Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Jack Turner
COMM 605
Dr. Hopson
March 5, 2009
and spaces have symbolic meanings that encourage or suppress certain types of
provides a place for young men and adolescents to share language, values, cultural
norms, and to negotiate identity. Discourse in this place preserves and maintains part of
discover and explore a community’s shared language, personal and group relationships,
and cultural identity (2002). According to Cassell and Tversky, the heuristic location does
not have to exist within physical boundaries, and they provide intriguing research that
supports their claim. Cassell and Tversky theorize that interpersonal networks, social
This essay compares the signs of community and cultural development between
recent research by Cassell and Tversky that demonstrates the salience of mostly textual
can transcend into the “real” world through discourse. Further, the construction of a
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Can values and goals established in an online community extend beyond the
Internet and converge with the physical, or “real”, world? The concept that discourse and
language create and maintain communities and cultural values is used here to promote the
idea that online cultural values might transcend the boundary between the virtual and
“real” world. How important to community and culture are physical space, physical
context, physical proximity, and non-verbal communication? In this regard, Cassell and
Tversky have demonstrated that community and cultural construction can exist in an
Internet group organized around common social goals, electronic social networks, and
called The Junior Summit that constructs a unique community and culture over a period
of three months. Casell and Tversky show that participants “self-construct” their
and fulfilling individual’s needs for inclusion and respect. In a five – year follow-up, they
also show that relationships from the Internet community have extended into the daily
The Junior Summit took place in 1998 after thousands of applications for
participation in the three-month project were processed from all over the world. About
one thousand young people participated, mostly 14 to 16 year olds and fairly equal in
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gender. The participants came from the cultures of North and South America, the
Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East. The purpose of the summit was to “connect and
empower motivated youth from all around the world to make their voices heard on issues
The Junior Summit developed personal and working relationships through mostly
weeks. Cassell and Tversky say that participants used the pronoun “I’ much less the more
they worked and communicated together. Conversely, the pronoun “we” was used much
more as the community established itself. A significant development was the change in
the meaning of “we”. Participants at first used “we” in reference to their personal culture,
but later they used it in reference to their online community (Cassell and Tversky, 2006).
Similarities to “Teamsterville”
Participants described The Junior Summit as a “big extended family”, and a “united
global network of people all over the world. This strong sense of belonging was reported
and protect their culture through discourse and established boundaries. Junior Summit
members have established certain boundaries to protect their speaking and language, but
they are not physical boundaries. They are areas of behavior, speaking topics, and
language use that become boundaries which serve to define the Junior Summit
Beyond “Teamsterville”
Summit community. “Teamsterville” community members are basically born into the
minimal, and social pressures against leaving the culture of the “Teamsterville”
Junior Summit community members have been allowed a greater measure of free
will in their selection of community and culture than residents of “Teamsterville”. All
Junior Summit members are volunteers with a preconceived social goal, which is
working together on youth-related international issues (Cassell and Tversky, 2006). The
fact that they are initially bound together across many social, economic, and geographic
context, individual identities and personal goals may have superseded the participant’s
original culture. Free will and self-selection may have provided focal points for a new
discourse content is also noted. Even though different communication channels may have
existed within leadership roles and responsibilities, 84 percent of participants have stated
that they always felt heard by the community. Interestingly, females have used more
emotional language than males at the beginning of the project, but males have closed the
gap by the end. Discourse about “the future”, a subject that has been associated with
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Transcending Boundaries
The Junior Summit has demonstrated that places for speaking can transcend
physical space. The emotional significance of a place exists in the minds and shared
discourse of people who identify particular qualities to a place. That place can be where a
confluence of shared values, beliefs, and goals is identified, supported, and maintained.
This confluence can result in a constructed community that interconnects people from
Results from Cassell and Tversky suggest that frequent dialogue among multi-
cultural people in cyberspace can develop a place with a unique culture, language, and
norms and values. A type of individual and cultural identity can arise from patterns of
perceived boundaries. Through repetition of these patterns over time, a cultural history
Real Opportunities
Assume that cultural values and identity are dependent on language and discourse.
It follows that an online culture can translate itself into the “real”, physical world by way
cultures can be constructed within a cyberspace community, it may be possible for this
Some researchers are already testing online intercultural interactions to see if they
have a significant effect in the” real “world. Stover has developed an online simulation
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for negotiating conflicts in the Middle East available to anybody in the world who has
access to the Internet. Participants must do a great deal of research and educate
themselves on Middle Eastern history, culture, and current political situations. No data on
“real” world influences from Stover’s project are available at the time of this writing
(Stover, 2008).
talks to encourage empathy between Jewish and Arab Israeli students. Adult mentors with
conflict resolution skills worked with the students and stressed “societal values of
interculturally through a daily online chat room. The results of the study indicated
The results of Yablon and Katz’s study suggest that a higher purpose beyond
cultural beliefs might be facilitated by the bonds of an online community. Such a higher
purpose may be seen as a higher power dwelling within shared human bonds of
understanding, trust, and fellowship. The power of these bonds becomes a natural force,
its energy derived from the strength of the whole community. It is a higher power that can
Conclusion
The significance of places for talking can be appreciated by changing the context
construction by thinking of familiar places for talking, such as street corners and coffee
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shops, as a starting point. We can, for example, explore the possibilities and opportunities
In cyberspace, where physical, social, and cultural boundaries can be more easily
transcended, it is possible to build a level playing field for all voices to be heard. For
example, opportunities exist for Palestinians to speak with Israelis in a place that can
encourage, and even to a degree enforce, open dialogue without the threat of physical
be constructed on the Internet and translated into the physical domain. This process can
reconciliation. This potential power might influence message acceptance by the most
important participants in the peace process: Those who are anchored in the physical and
emotional past, but are willing to open the border into a different future.
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References
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com.mutex.gmu.edu/journal/120837937/issue.
Stover, William (2008). Information technology and international relations: Using online,
the annual meeting of the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, San Jose
2009.
Yablon Y.B., Katz Y.J. (2001). Internet-Based group relations: A high school peace