The present study investigates the use of hedging devices in the readers’ comment section of the newspaper The Guardian Online. Two comment sections were chosen for the contrastive study: ‘Politics’ in the subsection ‘Comment is free’ and the series ‘Problem solved’ in the subsection ‘Life and style’. The corpus-based analysis of the frequency of hedges has revealed that the incidence of hedging devices in comments on personal issues is higher (by 19.2%) than on political articles. Three of the most frequently occurring hedging devices, namely, might, SEEM and I (don’t) think underwent further contextual analysis: the utterances containing these items were classified according to their illocutionary force, applying Bach’s (2003) classification of illocutionary acts. The most commonly hedged speech act types, characteristic of each section, were revealed.  Subsequently, an attempt was made to account for these findings from the perspective of ‘face’ and ‘facework’ as represented by Brown and Levinson (1987), Lim and Bowers (1991), MacGeorge, Lichtman and Pressey (2002), Ting-Toomey and Kurogi (1998). Since hedging is considered to be an effective strategy in minimizing ‘threats’ to the face of the addressee, it has  been possible to conclude that in discussions of personal issues participants are more concerned to ‘save’ the addressee’s face than in the case of political matters where the comment writers’ ‘self-face seems to be in the forefront.

Social media has created a two-pronged dilemma for the journalism world. On one side is an attack of the basic notions of identity and authority for an age-old profession while on the other side supporting journalists by making available an endless amount of new tools and resources for them to work with. This thesis establishes and examines the online community of practice that has formed in the crosshair of the two sides, where the future of newspapers is a hotly debated subject. Using innovative data collection, the conversations of 20 experts is studied qualitatively through computer mediated discourse analysis to examine and explore the debate while providing consideration of the key issues to allow for an in-depth study.

Hong Kong is widely known as a bilingual city. In addition to the locally spoken Cantonese, the vast majority of Hong Kong Chinese people are also able to speak English, the ex-colonial and the international language which has played an important role in the community since the colony was founded. This linguistic situation has given rise to a local variety of English. Recognising the distinct form and function of this variety, scholars (e.g. Bolton 2002, Joseph 2004: 132-161) have argued that the linguistic features in the English spoken by Hong Kong people should be identified as Hong Kong English (HKE). Observing that certain Hong Kong English features specific to computer-mediated communication (CMC) have been developed through communication among bilingual Hong Kong Chinese on the internet, I believe that Hong Kong English in CMC should be seen as a distinct variety. To support my argument, I have, in this thesis, re-examined the notion of linguistic variety. This in turn has required an investigation into the nature of the linguistic norms that define a 'systematically different' form of language. I begin my study by looking at the sociolinguistics of Hong Kong. The distribution of the three main languages – Cantonese, English, and Putonghua – is examined, and Cantonese-English code-mixing is discussed. The focus then turns to the notion of Hong Kong English, and its linguistic features are analysed. Then, the nature of computer-mediated communication is explored. I look at how this context has affected the use of language in general, and HKE specifically. The distinctive HKE features that can only be seen in CMC are examined. I show that Hong Kong English in computer-mediated communication (CHKE) is formally different from HKE in other written contexts. In order to argue that CHKE is a variety of its own, I look at how various scholars define 'variety' and similar notions such as 'language', 'dialect', 'sociolect', and 'register'. Seeing that the concept of norms is essential in determining whether a variety is 'systematically different', I explore the nature of social norms and linguistic norms. A model of norms is proposed, identifying three kinds of linguistic norms: formal norms, contextual norms and identity norms. I present the results of a survey I conducted that aims to elicit Hong Kong people‘s attitudes towards CHKE. Analysis of the data obtained from the survey shows that linguistic norms of CHKE have emerged. Not only is CHKE recognised by its users as a distinct variety, this variety also has an identity marking function that is not seen in other forms of written HKE.

