What we found in 2004: ‘Culture and communication in cyberspace’

In the early 2000s, in the midst of the Second Age of internet evolution and research (see for example Wellman, 2011), we sought to address these questions. In our 2004 work Communicating across cultures in cyberspace: A bibliographical review of online intercultural communication (Macfadyen et al., 2004)¹ we surveyed available literature that explored issues of culture and communication in online environments (‘cyberspace’), and we tried to delineate the extent and boundaries of this newly emerging field. We reviewed research and theory from multiple disciplines (cultural studies, intercultural studies, linguistics, sociology, education, human-computer interaction, distance learning, learning technologies, philosophy and others). Employing a grounded approach (Braun & Clarke, 2012) we distilled six core themes out of the original corpus:

• The culture(s) of the internet
• The language of cyberspace
• Intercultural communication on the internet
• Identity and community in cyberspace
• Culture and education in cyberspace
• The impact of the internet on culture(s)

Using the language and terminology of the era, we wrote about culture in cyberspace, cyberlanguage, cybercultures, and even cybereducation, to signify identities and practices shaped by digital, networked interactions and to capture the sense of novel futuristic, digital and virtual meanings.

We concluded that while important early contributions had been made to the development of theory and to empirical investigation, it was evident that further study was needed in at least four major areas:

• The development of appropriate theories of culture
• The development of useful theories of intercultural communication
• Continued investigation of the impact of language and culture on online intercultural communication
• Continued development and testing of inclusive online (and online learning) environments.

A particular ongoing challenge was perceived to be the lack of an adequate theory of culture that would allow analysis of the complexities of virtual cultures and virtual communities (Ess, 1998; Roche, 2001), and that could guide more ‘culturally appropriate’ technology and interface design.

We therefore suggested that it would be critical to continue to pursue detailed studies of the discourses and practices generated around/by technology and the new forms of social reality created by technology, and to employ ethnographic approaches to investigate cyberculture practices, cultural foundations shaping new technologies [and] the political economy of cyberculture (Escobar, 1994).