0000000001253352
AUTHOR
Margarethe Olbertz-siitonen
Conversational Gatekeeping : Social Interactional Practices of Post-Publication Gatekeeping on Newspapers’ Facebook Pages
Digital platforms, such as social media networks, have become intertwined in the news ecosystem, leading news media to lose their role as the sole gatekeeper in the public space. This development has given an active voice to audiences and turned journalism more into conversations between journalists and their audiences. The starting observation for this article was that alongside journalists, platforms and audiences play a part in the gatekeeping process that takes place post-publication, and therefore we need to gain a better understanding of this triadic relationship. Furthermore, as conversations are one of the main functions of social media platforms, more understanding of the role of s…
Naturally occurring data in the study of virtual teams in working life – Challenges and opportunities
Previous research on virtual teamwork heavily relies on experiments conducted in laboratory settings, frequently utilizing zero-history university student groups, and drawing conclusions with regard to working life. While such studies can give some preliminary insights into the characteristics of distributed teamwork, they lack a methodological ingredient which is too often neglected in research on human interaction: authenticity. Such findings, consequently, are not easily applicable to what people do in real work life contexts. Earlier pleas to focus more on what is going on outside the laboratory, however, have been widely disregarded. This article takes a stand for including more natura…
Practical applications of naturalistic inquiry in intercultural education
In recent years, the field of intercultural communication has seen a remarkable shift characterized by a growth in publications that distance themselves from the traditional, essentialist understanding of culture. In research, this shift is reflected in approaches that appreciate culture-in-action instead of taking culture for granted as a stable entity that pre-exists social interaction and predicts as well as explains human behavior. However, despite attempts to introduce differentiated views on culture and interculturality in education, concrete options for critical intercultural training are scarce and often remain abstract, which makes their application challenging. This article argues…
Transmission delay in technology-mediated interaction at work
This paper investigates transmission delay in technology-mediated interaction from a participant’s perspective. The approach chosen here contrasts with previous studies of delay: only what is seen, heard and done at one end (i.e., what is available on screen) is considered in the analysis. It is argued that participants themselves lack access to the other sides of their interactions as they unfold at remote locations, and they thus cannot observe and deal with delay from an outside perspective. Analyzing single cases of delay-ininteraction within the framework of conversation analysis, the focus is on dispersed conversation partners’ resources to detect a problem, and to make visible and re…
I am right here with you - Constructing presence in distributed teams
Based on a naturalistic research approach and observational data from real-life distributed teamwork, this paper illustrates how members of virtual teams in today's knowledge-intensive work places can construct and negotiate (social) presence together. Instead of seeing presence as an individual's interpretation and linking it with perceptual illusion of non-mediation or the assumed traits of chosen communication media, this paper sees presence as being socially constructed in interaction. The paper offers critique towards existing models of computer-mediated presence and offers new directions for research.
Constructing co-presence through shared VR gameplay
This study analyzes how participants playing VR games construct co-presence and shared gameplay. The analysis focuses on instances of play where one person is wearing the VR equipment, and other participants are located nearby without the ability to directly interact with the game. We first show how the active player using the VR equipment draws on talk and embodied activity to signal their presence in the shared physical environment, while simultaneously conducting actions in the virtual space, and thus creates spaces for the other participants to take part in gameplay. Second, we describe how other participants draw on the contextual configurations of the moment in displaying co-presen…
Mediated communication as an entryway into interculturality
In this chapter, the authors discuss how utilising mediated communication may open new possibilities into exploring and understanding intercultural communication in education. Set in the context of Finnish higher education, the chapter follows a social constructionist viewpoint into mediated communication. The chapter argues for the prevalence of media and technology-mediated communication as a tool with which citizens of a globalised world make sense of themselves as well as the other. The authors present and discuss practical examples of how learners’ own media use practices may be drawn upon in teaching, and how focusing on the everyday affordances of media allows for strengthening learn…
Coordinating action in technology-supported shared tasks: Virtual pointing as a situated practice for mobilizing a response
Drawing on recordings of remote screen-based work meetings in Finland, this conversation analytic study investigates interactive properties of mouse cursor movements in technology-mediated shared tasks. The article illustrates how participants rely on features afforded by the input device in ways that divert from its pre-designed functions to accomplish virtual pointing gestures. These gestures serve as an organizational resource in the precursory phase of action, i.e. when a next on-screen action is observably made relevant. In this sequential environment, pointing by means of the tool is a collaborative resource: an embodied practice for sustaining co-orientation and advancing the sequent…
Exploring the Anatomy of an Academic Myth
This paper contributes to the discussion on so-called academic myths by analysing the idea of silence as characteristic of a Finnish communication style. By reviewing contemporary research literature and earlier sources, we illustrate how the concept of the silent Finn has emerged and how it endures, reproduced in both public and academic discourses while lacking empirical evidence. Our analysis proposes six key characteristics to academic myths: that they are built on shaky grounds, widely circulated, used as an expedient, intuitively appealing, resistant to change, and self-replicating. The paper addresses possible reasons behind the persistence of such myths and their implications for ac…