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The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of two-way, computer-mediated communication on investigator perceptions of whistleblower credibility.

Investigators were recruited to participate in an online experiment that tasked subjects with evaluating simulated two-way, computer-mediated communication between an investigator and whistleblower. Several rival explanations were also examined to account for potential confounds.

While anonymous whistleblowers were perceived to be less credible than identified whistleblowers when reporting via one-way communication, perceived whistleblower credibility was not statistically different when using two-way communication. Further, investigators allocated statistically similar amounts to investigate anonymous and identified reports.

Based upon the results of this study, several new research directions can be explored with respect to maintaining anonymity, assessing credibility and designing reporting systems.

The results support the use of anonymous, two-way communication in whistleblowing reporting systems. Anonymous whistleblowers would benefit from the ability to maintain an active dialogue with investigators without jeopardizing their safety or the investigation.

This study provides empirical support for strengthening whistleblowing reporting channels through the adoption of anonymous, two-way, computer-mediated communication. Doing so can better preserve the anonymity of those willing to report wrongdoing and better protect them from potential retaliation.

This study is among the first to empirically test the longstanding theory that anonymous reports are perceived by investigators as less credible than those from identified individuals. This study is also among the first to consider and incorporate anonymous, two-way communication in whistleblowing reporting.

Discusses the potential of computer‐mediated communication to reduce the social isolation experienced by many deaf and hard‐of‐hearing individuals. Communication presents significant problems for this group of people, some of which can be bridged by communicating via the Internet or e‐mail. deaf Internet users were surveyed by use of a questionnaire. Their opinions, summarised in this paper, emphasise the significance of computer‐mediated communication for the deaf; namely that interaction can be both less stressful and faster, thereby reducing the isolation many feel due to the physical constraints imposed by their deafness.

Computer‐mediated communication (CMC) is becoming firmly embedded into library work through the use of electronic mail, and it is likely that computer‐supported collaborative working, using e‐mail and other forms of computer‐conferencing and groupware products, will have a key role to play in the development of integrated digital libraries across sectoral, national and international boundaries. This review paper draws on a literature survey which was undertaken as part of British Library funded research into the use of e‐mail in academic libraries between 1995‐1997. It aims to provide a digest of some influential perspectives from the literature which are likely to be of relevance to managers, team leaders and systems staff in information services who are interested in optimising the use of text‐based CMC across and between library organisations, and within teams.

The proliferation of the internet and world wide web (WWW) in recent years has resulted in the creation of new social and marketing spaces, and a new form of interaction and identity formation. This paper aims to investigate this phenomenon.

Whilst cost benefits and profit derivation from the internet and other hypermedia mediated communication environments have been the focus of much research, the majority of these assessments have left many assumptions unarticulated. Questions of how contemporary communication content and interactivity is different from the singular “one‐to‐many” communication models have been avoided in this research. This paper investigates these deficiencies and goes on to suggest how academics and practitioners can realign their thinking in the light of these findings.

Computer mediated marketing environments provide organisations with a medium that can be used to deliver content in a variety of ways to consumers. This capability highlights the distinction between the information in marketing communication and the vehicle used to deliver the information: that is, content differs from communication.

The paper highlights how versatility of the internet as an instrument for mediated communication means that organisations can integrate different modalities of marketing communications into a strategy that combines on‐line and off‐line tactics to meet strategic objectives.

A long-standing question is how group perception, which is the perception of a whole group, becomes an exaggerated perception of the individuals who comprise the group. The question receives scant attention within computer-mediated communication (CMC), which is increasingly a communication mode for groups and a research tool to study groups. I address this gap by examining bias in group perception when rating copresence, which is the sense of being together, with the group.

I model bias as occurring when perceivers differentially weigh ratings of individual group members on a variable while rating the whole group on the same variable. I analyzed how the degree of bias in participants’ ratings of copresence with a status-differentiated group varied by the availability of visual cues during CMC in an experiment. I also examined how the group’s status hierarchy impacted bias.

Bias increase as the availability of visual cues decreased and ratings of middle status members were weighed more in group perception than ratings of other members.

Middle status was based on possessing inconsistent statuses. Inconsistency, and not status position, may have rendered these members more salient than others.

Interventions that target group perception may benefit from targeting the group’s middle status members. Researchers and practitioners can minimize bias in group perception through increasing the availability of visual cues in CMC.

The findings illustrate the underpinnings of copresence with an entire group. This is important because copresence shapes several group processes during CMC.

With the widespread use of online communications, users are extremely vulnerable to a myriad of deception attempts. This study aims to extend the literature on deception in computer-mediated communication by investigating whether the manner in which popularity information (PI) is presented and media richness affects users’ judgments.

This study developed a randomized, within and 2 × 3 between-subject experimental design. This study analyzed the main effects of PI and media richness on the imitation magnitude of veracity judges and the effect of the interaction between PI and media richness on the imitation magnitude of veracity judges.

The manner in which PI is presented to people affects their tendency to imitate others. Media richness also has a main effect; text-only messages resulted in greater imitation magnitude than those viewed in full audiovisual format. The findings showed an interaction effect between PI and media richness.

The findings of this study contribute to the information systems literature by introducing the notion of herd behavior to judgments of truthfulness and deception. Also, the medium over which PI was presented significantly impacted the magnitude of imitation tendency: PI delivered through text-only medium led to a greater extent of imitation than when delivered in full audiovisual format. This suggests that media richness alters the degree of imitating others’ decisions such that the leaner the medium, the greater the expected extent of imitation.

Using the perspectives of dramaturgy and symbolic interactionists like George Herbert Mead and Carl Couch this study focuses on paid sex work in the hypermodern, virtual world of Second Life. Using seventeen semi-structured interviews and six months of ethnographic fieldwork, I find that the employment of sexual scripts, carrying off a successful erotic scene, and the creative use of communication and embodiment are highly valued in escorts’ performance of Second Life sex work. Escorts craft an online persona that is a digital representation of the self, which is manifested in the embodiment of their digital body or avatar. In addition to digital representations of the physical self, Second Life allows for multiple methods of computer-mediated communication, and escorts are able to re-embody the first life body through the trading of first life pictures, voice cybersex, and web cam cybersex. The data allow the conclusion that most escorts are unwilling to re-embody the first life body for reasons of personal safety and the desire to restrict access to the first life self. I find, however, that there is a porous boundary between first life and Second Life in which the first life self comes through in the Second Life persona. In the concluding remarks, I explore the implications this study has for the negotiation of privacy for new social media actors who are reluctant to fully disclose their lives yet perform a persistent, archived persona for friends and followers on the Internet. This study contributes to a small, but growing, body of literature on Second Life and expands the existing work on embodiment and privacy in the digital realm.