Rintel, S. (2013). Video Calling in Long-Distance Relationships: The Opportunistic use of Audio/Video Distortions as a Relational Resource. The Electronic Journal of Communication / La Revue Electronic de Communication (EJC/REC) Special issue on Videoconferencing in Practice: 21st Century Challenges, 23 (1&2) [Format: Local PDF of pre-publication version].
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The EJC version includes embedded video of three examples. Please email me for access to that version. Alternatively, URLs are provided in the pre-publication document above.
Abstract:
Video calling is now a realistic option for couples in distance relationships. This paper explores whether audio/video distortions block intimate relational talk. From a naturalistic two-month trial of couples trying video calling to maintain their distance relationships, it is found that couples can opportunistically use audio/video distortions as a relational resource rather than simply treating them as a blocking or outside of relational talk. First, technological mediation can be treated as relevant to disambiguating whether the repair involves simple content repetition or a more complex relational issue. Second, distortions can be treated as resources for relational parody and teasing. It is argued that the opportunistic use of distortions as a relational resource extends Hutchby’s (2001b) notion of technologized interaction, in which technology frames but does not determine social action. Rather than proposing yet another model of communication that includes more detail about noise as deviance that must be remedied, or taking an undifferentiated approach to distortion as “trouble,” the technologized interaction approach broadens our conceptions of online relationships as involving the use of technological features to a more holistic sense of technological mediation being part and parcel of maintaining online relationships
Related:
- Rintel, S. (2013). Tech-tied or tongue-tied? Technological versus social trouble in relational video calling. Proceedings of the Forty-Sixth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 3343-3352). DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2013.512 [Format: Local PDF of conference PDF version]
- Rintel, E. Sean. 2010. Conversational management of network trouble perturbations in personal videoconferencing. In Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction (OZCHI ’10) (pp. 304-311). doi:10.1145/1952222.1952288 [Format: Local PDF of proceedings version]
- Rintel, S. 2007. Maximizing environmental validity: remote recording of desktop videoconferencing. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Human-computer interaction: interaction design and usability (HCI’07) (pp. 911-920). doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73105-4_100 [Format: Local PDF of proceedings version]
- Rintel, S. (2012, June 18). Airtime’s Facebook video service gambles on the kindness of strangers. The Conversation (Online).
- Rintel, S. (2011, July 12). Face to Facebook: Can video chat get over its hang-ups? The Conversation (Online).
