Review: Michael Beißwenger (Ed.) (2001). Chat-Kommunikation. Sprache, Interaktion und Sozialität in synchroner computervermittelter Kommunikation [Chat Communication. Language, Interaction, and Sociality in Computer Mediated Communication. Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Research Area]

Online chat communication has found rising interest, especially amongst young people. Chat communication can be understood as a kind of text-based speech, but has many special aspects to be considered carefully. This compilation displays the various approaches to the aspects of chat communication in a number of individual articles and thus documents the interdisciplinary nature of this related, exciting, and many-faceted field of research. The compilation has been divided by topic into five categories which, in and of themselves, are complementary to one another, corresponding to a variety of motivations for a study of chat communication: Part 1 focuses on language and interaction in chat communication. Part 2 is related to sociality and identity in chat communication. Part 3 analyses types of chats and their users. Part 4 looks on chat communication in a socio-cultural context. Finally, part 5 describes the use of chat communication for education and educational purposes. This book lacks an underlying theoretical framework but--because of its good empirical studies--is of high relevance for every social scientist who is active in media research. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs020240