| Summary: | 碩士 === 淡江大學 === 大眾傳播學系 === 87 === Abstract:
This research explores symbolic interactions among participants on “Internet Relay Chat” (IRC), and further explicates the formation process of IRC community. IRC is mainly a text-based and synchronous communication system on the Internet. One of the essential characteristics of IRC is its focusing on participants instead of issues. Two aspects of interactions among participants on IRC community are of special interest: forms of expression and the construction of identity. Research strategy employed in this study is primarily an ethnographic approach. Data collection methods include participant observation, content analysis of IRC log files, and electronic mail based interview.
Research results show that participants indeed develop distinct forms of expression through ongoing communicative processes on IRC. Second, participants’ selected nicknames on IRC are indispensible elements of their interactions with others on IRC. Nicknames may even be the most important aspect of participants’ identities on IRC. Third, research results also indicate that channel operators are likely to develop close psychological bonds with their associated IRC chat rooms. The interactions between channel operators are more frequent and the relationships seem more personal than that with non-channel operators on IRC. Finally, norms arisen from ongoing interactions among participants function as major sanctions against deviant behaviors on IRC. The emergence of these interaction norms, on the one hand, maintains certain degree of social order on IRC, on the other hand, denotes the gradual formation of certain social structure of IRC community.
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