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-fqs02024