Communication of communities: linguistic signals of online groups

ABSTRACT

People may join online communities in order to access specific social resources. Online communities with greater activity and interactivity may vary in regards to specific words signaling stability, cohesiveness, and sociability. These message characteristics can be quantified using language processing software. Fifteen reddit messages boards were analyzed using linguistic inquiry and word count to determine the prevalence of message characteristics related to viability in online communities. Results revealed highly active boards – those with more total messages – were more likely to use terms referencing the past indicating stability and have greater thread depth indicating interactivity. Moderately active boards were more likely to have linguistic markers of cohesiveness and stability. Highly interactive boards – those with greater thread depth – were more likely to have language markers indicating stability, cohesiveness, and sociability.

KEYWORDS:

• Online community
• computer-mediated communication
• interactivity
• group cohesiveness
• signaling theory

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Monica Lombardo and Jesse Farmer for their assistance with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Bree McEwan (PhD, Arizona State University) is an assistant professor in the College of Communication, DePaul University, 14 E. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL. Portions of this research were previously presented at Social Media and Society 2015, Toronto, ON. [email: [email protected]]

ORCID details

Bree McEwan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9452-6913

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Wayne N. Thompson Professorship at Western Illinois University.