Units of Analysis for Internet Communication

When communication researchers make claims about the relationship of media to individuals or society, they use the term media to mean a variety of things. For example, a researcher might try to prove the claim “television causes X,” where X might be anything from aggressive behavior to bad vision or a crisis in a sense of self. In this case, is the researcher talking about the television signals in the air, people who work at television stations, people who produce or act in television programs, the television programs themselves, television receiving sets, or some or all of these things? Of course, the research context, setting, and constraints usually define what is meant by the term television as a medium, but how can researchers talk about new media that involve communication on computer networks? The Internet, a cooperatively run, globally distributed collection of computer networks, provides a communication forum in which an estimated 20-40 million people in 90 countries (Society, 1995) participate. The Internet provides an array of tools for people to use for information retrieval and communication in individual, group, and mass contexts, but can current notions of media be used to define communication on the Internet? Researchers in past decades have taken many approaches to analyzing human communication on computer and networked communication systems. Using a variety of frameworks for defining units of analysis, these researchers have examined an array of communication settings. For example, some research has explored the relationships between the characteristics of media systems and the characteristics of individuals using them (Hiltz & Turoff, 1978; Johansen, Valle, & Spangler, 1979). Other researchers have examined the human component of computer-mediated communication processes in detail, examining social-psychological factors (Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984; Kling & Gerson, 1977; Lea & Spears, 1991a, 1991b; McGuire, 1983; Spears & Lea, 1992; Spears, Lea, & Lee, 1990), as well as social context factors (Feenberg, 1989, 1992; Fulk, Schmitz, & Steinfield, 1990; Fulk, Steinfield, Schmitz, & Power, 1987; Georgoudi & Rosnow, 1985; Lea, 1992; Martin, O'Shea, Fung, & Spears, 1992; Schmitz & Fulk, 1991), and social cues (DeSanctis & Gallupe, 1987; Kiesler, 1986; McGuire, Kiesler, & Siegel, 1987; Rutter, 1987; Siegel, Dubrovsky, Kiesler, & McGuire, 1986; Sproull & Kiesler, 1986). This body of work presents a mixture of results that are very dependent on the context of the research setting. Integration of results, particularly at the theoretical level, is difficult. Research focusing on media has likewise lead to insights, but little theoretical integration or comparison of results from study to study. Researchers have examined the diffusion and adoption of interactive media and found factors contributing to media technology adoption as well as patterns of how technology use develops in a community (Markus, 1987, 1990; Miles, 1992; Rogers, 1983, 1986; Valente, 1991). Other researchers and writers have looked at media evolution to identify societal and individual changes as a result of the use of communication technology (Harnad, 1991; Havelock, 1986; Innis, 1972; Levinson, 1990; McLuhan, 1964, 1965; McLuhan & Fiore, 1967; McLuhan & Powers, 1989; Vallee, 1982). More recently, media researchers have examined the notion of “media richness” to examine media selection in individual and organizational communication (Daft & Lengel, 1984, 1986; Daft, Lengel, & Trevino, 1987; Lengel & Daft, 1988; Rice & Shook, 1990; Trevino, Daft, & Lengel, 1990; Trevino, Lengel, Bodensteiner, Gerloff, & Muir, 1990; Trevino, Lengel, & Daft, 1987). This focus on media uses a variety of frameworks for defining units of analysis, or fails to define any units of analysis. As a result, it is difficult to piece together an integrative model to explain and predict media use, adoption, and evolution patterns, or even classify study results or theoretical statements. Another approach to researching on-line communication is a focus on language and rhetoric. Researchers in these areas have likewise discovered many insights into the structure and content of computer-mediated communication and how literacy and orality are affected by communication technology (Baron, 1984; Black, Levin, Mehan & Quinn, 1983; Ferrara, Brunner & Whittemore, 1991; Finnegan, 1988; Gurak, 1994; Lakoff, 1982; Murray, 1991; Ochs, 1989; Ong, 1977, 1982; Shank, 1993; Spitzer, 1986). These studies have examined a variety of on-line content and used many schemes for defining or discussing units of analysis. Murray (1991), for example, looked at electronic documents and mail used for interpersonal and small group communication on a proprietary computer network, and identified cognitive and contextual strategies for writing documents on personal computers and using electronic mail in a study of an IBM project manager and his colleagues. Shank (1993) examined electronic mailing lists involving a large number of people, many of whom are unknown to each other, on the Internet or other networks. Shank argued that communication in these on-line discussion lists is neither oral nor written, but semiotic. Can the Murray and Shank results be compared? Each researcher looked at different uses of computer-mediated communication, and thus used different units of analysis for the communication. Without careful attention to the definition of the units of analysis researchers used, it is difficult to integrate the results of these studies. Over the decades, research in computer-mediated communication has also explored myriad on-line experiences, focusing on human and social characteristics, media, and language and rhetorical content. However, the research has not led to much successful theoretical integration or cross-study comparisons. Indeed, some research has directly contradicted previous work (Lea, 1992). 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