Susan Herring - Indiana University (original) (raw)

Papers by Susan Herring

Proceedings of the The Fifth International Workshop on Emoji Understanding and Applications in Social Media

This study examines the evolutionary trajectory of graphicons in a 13-year corpus of comments fro... more This study examines the evolutionary trajectory of graphicons in a 13-year corpus of comments from BiliBili, a popular Chinese video-sharing platform. Findings show that emoticons (kaomoji) rose and fell in frequency, while emojis and stickers are both presently on the rise. Graphicon distributions differ in comments and replies to comments. There is also a strong correlation between the types of graphicons used in comments and their corresponding replies, suggesting a priming effect. Finally, qualitative analysis of the 10 most-frequent kaomojis, emojis, and stickers reveals a trend for each successive graphicon type to become less about emotion expression and more integrated with platformspecific culture and the Chinese language. These findings lend partial support to claims in the literature about graphicon evolution.

First Monday, 2018

The popular press is currently rife with speculation that emoji are becoming a global, digitally-... more The popular press is currently rife with speculation that emoji are becoming a global, digitally-mediated language. Sequences of emoji that function like verbal utterances potentially lend strong support to this claim. We employ computer-mediated discourse analysis to analyze the pragmatic meanings conveyed through emoji sequences and their rhetorical relations with accompanying text, focusing on posts by social media influencers and their followers on a popular Chinese social media platform. The findings show that the emoji sequences can function pragmatically like verbal utterances and form relations with textual propositions, although their usage differs from textual utterances in several respects. We also observed user innovations that make the sequences more language like, although there is not as yet a fixed grammar of emoji sequences. We characterize this emoji use as an emergent graphical language, with the caveats that it is not yet a fully-formed language and that the Chin...

CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts

The last several years have seen a strong growth of telerobotic technologies with promising impli... more The last several years have seen a strong growth of telerobotic technologies with promising implications for many areas of learning. HCI has contributed to these discussions, mainly with studies on user experiences and user interfaces of telepresence robots. However, only a few telerobot studies have addressed everyday use in real-world learning environments. In the post-COVID 19 world, sociotechnical uncertainties and unforeseen challenges to learning in hybrid learning environments constitute a unique frontier where robotic and immersive technologies can mediate learning experiences. The aim of this workshop is to set the stage for a new wave of HCI research that accounts for and begins to develop new insights, concepts, and methods for use of immersive and telerobotic technologies in real-world learning environments. Participants are invited to collaboratively defne an HCI research agenda focused on robot-mediated learning in the wild, which will require examining end-user engagements and questioning underlying concepts regarding telerobots for learning. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Collaborative and social computing systems and tools; Accessibility technologies.

Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2018

This study investigates how the politeness strategies of readers who comment on online news artic... more This study investigates how the politeness strategies of readers who comment on online news articles influence the participation and politeness behaviors of subsequent readers. We analyzed comments and replies collected from a South Korean news aggregator using a computer-mediated discourse analysis approach [15]; the gender of commenters was considered as a potential moderating factor. Results show that the politeness of comments did not affect the frequency of replies, and violations of politeness were prevalent in replies to all types of comments and addressees, especially in threads with mostly male participants. However, significant differences were found in responses to polite comments in maledominant versus female-dominant discussions. Polite comments served as a catalyst for active participation by repliers, but only when men dominated the discussions, and these comments elicited harsh replies. Conversely, only when women participated more did any replies tend to use polite language, and that was only when addressing the original commenter.

Longitudinal Content Analysis of Blogs: 2003–2004

Page 24. 1 Longitudinal Content Analysis of Blogs: 20032004 SUSAn C. HERRIng, LOIS Ann SCHEIdT, ... more Page 24. 1 Longitudinal Content Analysis of Blogs: 20032004 SUSAn C. HERRIng, LOIS Ann SCHEIdT, InnA kOUPER And ELIJAH WRIgHT Introduction In the past several years, blogsfrequently modified webpages containing ...

10. Herring S. C., Kouper I. Conversations in the Blogosphere: an Analysis «From the

44. Kaase M. Partizipation. Staat und Politik. – Bonn, 1991. . Kaase M. Partizipation. Staat und ... more 44. Kaase M. Partizipation. Staat und Politik. – Bonn, 1991. . Kaase M. Partizipation. Staat und Politik. – Bonn, 1991. 55. . ВВонсовичонсович Л.. В.. ППолитологияолитология.. ККурсурс иинтенсивнойнтенсивной пподготовкиодготовки – – ММинскинск : : ТТее-ттраСистемсраСистемс,, 2007. 2007.66. . ШШевченкоевченко Ю.. Д.. ППолитическоеолитическое уучастиечастие в РРоссииоссии // Pro et Contra. – 1998. – // Pro et Contra. – 1998. – Т.. 3. – 3. – № 3. 3. 77. . ООбщественноебщественное ммнениенение:: ССМИМИ vs. vs. ББлогилоги.. URL : http://www.pr-blogger.ru/ URL : http://www.pr-blogger.ru/sstati/400/ (tati/400/ (ддатаата ообращениябращения:: 13.02.2014). 13.02.2014).88. . ССетевойетевой ээлектронныйлектронный рресурсесурс.. URL : http://www.pr-blogger.ru/stati/400/ URL : http://www.pr-blogger.ru/stati/400/ (ддатаата ообращениябращения:: 13.02.2014). 13.02.2014).99. . ССетевойетевой ээлектронныйлектронный рресурсесурс.. URL : http://www.pr-blogger.ru/stati/400/ URL : http://www.pr-blogger.ru...

