Dr Ellen Helsper STC.119c

This course is available on the MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and Fudan), MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and USC), MSc in Media and Communications, MSc in Media and Communications (Media and Communications Governance), MSc in Media and Communications (Research), MSc in Media, Communication and Development and MSc in Politics and Communication. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Communication media have been blamed for a breakdown of social relationships and have simultaneously been hailed as powerful social tools that can connect people from all walks of life. This course addresses the ways in which interpersonal relationships and communication are influenced by mediation. The first half of the course addresses the history of media in interpersonal communication as well as general interpersonal communication and relationship theories. The second half looks in more detail at how the interaction between media and interpersonal communication has been studied in relation to the cross-cutting themes of privacy/trust, isolation/socialisation and multi-modality. The aim of this course is to provide students with a critical understanding of communication within small groups and dyadic relationships. The course examines the influence of media on three key fields of interpersonal interaction which are identified as personal, social and professional communication. The examination of these key areas is framed by theories of social norms, media richness, social capital and supplementation/substitution. The central concepts of the course (ie. privacy/trust, isolation/socialisation and multi-modality) reflected upon in these theories, are discussed from the perspective of different disciplinary and methodological paradigms. Application of theory to practitioner and policy examples will give students the tools to understand what the practical implications are of the ways in which these different paradigms suggest that interpersonal communication processes vary depending on the type of platform this communication takes place on as well as the type of relationship that is under investigation. As a result of the course the students will be able to evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of the theories that aim to explain apparently contradictory observations about the practice of interpersonal mediated communication.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

All students are expected to complete advance reading, prepare seminar presentations, and submit one essay of 1,500 words.

Anderson, J. A. & Meyer, T. P. (1988). Mediated Communication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage; Burke, P. & Briggs, A. (2001). A Social History of the Media. Cambridge: Polity Press; Hartley, P. (1993). Interpersonal Communication. London: Routledge; Joinson, A. (2003). Understanding the psychology of Internet behaviour. Virtual Worlds, Real Lives. Palgrave: New York; Joinson, A.N., McKenna, K., Postmes, T. & Reips, D. (2009) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Kraut, R. Galegher, J., Fish, R., & Chalfonte, B. (1992). Task requirements and media choice in collaborative writing. Human Computer Interaction, 7(4), 375-407; Lea, M., Spears, R., & de Groot, D. (2001). Knowing me, knowing you: Anonymity effects on social identity processes within groups. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(5), 526-537; Solomon, D. &  Theiss, W. (2013) Interpersonal Communication: Putting theory into practice. Hove, UK, Routledge; Walther, J. B., Anderson, J. F., & Park, D. W. (1994). Interpersonal Effects in Computer-Mediated Interaction - a Metaanalysis of Social and Antisocial Communication. Communication Research, 21(4), 460-487; Whitty, M.T. & Joinson, A. (2009) Truth, Lies and Trust on the Internet (pp 97-108). Hove, UK: Routledge; Yee, N., & Bailenson, J. (2007). The Proteus Effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior. Human Communication Research, 33(3), 271-290.

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the ST.

To be submitted in week 2 of Summer Term.

This course digs into how information and communication technologies shape and are part of positive and negative aspects of our everyday intimate and professional relationships.

Students' comments

This course in itself is very interesting and gives you a micro-level perspective to many larger theoretical concepts. Very useful.