (e.g., summarization engines) accurately process and reproduce online information.
In regard to my interests in understanding cognitive and emotional perspectives on technological change and their manifestation in social, work, and learning behavior, future questions could, for example, examine aspects of identity, such as how reputation and expertise are determined in online environments. For example, in Second Life and online games such as World of Warcraft, users interface with each other through a computer-generated, graphical representation of an alternate self, often referred to as an avatar. One’s avatar can alter or completely conceal one’s true age, race, sex, economic status, and educational and professional background. If we make decisions about credibility, expertise, and authority based on physical traits such as age, educational background, or professional experience, all of which may be obscured or hidden online, how can one evaluate another’s expertise and credibility? How is reputation translated in online situations? Methods that may help answer these questions include social network analysis and online ethnography.
I believe that information behavior is social behavior. Even interfacing with an information system is a social process. The system represents, and communicates to the user, the developer’s mental model of the included information and his/her understanding of how the user will need to engage with it. Because technology continues to mediate many of our information interactions, I believe that exploring the information user’s behavior in technically-mediated contexts will help enhance our understanding of information seeking, sharing, and use.
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My advisor is Stephanie Haas. My committee includes Jeff Pomerantz, Barbara Wildemuth, Brian Sturm, and Connie Eble. My muse is Libby Evans. Some scholars whose work I enjoy: David Crystal, M.A.K. Halliday, Lynn Cherny, Susan Herring, Brenda Danet, Christopher Werry, Constance Steinkuehler, and TL Taylor.