37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004. Proceedings of the, 2004

Weblogs (blogs)-frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chrono... more Weblogs (blogs)-frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence-are the latest genre of Internet communication to attain widespread popularity, yet their characteristics have not been systematically described. This paper presents the results of a content analysis of 203 randomly-selected weblogs, comparing the empirically observable features of the corpus with popular claims about the nature of weblogs, and finding them to differ in a number of respects. Notably, blog authors, journalists and scholars alike exaggerate the extent to which blogs are interlinked, interactive, and oriented towards external events, and underestimate the importance of blogs as individualistic, intimate forms of self-expression. Based on the profile generated by the empirical analysis, we consider the likely antecedents of the blog genre, situate it with respect to the dominant forms of digital communication on the Internet today, and advance predictions about its long-term impacts.

Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2017), 2017

Facebook has increasingly incorporated graphical means of communication such as emoticons, emoji,... more Facebook has increasingly incorporated graphical means of communication such as emoticons, emoji, stickers, GIFs, images, and videos ('graphicons') into comment threads. Adapting methods of computermediated discourse analysis, we analyze the frequency and pragmatic functions of each graphicon type in threads sampled from public graphicon-focused Facebook groups. Six main functions emerged from the data: mention, reaction, tone modification, riffing, action, and narrative sequence. Reaction was most common, and emoji expressed the widest array of functions. We propose structural, social, and technical explanations for variation in graphicon use, and suggest improvements for the design of conversational graphical elements in social media systems.

Alsic, 2017

Identity Construction in Social Media "I'm the first video Voicethread-it's pretty sweet, I'm pum... more Identity Construction in Social Media "I'm the first video Voicethread-it's pretty sweet, I'm pumped": Gender and Self-Expression on an Interactive Multimodal Platform "Chuis la première video Voicethread-C'est trop génial, chuis ravi" : Genre et auto-expression sur une plate-forme multimodale interactive

Information, 2018

Research is scarce on how direct and indirect support seeking strategies affect support exchange ... more Research is scarce on how direct and indirect support seeking strategies affect support exchange in online health communities. Moreover, prior research has relied mostly on content analysis of forum posts at the post level. In order to generate a more fine-grained analysis of support exchange, we conducted content analysis at the utterance level, taking directness of support seeking, quality of provision, forum type, and seeker gender into account. Our analysis of four popular online support forums for people living with human immunodeficiency virus found that type of support sought and provided, support seeking strategy, and quality of emotional support provision differed in care provider/formal forums versus social/informal forums. Interestingly, indirect support seeking tended to elicit more supportive emotional responses than direct support seeking strategies in all forums; we account for this in terms of type of support sought. Practical implications for online support communit...

ACM Transactions on Social Computing, 2020

An online survey, the Understanding Emoji Survey , was conducted to assess how English-speaking s... more An online survey, the Understanding Emoji Survey , was conducted to assess how English-speaking social media users interpret the pragmatic functions of emoji in examples adapted from public Facebook comments, based on a modified version of [15]’s taxonomy of functions. Of the responses received (N = 519; 351 females, 120 males, 48 “other”; 354 under 30, 165 over 30, age range 18--70+), tone modification was the preferred interpretation overall, followed by virtual action , although interpretations varied significantly by emoji type. Female and male interpretations were generally similar, while “other” gender respondents differed significantly in dispreferring tone and preferring multiple functions . Respondents over 30 often did not understand the functions or interpreted the emoji literally, while younger users interpreted them in more conventionalized ways. Older males were most likely, and younger females were least likely, to not understand emoji functions and to find emoji conf...

Distance Education, 2019

This case study examined patterns in online communication using computer-mediated discourse analy... more This case study examined patterns in online communication using computer-mediated discourse analysis to better understand how teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence are manifested in an online learning environment. The findings indicate that study participants actively participated in the discussion. The instructor and facilitators displayed high teaching presence through posting encouraging social words and maintaining a positive emotional tone, which created an open communication environment for student discussion. To promote students' cognitive development, the acts that their words described included to "inform" and "elaborate" to help students construct knowledge by providing factual information and extending or embellishing upon points made. Students displayed social presence by using more social and positive emotion words, and tone, which signaled that they were satisfied with the discussion. Students' cognitive presence was manifested through making claims, providing information and elaboration on posted comments.

Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2016

Since telepresence robots began entering the US commercial market over a decade ago, telepresence... more Since telepresence robots began entering the US commercial market over a decade ago, telepresence robot-mediated communication (RMC) has become increasingly prevalent and relevant. In this essay, I describe key technological properties of telepresence robots, summarize findings regarding communication and social interaction through such robots, and propose a framework to guide future study of telepresence robot-mediated discourse and language use. In concluding, I reimagine how telepresence robots could be reconceptualized and redesigned, for example, by moving beyond human metaphors to incorporate "superhuman" attributes, and raise questions about the intended and unintended consequences of RMC. WHAT IS ROBOT-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION AND WHY DOES IT MATTER? As robots become increasingly common human helpers and companions, the study of human-robot interaction has surged in fields such as ergonomics, healthcare, education, and human-computer interaction. This includes interest in how people communicate with and through robots that are teleoperated by humans, or what in this essay is referred to as robot-mediated communication (RMC). RMC is human-human communication in which at least one party is telepresent through voice, video, and motion in physical space via a remotely controlled robot (Herring, 2015). 1 Sometimes described as "videoconferencing on wheels" (Desai, Tsui, Yanco, Uhlik, 2011), RMC adds to real-time audio and video the ability of a person to navigate and move about in a remote physical location embodied as, or through the proxy of, a robot. 2 Because of the embodiment and enhanced control that they offer, particularly in terms of 1. Some categories of remotely operated robots, such as teleoperated service robots, robotic toys, and androids, typically do not include video. These are not considered to be RMC platforms in this essay. 2. RMC is sometimes referred to as embodied video-mediated communication (eVMC; Tsui, Desai, & Yanco, 2012). Alternate names for telepresence robots that can be found in the literature include personal roving presence (

Language & Communication, 2016

This study investigates to what extent greetings on a social network site popular with South Asia... more This study investigates to what extent greetings on a social network site popular with South Asians are associated with the degree of interpersonal closeness of the users, educated middle class Bengalis in the United States. Computer-mediated discourse analysis, face-toface interviews, and participant observation were employed to analyze the textual comments exchanged in 79 Bengali dyads. The analyses reveal a relationship between degree of social distance and frequencies of Bangla greetings when type of greeting (regular vs. ritualistic) and manner of expression (unmarked vs. intensified) are taken into account. However, some aspects of the interplay between interpersonal closeness and greetings can only be understood if cultural nuances and medium factors are considered.

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

This chapter is concerned with how teenage boys and girls present themselves through online socia... more This chapter is concerned with how teenage boys and girls present themselves through online social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and chat forums. Based on research conducted mostly in the United States, it describes and considers the implications of social media use, profile construction, visual and textual self-presentation, profile visibility, truthfulness, and other facets of teens' self-presentation in relation to their gender.

Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, 2015

Online dating systems are the most common way people meet their marriage partners online. Neverth... more Online dating systems are the most common way people meet their marriage partners online. Nevertheless, online daters struggle to evaluate personality traits of potential partners using profile pages and private messaging in these systems. Meanwhile, Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs) have emerged as a popular way young people find romantic partners for relationships in the physical world. We conducted two interview studies-one concerning evaluation behavior in online dating systems (n=41) and the other concerning collaborative activities in MOGs (n=35). Insights from these studies reveal the weaknesses in evaluation tools native to online dating and suggest that collaborative activities could potentially address evaluation challenges in online dating. The paper concludes with a discussion of a series of design concepts for online dating in order to improve users' abilities to evaluate their potential romantic partners for in-person meetings.

Language use in 1,000 randomly-selected and 5,025 crawled LiveJournals was analyzed in order to d... more Language use in 1,000 randomly-selected and 5,025 crawled LiveJournals was analyzed in order to determine the overall language demographics, the robustness of four non-English language networks (Russian, Portuguese, Finnish, and Japanese), and the characteristics of individuals who bridge between different languages on LiveJournal.com. The findings reveal that English dominates globally but not locally, network robustness is determined mostly by population size, and journals that bridge between languages are written by multicultural, multilingual individuals, or else they have broadly accessible content. Implications of these findings for cross-cultural conversation via blogs are considered.

Gender Differences among Students in Computer Science and Applied Information Technology

Women and Information Technology, 2006

This chapter contains sections titled: Method, Analysis, Demographics, Computer Experiences, Reas... more This chapter contains sections titled: Method, Analysis, Demographics, Computer Experiences, Reasons for Choosing IT, Attitudes about Computer Work, Patterns in the Groups, Acknowledgments, Notes

The Information Society, 2002

A common phenomenon in online discussion groups is the individual who baits and provokes other gr... more A common phenomenon in online discussion groups is the individual who baits and provokes other group members, often with the result of drawing them into fruitless argument and diverting attention from the stated purposes of the group. This study documents a case in which the members of an online community-a feminist web-based discussion forum-are targeted by a "troll" attempting to disrupt their discussion space. We analyze the strategies that make the troller successful and the targeted group largely ineffectual in responding to his attack, as a means to understand how such behavior might be minimized and managed in general. The analysis further suggests that feminist and other nonmainstream online forums are especially vulnerable, in that they must balance inclusive ideals against the need for protection and safety, a tension that can be exploited by disruptive elements to generate intragroup con ict.