Language and communication patterns in Yahoo! Internet Relay Chat channels

¶ … Internet Culture through Internet Relay Chat (IRC)/Chat room Language in Yahoo! Channels

This research will study the kind of language used in Yahoo! channels in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms in the United States. This multi-method (quantitative-qualitative) study will determine the form, content, and meaning of the chat room language through the analysis of acronyms, emoticons, jargon, and speech. In addition to the analysis of these linguistic codes, chat room language will be studied as a new system of communication where the kind of language, user profiles, and norms / conventions / 'netiquette' within the Internet culture will be identified. This research will, in effect, contribute and provide essential information about the emerging phenomena of Internet culture and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), particularly in the American setting.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE:

To determine and describe the American Internet culture through the aspect of language as determined in Yahoo! channels' Internet Relay Chat (IRC) messages.

METHODOLOGY:

Research Design and Methods

The research will be both descriptive and exploratory in gathering, analyzing, and interpreting primary and secondary data through research methods in order to provide a general description of Internet culture in the United States using its language characteristics of chat room messages in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels of Yahoo!.

Research paradigms that will be used for this research are qualitative and quantitative research methods. For the quantitative research paradigm, content analysis will be used to determine the form and structure of chat messages while the survey method will be conducted to verify first-hand information acquired through the content analysis. The qualitative research paradigm, on the other hand, will make use of the textual analysis in order to analyze the content of chat messages and meanings implicitly and/or explicitly expressed in these messages. Participant-observation method will be useful for obtaining first-hand data on identifying chat room language in Yahoo! IRC channels.

Units of Analysis

Primary units of analysis for this research will be chat messages obtained from Yahoo! IRC channels in the U.S. Chatters that will be selected for the survey are chatters participating in any of the channels registered under Yahoo! Surveys for chatters in these Yahoo! channels will be respondents for an online survey to be conducted after the textual analysis of the IRC messages. Lastly, the researchers of this study will also become UOA for the participant-observation method. Field notes obtained from chat participation of the researchers in the Yahoo! IRC channels will also be documented to provide further insights in the process of analyzing and interpreting the data gathered from the content and textual analyses and survey methods.

Sampling Scheme

Chat messages that will be analyzed for this research will be obtained on a daily basis for a three- week period. These chat messages will include messages from the general (group) and private (one-on-one) chat exchanges. These chat messages will be used for the content and textual analyses. Similarly, chatters for the survey and participant-observation methods will be selected through the non-probabilistic technique of accidental sampling. The selection of the Yahoo! IRC channels is chosen through the purposive, non-probabilistic sampling technique to fit the researchers' purpose of analyzing the chat environment of IRC channels in the United States.

Data Gathering Plan

The timetable for the data gathering part of this research will be based on a one-month schedule. Three (3) weeks will be used for data gathering using the content analysis, textual analysis, and participant observation methods, while one (1) week will be consumed in conducting online surveys of the Internet chatters (Yahoo! IRC users).