Computer-Mediated Communication

Conceptual Overview

CMC allows information from one person to be transferred to another via computer technology. But although computer technology is crucial, CMC is often best understood from a transdisciplinary viewpoint using various combinations of social, cognitive/ psychological, linguistic, cultural, technical, and political perspectives and frameworks while focusing on people, knowledge representation, technology, system architectures, and process management. Relevant disciplines include psychology, anthropology, sociology, human media studies, human–computer interaction, communication, telecommunications, computer science, and artificial intelligence.

A recently published CMC framework by Spitzberg identifies the following important dimensions: coorientation, appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency, task success, satisfaction, and relationship development. Coorientation refers to the degree of similarity of the intentions and message content, and the receiver(s) interpretation—in other words, the degree to which the sender and receiver achieve a shared understanding of the communicated message, and the degree to which the intended interpretation is achieved. Appropriateness is the message's perceived applicability to the specific context. Effectiveness is the degree to which the desired objectives are achieved. Satisfaction is the sense of gratification associated with the fulfillment of the expectations and goals of the participants in the communication. Efficiency is the relative economy with which desired outcomes are achieved. Finally, relational development represents the degree of breadth, depth, intimacy, closeness, commitment, and attraction achieved in a relationship.

It is sometimes important to focus on interpersonal skills when analyzing, designing, or choosing types of CMC. According to Spitzberg in 2006, these skills include attentiveness (i.e., displaying concern for, interest in, and attention to the other person or persons in the interaction), composure (i.e., displaying assertiveness, confidence, being in control), coordination (i.e., displaying deft management of timing, initiation and closure of conversations, topic management, etc.), and expressiveness (i.e., displaying vividness and animation in verbal and nonverbal expression).

From an engineering perspective, CMC can be categorized in a variety of ways based on physical properties of the communication—for example, simplex (one-way, e.g., broadcast, podcast) or duplex (two-way, e.g., Internet telephone, wiki).

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