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“What Is Computer-Mediated
Communication?”—An Introduction to the
Special Issue
At a time when nearly all social activities could be, and likely are, mediated in some ways by some
forms of computing technology, what should be the focus of CMC research? How do we theorize and
study computer-mediated (or should we say digitally-mediated) communication when the topics of
our research—the technology, the concepts and processes of mediation, our sense of what constitutes
communication, as well as the theories and methods used to examine these—are all in flux? Early in
the spring of 2018, the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication invited scholars to submit
ideas for a dedicated issue to consider these questions. The collection of meta-theoretical discussions,
literature reviews/analyses, and concept explications included in this special issue will point to a
general direction and offer a launching point for theory construction and systematic research in a
continuously evolving field.
Keywords: CMC, Social Network Analysis, Human-Computer Interaction, Mobile Phones, Literature
Review
doi:10.1093/jcmc/zmz027
The tension between technological developments and related social processes raises the question
of how we should conceive of, theorize, and study technology, mediation, and communication. In the
quarter-century since the founding of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, a central ques-
tion concerning this area of research has shifted from “what is computer-mediated communication?”
to “what isn’t?” In 1994, personal computers were bulky, desk-top, and hence stationary terminals. The
Internet was only finding its purchase in society. Text-based Usenet and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) were
common platforms. Email (or electronic-mail) was considered cutting-edge communication. Online
social networking sites were still in the distant future, and short message service (SMS) was just debuting
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 25 (2020) 4–8 © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on
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behalf of International Communication Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
M. Z. Yao & R. Ling What Is CMC?
as a digitally mediated form of interpersonal communication. As of this writing, among the 7.7 billion
people on the planet, 4.33 billion actively use the Internet (Statista, 2019), 5.14 billion are connected
via mobile devices using over 9 billion subscriptions (GSMA Intelligence, 2019), and 3.5 billion are
on social media (Hootsuite, 2019). American adults are spending over 11 hours a day interacting with
various (computerized) media (Nielsen, 2019). In short, the technical landscape has seen a dramatic
shift.
At a time when nearly all social activities could be, and likely are, mediated in some ways by some
forms of computing technology, what should be the focus of CMC research? How do we theorize and
study computer-mediated (or should we say digitally-mediated) communication when the topics of
are computers that carry people around. In a digital age when computing technology is omnipresent
and ubiquitous, what should constitute a “computer” in digitally-mediated communication research?
A device, a software application, the network, or the virtual worlds in which people engage in various
social activities? It is unwise and infeasible for social scientists to be constantly enamored with every
new gadget and application, but it is equally problematic to not recognize, or conveniently ignore, the
role of new technologies in redefining and reshaping fundamental social and communicative processes.
Several articles in this issue directly tackled this dilemma.
In this issue, Caleb Carr traces the evolution of CMC, as a concept and as a body of research and
related theories, to advocate for a shift of attention away from the “computers.” He calls on us to focus
stream. It also implies the potential risk of this group of research in limiting the boundary of theory
development.” This is indeed an important insight. The community of CMC researchers should take
heed.
References
GSMA Intelligence. (2019). Real time global data and analysis for the mobile industry. Retrieved from
https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/
Hootsuite. (2019). Digital 2019 reports. Retrieved from https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/01/digital-
2019-global-internet-use-accelerates
Nielsen. (2019). Nielsen total audience report: Q1-2019. Retrieved from https://www.nielsen.com/wp-
content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/q1-2019-nielsen-total-audience-report-one-sheet.pdf
Statista. (2019). Global digital population as of July 2019. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/
statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
Walther, J. B., & Jang, J.-W. (Eds.) (2012). Special issue: Web 2.0 and user-generated con-
tent as communication systems. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(1). doi:
doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01592.x