Network Analysis and Computer-Mediated Communication Systems

Computer-Mediated Communication Systems: Constraints and Interaction

Networks, as a theoretical perspective, analytical construct, methodological approach, and pragmatic concern, have been important to a wide variety of communication research concerns, including small groups (Shaw, 1978), R&D collaboration (Allen, 1977), organizational communication (Tushman, 1977), organizational structure and relations (Aldrich & Whetten, 1981; Tichy, 1981), and numerous other topics such as diffusion of innovations and national development (Rogers & Kincaid, 1981). The breadth and depth of network-oriented research in the communication sciences is too vast to even outline in a single chapter. Rather, this chapter limits its focus to one specific, but new and growing area of interest: the adoption, uses, and implications of computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Portions of the section “Aspects of Computer-Monitored Data” are adapted from Rice (1990a). I thank Stan Wasserman and Julie Billingsley for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. The manuscript of this chapter was provided in 1991.

[Page 168]CMC systems bring together capabilities of both computers and telecommunication networks to facilitate the creating, structuring, processing, storing, retrieving, and exchanging of (perhaps multimedia) content among multiple users. CMC systems include electronic mail, computer conferencing, computer bulletin boards, facsimile, teletex and videotex, voice messaging, group decision support systems, and related media such as desktop videoconferencing and other “groupware” (see, among others, Galegher, Kraut, & Egido, 1990; Hiltz & Turoff, 1978; Johansen, Vallee, & Spangler, 1979; Kerr & Hiltz, 1982; Kiesler, 1986; Licklider & Vezza, 1978; Rice, 1980, 1987b; Rice & Associates, 1984; Vallee, 1984).

Designers, implementors, managers, and users of CMC systems may program the computer to structure communication processes (such as polling on-line groups or prioritizing and summarizing incoming content to reduce overload). CMC systems can reduce or alter some of the temporal, physical, and social constraints on communication. For example, at the place and time preferred, a user can send messages or documents and apply the computer's processing capabilities to create, store, format, and distribute; and a receiver may scan, read, print, forward, copy, edit, or delete the content. Other potential changes associated with CMC systems are consequences of the capabilities of telecommunication networks to connect diverse, often unacquainted users in different locations. For example, users can expand their networks by seeking out and sending messages to other individuals whom they may not know personally (such as through distribution lists or bulletin boards).

Because of the combination of computers and transmission networks, CMC systems have attributes that reduce some constraints, and impose others, on human and organizational communication (see Rice, 1987b). Potential changes in communication may reinforce traditional network patterns but may also foster new kinds of interaction, data, and processes, perhaps institutionalizing new organizational structures or changing the nature of interpersonal relations (Huber, 1984, 1990). Thus, because CMC systems are physical networks, they can be used to structure communication flow and content and they facilitate communication among networks of users, and because network analysis can raise our awareness of the multidirectionality of influence, network analysis is a theoretically and practically appropriate method for the study of the adoption, uses, and implications of CMC systems.

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