#11: Private vs. Public – Results
For the results section, our group is going to analyze the three sets of data obtained from our experiment: task messages, historical messages, and questionnaires. We will be focusing on the language content, syntax, and choice of communication used in the messages.
Task and Historical Messages
Our group will be dividing the messages into two categories: wall posts and private messages. Then, we are going to compare the language usage and content of each group. Specifically, we will be using software that counts and reports statistics on the number of times certain words and punctuation appear in each list. Preliminary analysis indicates that private messages contain more “I” words while wall posts contain more “you” words. This may suggest that PMs focus more on the sender while wall messages focus more on the receiver. With personal messages, there is a one-to-one communication whereas with walling there are numerous people who can view the message. Thus, in such a public setting the sender may want to maintain face and focus more on the receiver. We also found that there are more misspelled words and use of slang in wall posts. This observation is interesting because common sense suggests that public posts would be written more carefully than private messages. However, perhaps this is not the case due to the informal nature of walling.
We also plan to examine the data content to see whether there is a correlation between the type of message and the choice of communication used. Our group expects wall posts to be more social-oriented and positive, and PMs to be more task-oriented and negative/neutral. For our six tasks, we designed the statements so that three of them were task-related and positive, while the other three were social-related and negative/neutral. From the data obtained so far, the choices of communication used for five out of the six tasks confirms our predictions. Thus, wall posts in general seem to be more informal and casual than private messages.
Questionnaire
For each set of statements in the questionnaire, we will be evaluating which of the potential reasons listed were favored the most. Then we will relate those preferred statements back to the type of communication that was used for the particular task and see whether it matches our predictions. For example, one question for Task 1 was to circle to what degree the participant agreed with the following statement: “I did not want other people to see it (the message they wrote for Task 1)”. If they had initially chosen to use private messaging for Task 1 and also strongly agreed with the statement, then we can infer that audience plays a significant role in the choice of private versus public communication.
posted by X @ 9:00 PM
1 Comments:
I agree with everyone that the use of "I" over "you" in PM, and vice-versa for wall posts, is very intriguing. Perhaps this is related to issues of face, as was hypothesized in class. Or perhaps — and this is somewhat related to face — it has to do with the sense of an audience, which I know you're controlling for. You'll probably find some very interesting results from looking at the difference in speech acts used between the two messaging systems, though. Based on the concept of face, I would venture to guess you would find more expressives and assertvies.
With regard to your findings about misspelling and slang, I think face and ambiguity also may play a role in this. Since it seems likely people message on walls to improve face, perhaps both actors are aware of this and therefore don't care as much about ambiguities in the content of the message, since the goal of the post is likely positive. However, with personal messaging, the goals are necessarily so clear or positive, and any ambiguities through slang or otherwise could make it harder for the receiver to determine the message's intention. Any miscommunications could have a harmful effect on the actors’ face, something which a lack of slang and misspelling avoids.
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