This dissertation responds to a recent zeitgeist and climate of controversy surrounding issues of "virtuality" and "simulation" Such terms are treated as problematic and essentially contested when framed in reference to notions of a fixed observable "reality" rather than considered in terms of socially constructed facts, relationships and identities. The concept of the "virtual stage" advanced in this thesis, refers to the current historical moment in communications technology development as well as to the dramaturgical perspective which informs the theoretical approach and argument. / In this dissertation, virtual reality is treated not as a single technology or corpus of machines, but following conventions established in recent telepresence research as an experience which can obtain in varying degrees by means of a host of communications media. / Several complementary approaches are proposed and examined as a provisional framework for the study of emerging contemporary discourses of virtuality. Issues of virtuality are discussed from the perspective of historical cases which invite comparison and suggest a palimpsest of earlier technological modes of communication within contemporary situations. The social construction of technology approach is introduced following recent suggestions for marrying this approach to the Canadian tradition of socio-historical study of communication technology. Finally, play and dramaturgical theory are offered as a model for understanding how community and individual identity are constructed and maintained in some forms of computer mediated communication (video games, MUDs, and IRC) while allowing for potentially plausible notions of human agency.

Since the early 1990s, it has been all but impossible to ignore the media hype prompted by the sudden advent and appeal of the computer-mediated communications context. However, as alarmist tales of alleged online dangers have moved to the fore, legislators in some jurisdictions have called for new regulatory measures to limit its communicative potential. This dissertation undertakes a socio-historical analysis of this phenomenon. Influenced by the historical perspective of Ithiel de Sola Pool (1983), its initial goal is to illuminate how the introduction of print, common carrier and broadcast-based communications technologies has prompted key social actors to advocate, or create, particular regulatory regimes and practices. This will show how certain political, economic and moral interests and agendas have shaped the uses and development of previous communications technologies. Following this analysis, an examination of the rhetoric underlying contemporary efforts to regulate the online medium is presented. This will bring focus to how new communications technologies are defying traditional, territorially-bound models of regulation and control. Thereafter, a case study of the communicative roles and relationships that have informed present-day regulatory initiatives is undertaken. Guided by theoretical and methodological insights culled from the sociological literature on moral panics, it uses relevant print and online media sources to expose specific meaning-making practices that triggered the outbreak of an international panic over the alleged pervasiveness of online pornography in mid-1995. This will highlight the extent to which the mainstream media---via representations of the interests and agendas of actors and groups from a range of societal sectors---have influenced new communications policy debates. In addition, it will demonstrate how the online medium's unique communicative potential has empowered some of its users to reinterpret and counter the agend

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 The relationship between Internet technology and human beings has been the main focus in the realm of Internet study. Those studies, generally speaking, either paid attention to the political, economical and social influences of the burgeoning Internet technology on human society, or focusing on the changing of human behavior, attitudes and psychological conditions in the Internet technological environment. Lacking of considering the core nature of Internet technology, most of studies, though proposed many insightful arguments, cannot explain why and in what way the Internet has such great influences on human beings. Since the Internet technology constructed the cyberspace, its relationship with human beings has been undoubtedly influenced by the inherent nature of the Internet. Examining the intrinsic nature and the bias of Internet technology, this study proposes the concept of cyber-micropower to describe the power relationships in the Internet field, and explores the origins of cyber-micropower. By investigating the formation and operational mechanism of the three kinds of cyber-micropower – information micropower, context micropower and subject micropower, this study provides a new analytical framework to the Internet study as well as understanding various cyberspace phenomena. The qualitative methods, especially critical literature research, online participant observation, and oral history are adopted to make thick description of various online phenomena, get empirical online data and develop the key concept of cyber-micropower. Particularly, the formation of information micropower is examined through the phenomenon of online free. Based on the analysis of online virtual identity, the formation process of context micropower and subject micropower can be developed. Then, the operational mechanism of cyber-micropower was mainly investigated through human flesh searching phenomenon. Briefly, this study argues that the bias of Internet technology is liquidity. As the core features