Although research findings to date have documented that computer-mediated communication (CMC) gets students involved, a substantial gap remained in determining the impact of CMC on academic and social integration of community college students. Because computer technology, specifically CMC, has proliferated within teaching and learning in higher education and because of the importance of academic and social integration, this study was significant in documenting through quantitative data analysis the impact that CMC had on the academic and social integration of community college students. The following research question was addressed: Does computer-mediated communication have an impact on the academic and social integration of community college students as measured by the CCSEQ? The study hypothesized that data analysis will show that there will be no difference in the integrations reported by the control and experimental groups. The overall approach was to conduct a pretest-posttest control-group experimental study using CMC as the experimental treatment. The Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CCSEQ) was given to collect data that were used to measure the academic and social integration of the control and experimental groups. After an in-depth analysis of data using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and ANCOVA, the finding of this study was that there is no statistically significant difference between the control and experimental groups on their academic and social integrations as measured by the CCSEQ. In other words, CMC did not have a positive or negative impact on the integrations of community college students. This study examined for the first time the impact that CMC had on the integrations of community college students and provided an experimental methodology that future researchers might replicate or modify to further explore this topic. Because CMC will continue to increase as technology becomes more available and accessible to faculty and students and because of the importance of academic and social integration, further study on this relationship is vital to higher education research.

This thesis is a literature review that reports on the use of social media for language learning and teaching. I argue that the use of one’s first language as well as their second language (L2) on social media is a useful technique while learning L2 because code-switching can play a vital role in communication among users. I also argue that social media-based participation in Communities of Practice (CoPs) can provide learning opportunities for language learners. In the course of my argument, I examine a wide range of studies relating to social media, second language acquisition, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics, and I discuss the benefits and risks of the use of social media in language learning. After amalgamating the key points from the literature, I propose a curricular framework for language classrooms which serves as a scaffolding activity for the use of social media for participating in L2 CoPs through objective analysis of linguistic resources. / Graduate / 0290 / 0279

Globalization and fast developing technology are allowing organizations to spread their operations across the world. While this is often cost effective and increases companies’ competitiveness, a new challenge for leadership has arisen as people and teams are becoming geographically dispersed. Leaders and followers are relying more heavily on computer-mediated communication instead of traditional face-to-face interaction. The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of leadership in geographically dispersed teams. As communication is occurring primarily through virtual channels, the purpose is to study the effect this phenomenon has on the leader’s role and how followers experience virtual leadership. This thesis also outlines the impact of leadership in virtual teams; how to create and maintain team spirit, how to establish trust, and how to ensure team effectiveness. Additionally, this study examines the main challenges and opportunities  in virtual leadership, what competencies are required for virtual leaders, and how important communication is in the concept of virtual leadership. Data for this study was collected from ten various professionals, including both leaders' and followers', by conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews with each individual. The findings of the empirical research show that there is a relatively optimistic attitude towards virtual leadership. However, there are certainly critical challenges when it comes to relationship building, team cohesion, and communication. There is a significant need for raising awareness of virtual leadership, as it is becoming more the norm than the exception in the modern business world.

This doctoral dissertation describes a research study that examined the effectiveness of an experimental Supplemental Instruction (SI) program that utilized computer-mediated communication (CMC) rather than traditional SI review sessions. During the Spring 1999 semester, six sections of an introductory computer course were offered via the Internet by a suburban community college district in Texas. Using Campbell and Stanley's Nonequivalent Control Group model, the online SI program was randomly assigned to four of the course sections with the two remaining sections serving as the control group. The students hired to lead the online review sessions participated in the traditional SI training programs at their colleges, and received training conducted by the researcher related to their roles as online discussion moderators. Following recommendations from Congos and Schoeps, the internal validity of the groups was confirmed by conducting independent t-tests comparing the students' cumulative credit hours, grade point averages, college entrance test scores, and first exam scores. The study's four null hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression equations with alpha levels set at .01. Results indicated that the SI participants earned better course grades even though they had acquired fewer academic credits and had, on average, scored lower on their first course exams. Both the control group and the non-SI participants had average course grades of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. The students who participated in at least one SI session had an average final course grade of 2.5, exceeding their previous grade point average of 2.15. Participation in one SI session using CMC was linked to a one-fourth letter grade improvement in students' final course grades. Although not statistically significant, on the average, SI participants had slightly better course retention, marginally increased course satisfaction, and fewer student-initiated contacts with their instructors.

