Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

with others.
Andrew F. Wood and Matthew J. Smith discussed three specific types of online
identities that people can formulate: anonymous (the person behind a message is
completely unknown), pseudonymous (someone uses a pseudonym, but people
often know who the real person behind the message is), and real life (when our
online and FtF identities are the same).
Exercises
Of the two theoretical approaches to identity (Erikson and Goffman), which do
you think is the better tool for explaining how your online identity and offline
identity were formed? Why?
When it comes to your online CMC behavior, do you have an anonymous,
pseudonymous, and real-life identity? How are these similar? How are they
different?
12.4 Theories of Computer-Mediated Communication
understand CMC behavior.
Learning
Outcomes
2. Describe social presence theory and how it helps us understand
CMC behavior.
3. Describe media richness theory and how it helps us understand
CMC behavior.
4. Describe social information processing theory and how it helps
us understand CMC behavior.
Most of the early work in computer-mediated communication from a theoretical perspective was
conducted using mediated-communication theories that have been developed to discuss the differences
between print, radio, and television, and applying them to the Internet. As such, we don’t see the
proliferation of theories. In this section, we are going to explore four theories and their implications for
CMC.
The first major theory used to explain CMC is the uses and gratifications theory.
was originally devised in the mid-1970s to explain why people use the types of
mass media they do. 55 The basic premise of the theory is that people choose various media because they
get something out of that media, or it makes them happy in some way. From this perspective, people
choose various media because they have specific goals that they want to fulfill. Zizi Papacharissi and Alan
Rubin were the first scholars to apply the uses and gratifications theory to how people use the Internet. 56
Interpersonal Communication 432