{"id":186,"date":"2025-11-26T21:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T02:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=186"},"modified":"2025-11-30T16:21:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:21:39","slug":"culture-in-cyberspace","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/chapter\/culture-in-cyberspace\/","title":{"raw":"What we found in 2004: \u2018Culture and communication in cyberspace\u2019","rendered":"What we found in 2004: \u2018Culture and communication in cyberspace\u2019"},"content":{"raw":"<p class=\"import-Normal\">In the early 2000s, in the midst of the <em>[pb_glossary id=\"483\"]Second Age[\/pb_glossary]<\/em> of internet evolution and research (see for example Wellman, 2011), we sought to address these questions. In our 2004 work <em>Communicating across cultures in cyberspace: A bibliographical review of online intercultural communication<\/em> (Macfadyen et al., 2004)<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote1anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\">1<\/a><\/sup> we surveyed available literature that explored issues of culture and communication in online environments (\u2018cyberspace\u2019), 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).\u00a0Employing a grounded approach (Braun &amp; Clarke, 2012) we distilled six core themes out of the original [pb_glossary id=\"343\"]corpus[\/pb_glossary]:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The culture(s) of the internet<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The language of cyberspace<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Intercultural communication on the internet<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Identity and community in cyberspace<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Culture and education in cyberspace<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The impact of the internet on culture(s)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Using the language and terminology of the era, we wrote about culture in [pb_glossary id=\"351\"]cyberspace[\/pb_glossary], cyberlanguage, [pb_glossary id=\"350\"]cybercultures[\/pb_glossary], 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.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">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:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The development of appropriate theories of culture<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The development of useful theories of intercultural communication<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Continued investigation of the impact of language and culture on online intercultural communication<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Continued development and testing of inclusive online (and online learning) environments.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nA 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.\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">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 [pb_glossary id=\"471\"]political economy[\/pb_glossary] of cyberculture (Escobar, 1994).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote1sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\">1<\/a> To smooth the reading experience, we have elected to minimize the frequency with which we cite this original 2004 study. Readers should note that throughout, any narrative mention of our 2004 study refers to this Macfadyen et al. (2004) work.<\/div>\r\n<div><\/div>","rendered":"<p class=\"import-Normal\">In the early 2000s, in the midst of the <em><a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_186_483\">Second Age<\/a><\/em> of internet evolution and research (see for example Wellman, 2011), we sought to address these questions. In our 2004 work <em>Communicating across cultures in cyberspace: A bibliographical review of online intercultural communication<\/em> (Macfadyen et al., 2004)<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote1anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\">1<\/a><\/sup> we surveyed available literature that explored issues of culture and communication in online environments (\u2018cyberspace\u2019), 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).\u00a0Employing a grounded approach (Braun &amp; Clarke, 2012) we distilled six core themes out of the original <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_186_343\">corpus<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The culture(s) of the internet<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The language of cyberspace<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Intercultural communication on the internet<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Identity and community in cyberspace<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Culture and education in cyberspace<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The impact of the internet on culture(s)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Using the language and terminology of the era, we wrote about culture in <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_186_351\">cyberspace<\/a>, cyberlanguage, <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_186_350\">cybercultures<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">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:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The development of appropriate theories of culture<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">The development of useful theories of intercultural communication<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Continued investigation of the impact of language and culture on online intercultural communication<\/li>\n<li class=\"import-ListBullet\">Continued development and testing of inclusive online (and online learning) environments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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 &#8216;culturally appropriate&#8217; technology and interface design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">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 <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_186_471\">political economy<\/a> of cyberculture (Escobar, 1994).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote1sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\">1<\/a> To smooth the reading experience, we have elected to minimize the frequency with which we cite this original 2004 study. Readers should note that throughout, any narrative mention of our 2004 study refers to this Macfadyen et al. (2004) work.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_186_483\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_186_483\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>A way of describing the era when the web and early online communities became widespread, after initial experiments with networking.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_186_343\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_186_343\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>A large, organized collection of texts or data that researchers analyze to find patterns.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_186_351\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_186_351\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>The virtual environment created by interconnected computers, networks, and digital communication.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_186_350\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_186_350\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Cultures, practices, and communities that develop in and around digital networks and online spaces.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_186_471\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_186_471\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>The study of how economic interests and power relations shape media, technologies, networks and AI systems.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2031,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-186","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":184,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/186\/revisions\/484"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/184"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/186\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}