Recent technological advances have witnessed the rapid encroachment of computing systems into our social spaces. Their acceptance in these social spaces by other occupants, however, might be mostly contingent on their social appropriateness. Notions of social appropriateness might seem vague but even people who don’t act on this commonsense knowledge, and accord to social norms, can sometimes find themselves ostracized from society. It is reflected in behavior that supports a sense of successful engagement and connection. Such behavior communicates a desire to be accepted and a willingness to engage, as opposed to inappropriateness that conveys indifference, rejection or even danger. As social actors, how can systems improve their interactions with us in order to better succeed at their tasks? Perhaps, more interestingly, how might they even improve our communications with each other? In this thesis we describe a framework to identify opportunities to design systems that can begin to act appropriately in social settings, which we call Considerate Systems. It includes a design process and guidelines, which allows an interaction to be viewed from the perspectives of the user, system and task. It also includes an architecture that guides the addition of productive social responses to interactive systems. We demonstrate the utility of this framework by exploring two types of scenarios that impact social interactions in contrasting ways. Remote interactions (such as on a conference call) suffer from an impinging of social cues that people rely on while communicating. On the other hand, situated multitasking interactions (such as texting while driving) can easily overwhelm users and detract from their performance. The framework is applied towards the design of autonomous agents tackling problems endemic to such scenarios. We evaluate their success with respect to specific scenario goals. We conclude by noting that while the challenges of instilling computing systems with a sense of appropriateness seem daunting, our productive use of systems can be enhanced with them.

The emergence of online information-seekers harnessing the aggregated experiences of others to evaluate online information has coincided with deceptive entities exploiting this tool to bias judgments. One method through which deceit about user-generated content can occur is through single entities impersonating multiple, independent content providers to saturate content samples. Two studies are introduced to explore how idiosyncratic indicators, features co-occurring between content messages that implicate a higher probability of deceit, can be used as a criterion to identify content that is not independently authored. In Study 1, analyses of a pairwise comparison of hypothetical reviews revealed that ratings of content independence were significantly lower when review pairs co-occurred in the attributes, text, and usernames compared to being heterogenous. In a high-fidelity experiment, Study 2 assessed if the effect of idiosyncratic indicators on independence is increased in the presence of multiple indicators, if it is attenuated with a high number of reviews, and if it impacts factors relevant to the choice selection process. As expected, the findings of Study 1 were replicated in addition to further revealing that the presence of multiple idiosyncratic cues yielded lower independence ratings. An interaction effect with idiosyncratic indicators and high review number was observed such that the effect of the former on independence was attenuated when there were a high number of reviews to obscure the presence of these indicators.

Thesis advisor: Belle Liang / Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors often experience isolation from their primary support network following their injury (Marsh, Kersel, Havill, & Sleigh, 1998). Computer-mediated support groups (CMSGs) offer a virtual platform for individuals with complex medical concerns to exchange emotional and informational support (Braithwaite, Waldron, & Finn, 1999). To date, no research has examined the use of CMSGs, such as TBI-related Facebook support groups, for TBI survivors. There is also limited research investigating how emotional and informational support provided and received (i.e., supportive exchanges) relate to well-being and online relational health (Liang et al., 2002). This study examined the relationship between four supportive exchanges and well-being and relational health for TBI survivors using TBI-related Facebook support groups, as well as whether a gender norm—emotional control—and network preference moderated these relationships. Participants included 191 TBI survivors recruited across 14 TBI-related Facebook support groups. Multiple regression analyses tested whether four supportive exchanges directly predicted well-being and relational health after controlling for age and extraversion. Results revealed that supportive exchanges did not predict well-being. However, emotional support provided, emotional support received, and informational support received all predicted higher levels of online relational health. Informational support provided predicted lower levels of online relational health. Additional multiple regression analyses tested whether emotional control and four aspects of network preference moderated the relationship between supportive exchanges and well-being and relational health. Although higher levels of emotional control directly predicted lower levels of relational health, and a preference for weak-tie support networks (e.g., online acquaintances) predicted lower levels of well-being, the moderating effects were generally not significant. The findings underscore the importance of supportive exchanges in developing online relational health for TBI survivors using Facebook support groups. It also suggests that this relationship was not dependent on emotional control and network preference. Future research should investigate other factors affecting supportive online communication for TBI survivors and when they may benefit most from online support. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.