The community I am involved in both in CMC and FTF is KCCE,
I would describe this social network as having a high social capital. As Haythornwaite (2007) explains actors, relations, ties and networks, she explains how the amount of information that flows from one “actor” to another is important in creating strong ties and relationships with other “actors” in the same social network. At the same Haythornawite (2007) addresses how Rafaeli and Sudweeks (1997) found that, “Interactivity in online communication, pertaining to the way ‘messages in a sequence realte to each other and especially the extent to which later messages recount the relatedness of earlier messages’ (online) and associated with outcomes of engagement, acceptance, satisfaction, performance quality, motivation, fun learning, openness and sociability” (p. 126). I can definitely see this with the social network of KCCE. Etzioni and Etzioni (1999) in Haythornwaite (2007) state that communities have “relationships that crisscross and reinforce one another, rather than simply a chain of one-on-one relationships” (p. 129). I think this can apply to the KCCE community because there are several different types of CMC that we use to communicate with one another and that overlap because within KCCE there are relationships with different groups such as classes (freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior), gender, small group (accountability group), bible study group, people you have classes with, etc. So for KCCE members, there are many crisscrossing relationships that contribute to the KCCE community having a strong tie. What also contributes to the social capital of this social network is as Etzioni and Etzioni (1999) state the fact that the members, "Require a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, morals, meanings and a shared historical identity" (p. 129). KCCE has all these attributes because the majority of us are Korean-American students at Cornell so we all have come from the same cultural background. At the same time, we all gather together weekly for the same purpose, as Christians, to worship the same God and we all believe in the same set of values and morals pertaining to the Bible. This, I would consider to be a very strong tie that, though we might not have anything else in common, is a tie that brings us all together. The common ground of Christianity is a strong one that makes KCCE a social network with high social capital.
CMC does play a significant role with the KCCE network through many different types of online blogs and emails. We all meet every Friday and Sunday on a weekly basis which is FTF, but use CMC to communicate when certain activities are, to comment and give feedback on such activities, to discuss perhaps what that particular sermon was on, clarify any questions people may have, as well as reach out through email following up on people who might have been visiting KCCE for the first time. So for KCCE, there is definitely a lot of interactions and significant roles both FTF and CMC play.
Posts:
http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-7-option-1-kappa-delta.html
http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/10/71-espn-fantasy-football.html
2 comments:
Grace,
Wow, your group has really utilized every possible mechanism that CMC and FTF have to offer. This allows people in your group to build stronger ties since they have more opportunity for interaction. As Etzioni and Eztioni (1999) states, your community is so successful because it uses multiple modes of interaction. By combining FTF and CMC systems, KCCE is able to share their values to form better bonds. It’s interesting that even though you guys are strongly tied from frequent contact, you wreak the benefits from weak ties. Your common ground of religion brings Korean Americans from different majors, places, etc. so you have access to more variety in resources. Just as with the difficulty of taking online relationships into FTF, I’ve noticed that it seems easier to develop ties by going from FTF to CMC than it is to go from online groups to FTF interaction. Do you think ties would be as strong if you had joined a group first online?
Nice post. It's really cool that your community uses CMC to reinforce FTF ties. In your post, you mentioned relationships with groups, such as gender, grades, etc. It's very interesting that you made this comment about intergroup relationships within a community. The actors in your community certainly forms different groups and the connection between these groups through the actors are really interesting to consider.
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