The Eyes of the Beholder: Understanding the Turn-Taking System in Quasi-Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

TLDR

This study compares turn‑taking systems in computer‑mediated communication with those in face‑to‑face conversation. The authors analyzed four quasi‑synchronous CMC exchanges by videotaping participants’ screens and using a custom transcription method to align actions and experiences into a single document. They found that QS‑CMC turn‑taking differs markedly from oral conversation, revealing distinct patterns of message timing and editing that affect interaction structure.

Abstract

This article is a comparison of the turn-taking systems in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and oral conversation. Previous research on CMC has relied on printouts of conversations as data, whereas we used videotaped recordings of each participant's computer screen in order to capture the interactional process of producing the conversation. We used a transcription system developed specifically for this type of analysis that enabled us to collate the actions and experiences of each participant onto one document. Because of this, we were able to see what information each participant had at the time they made the decision to write, post, edit, or erase a message. This article is based on 4 quasi-synchronous CMC (QS-CMC) conversations between students in a college classroom. We discovered that the turn-taking system of QS-CMC is substantially different from the turn-taking system of oral conversation (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974), and we describe some of the implications of this difference for the structure of interaction in QS-CMC.