of the Internet, both digitalization and networking of information directly reflect the widespread requiring for liquidity. This liquid Internet plays the role by empowering cyber subjects. Cyber-micropower, then, is the liquid networking relations among cyber subjects. During online interactions and the Internet use, cyber subjects always tend to make surveillance and self-surveillance, restriction and self-restriction, group participating and other ways, through which cyber subjects adapted to the new liquid cyber contexts and relations, as well as positioning their own locations in the liquid network. This new liquid disciplinary model in the “many watch the many” kind of cyberspace is the operational mechanism of cyber-micropower. Accordingly, disciplined cyber subjects and cyber conditions are like numerous panopticons superimposed together. Then, this study further argues that with the development of Internet technology, the liquid may be faster, and a larger scale of digitalization and intensive networking will follow. Such trends, though may liberate human beings initially, will go beyond humans’ ultimate state in the end. The liquid nature of information restricts cyber subjects’ ability of self-reflexive and understanding. And the liquid cyberspace may promote multiple and unstable virtual identities. As a result, cyber subjects’ cyber-micropower will become more fragile and sensitive. And the human nature may also be networked and liquefied gradually. Yet, when human beings become numerous nodes in the liquid network, not only their traditional ethics and morality are in the danger of reversing, but also the meaning of humans’ existence may be challenged. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to examine romantic relationships that began through face-to-face (FtF) interaction or computer-mediated communication (CMC). Two hundred seventy-six participants who were currently in romantic relationships that began in person (196) or online (80) completed an online questionnaire. The study explored several relational variables (relationship satisfaction, intimacy, trust, communication satisfaction, physical attraction) and tested for differences in the two types of relationships; however, the data were not consistent with the hypotheses and research questions. Post-hoc tests revealed that sample characteristics (including sex, exclusivity of relationships, same/opposite sex relationships, and length of relationships) accounted for several differences when tested with the relational variables. Finally, the study sought to find which of these variables related to relationship satisfaction in relationships that began FtF and online. Trust and communication satisfaction significantly predicted relationship satisfaction in relationships that began FtF, and physical attraction and communication satisfaction significantly predicted relationship satisfaction in relationships that began online.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In today's fast paced world, people have become increasingly interested in online communication to facilitate their lives and make it faster. This goes on from simple social interactions to more advanced actions like shopping on the internet. The presence of such activities makes it crucial for people to use their common sense and judgment to process all this information and evaluate what/who they trust and what/whom they do not. This process would have been much easier if the number of people in such networks is really small and manageable. However, there are millions of users who are hooked online every day. This makes the person very overwhelmed with his trusting decision, especially when it comes to interacting with strangers over the internet, and/or buying personal items, especially expensive ones. Therefore, many trust models have been proposed by computer scientists trying to evaluate and manage the trust between users using different techniques and combining many factors. What these computer scientists basically do is coming up with mathematical formulas and models to express trust in online networks and capture its parameters. However, social scientists are the people better trained to deal with concepts related to human behaviors and their cognitive thinking such as trust. Thus, in order for computer scientists to support their ideas and get a better insight about how to direct their research, people like social scientists should contribute. With this in mind, we realized in our group work the importance of such contribution, so we came up with the idea of my research work. In my search, I tried to find how these social scientists think and tackle a dynamic notion like trust, so we can use their findings in order to enhance our work and trust model. Through the chapters, I will discuss an already developed trust model that uses measurement theory in modeling trust. I will refer back to this model and see how other social scientists dealt with some of the issues encountered by the model and its functionality. Some small experiments have been done to show and compare our results with social scientists results for the same matter. One of the most important and controversial points to be discussed from social scientists' point of view is whether trust is transitive or not. Other points to be discussed and supported by social scientists' research include aggregation, reputation, timing effects on trust, reciprocity, and experience effects on trust. Some of these points are classified into trust mapping categories and others are related to trust management or decision making stages. In sum, this work is a multidisciplinary study of trust whose overall goal is to enhance our work and results, as computer scientists.