The Permanently Connected Group (PeCoG)

An Investigation of Non-Professional Secondary Groups’ Communication via Mobile Instant Messaging Chats

verfasst von: Katharina Knop-Hülß

Verlag: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

The small group uniquely benefits from the ubiquitously available connective possibilities of mobile communication technologies. The group chat feature of mobile instant messaging applications (MIMAs, e.g., WhatsApp, Signal) provides small groups with a permanently accessible communication place where members can relay information to all others at once, independent of their spatiotemporal location. The resulting permanent collective addressability (PCA) of members has implications for group processes (e.g., group coordination, socio-emotional concerns of members). This book investigates the communicative activity in MIMA chats of 18 naturally occurring, goal-oriented groups in a non-professional setting using a standardized content analysis.
It thus extends findings on individual-level expectations of permanent connectedness and shows how a group using such technology can be understood as a permanently connected group (PeCoG) and group-level manifestation of the hybridity of mediated and face-to-face communication constituting our current communication reality. Above all, this book demonstrates the potential of small group research to describe current phenomena relevant to communication science.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

Within a comparatively short time, mobile communication devices have occupied our social lives and immensely restructured our everyday lives. The introduction of mobile communication technologies has brought pervasive change in all aspects and levels of society: We as human beings can engage in more situations and more social contexts in which communication is possible, probably than ever before. What is more, these communicative instances can occur independently of our spatial whereabouts and at any time, which has led to profound changes in all areas of society. This thesis will focus on small groups to which these changes are of particular relevance.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Chapter 2. Explicating the Context of Technological Mediation: Changes in Everyday Communication

Abstract

The following chapter will explicate the context of technological mediation. I will illustrate how communication technologies have changed our everyday communication to explain how it came to be that to “not be available or to not have an operational phone, is in a small way shirking our social responsibility“ (Ling, 2018, p. 14). As this thesis aims to describe communication content via MIMA group chats, I will first define interpersonal communication and introduce the archetypical act of face-to-face (in the following FTF) communication. I will then illustrate how the (technological) mediation of communication has allowed us to overcome the constraints of space and time inherent to FTF encounters and then lead over to the implications of the introduction of telephones, first landline phones, and later mobile communication devices. The concept of technological affordances will be introduced as it helps to explain those implications.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Chapter 3. Explicating The Social Context: Applying Small Group Research to the MIMA Group Chat Phenomenon

Abstract

From the day people are born, they act not alone but in the context of small groups. People are generally born into a family where they experience care and support and where they can develop their identity. Later in life, they become members of other small groups that mostly serve instrumental purposes and where membership has not been inherited but whose members joined the group more or less voluntarily: They go to Kindergarten and to school, maybe do a traineeship or attend university and then start to work where they usually interact with a number of other people. The goal of this thesis is to systematically describe and explore the communicative content group members provide in MIMA group chats. Chapter three hence serves as the introduction of the required theoretical foundations from small group research and thus explicates the social context of MIMA group chat communication.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Chapter 4. Deriving Dimensions of MIMA Group Chat Communication

Abstract

In this chapter, I use the previously identified communicative functions and group contribution functions as a starting point from which to derive dimensions of group chat communication. These dimensions are coordinative communication content, socio-emotional communication content, and global and local interaction management. At the end of this chapter, I will be able to offer a theory-based perspective on how members of NPSG communicate in their longstanding group chats that will then allow exploring such communication empirically.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Chapter 5. Research Agenda of the Current Study

Abstract

In the current chapter, I will articulate specific research questions that will then guide the empirical investigation. For this, I relate the MIMA group chat communication dimensions coordination, socio-emotionality, global and local interaction management, and temporality to the affordances of accessibility, bandwidth, persistence, interactivity, editability, and permanent collective addressability, as well as the situational context where applicable.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Chapter 6. Methodology of Empirical Investigation

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the communicative contributions provided by NPSG members in a MIMA group chat. The current thesis employs a quantitative-exploratory research design. In order to describe and systematize group chat content, group observations in the form of a standardized content analysis of group chat logs were conducted. The long-standing tradition of content analyses used in communication science is thus applied to the use case of group observations. The content analysis was furthermore enriched with data given by highly-involved group members on, for example, group size, the longevity of the group, and information on co-present interaction structure (e.g., regularity of meetings). In this chapter, I will elaborate on the reasoning behind these methodological approaches and provide a detailed description of the procedure of the current study.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Chapter 7. Results and Interim Discussions

Abstract

In chapter 7, I will present the results of the content analysis, thereby extensively describing the characteristics of messages that were sent in the MIMA group chats of the recruited NPSGs. The results section consists of four sections and follows the organization of the research questions derived in chapter five. To be more specific, the first section (7.1) is concerned with identifying a typology of messages using previously derived content dimensions introduced in Chapter 4 and describing the resulting message types in detail. The second section (7.2) will address all research questions related to the temporality of messages and how messages are temporally situated in a group’s interaction repertoire. In the third section (7.3), messages are addressed with regard to their sequentiality, that is, as part of coherent conversations. The last section (7.4) deals with messages as contributions by members and thus highlights the source of messages. Each section first presents the results of the corresponding research questions. These results are then discussed directly in the respective section. The general discussion of the results will be presented in Chapter 8.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Chapter 8. General Discussion of Results

Abstract

The goal of this thesis was to describe how members of small groups communicate in their MIMA group chat. In addressing the small group as a social entity, this thesis sheds light on an overlooked social context for communication. In recent years, this context has gained importance due to technological developments that brought new opportunities for members of small groups to engage with each other and their group as a whole. Until now, there had been no comprehensive, systematic description of the content shared within these communication spaces. Such a description, however, allows insights into those very group processes that also contribute to the communicative construction of small groups. MIMA group chat communication thus unfolds effects beyond the chat’s boundaries. The present study followed the goal of describing and systematizing group chat communication based on theoretically derived dimensions. In light of this goal, in this last chapter, I will summarize the key findings of the empirical investigation, discuss their theoretical and practical implications and limitations, and develop a programmatic outlook for future research.

Katharina Knop-Hülß

Backmatter

Titel: The Permanently Connected Group (PeCoG)
verfasst von: Katharina Knop-Hülß
Verlag: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-658-43238-6
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-43237-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-43238-6