Susan C. Herring is Professor of Information Science and Linguistics and Director of the Center for Computer-Mediated Communication at Indiana University, Bloomington. Trained in linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, she was one of the first scholars to apply linguistic methods of analysis to computer-mediated communication (CMC), initially with a focus on gender issues. She is the creator of the Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA) paradigm, which has been applied in researching structural, pragmatic, interactional, and social phenomena in communication mediated by digital technologies. Her recent research focuses on multimodal CMC, including communication mediated by graphical icons and the use of augmented reality video filters. Professor Herring is a past editor of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and currently edits the online journal Language@Internet. Her publications include numerous scholarly articles on CMC and three edited volumes: Computer-Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social and Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Benjamins, 1996), The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture, and Communication Online (Oxford University Press, 2007, with B. Danet), and The Handbook of Pragmatics of Computer-Mediated Conversation (Mouton, 2013, with D. Stein and T. Virtanen).
Blurb
Multimodality and Digital Self-Representation
Digital technologies afford multiple ways for users to (re)present themselves visually and auditorily. Digital self-representation (DSR) includes Animoji on the iPhone, through which users video chat or send video clips of themselves speaking through cartoon-like representations that mirror movements of their head and face. Research has found that people’s behavior is affected by their digital self-representation in virtual environments, independent of how others perceive them (Yee & Bailenson, 2007). I present research that demonstrates this effect in Animoji clips as regards identity performances through voice quality and vocalization. I situate Animoji conceptually in a broad typology of technologically filtered self-representations that includes bitmoji, augmented reality filters, and deepfake videos. This perspective provides unique insight into the role of the spoken voice in DSR and the relationship between DSR and graphicons such as emoji. I conclude by discussing the potential for DSR to be used deceptively and the changing nature of ‘authenticity’ in online self-representation.
Selected publications
Herring, S. C., & Ge-Stadnyk, J. (In press, 2023). Emoji and illocutionarity: Acting on, and acting as, language. In: M. Gill, A. Malmivirta, & B. Warvik (Eds.), Structures in discourse: Studies in interaction, adaptability, and pragmatic functions in honour of Tuija Virtanen. John Benjamins. Prepublication version: http://ella.ils.indiana.edu/~herring/festschrift.prepub.pdf
Zhang, Y., Herring, S. C., Tan, R., Zhang, Q., & Shi, D. (2023). From compensation to competition: The impact of graphicons on language use in a Chinese context. Discourse & Communication. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17504813231171792
Herring, S. C., Dedema, M., Rodriguez, E., & Yang, L. (2022). Gender and culture differences in perception of deceptive video filter use. In HCI International 2022 – Late Breaking Papers. Interaction in New Media, Learning and Games. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 13517. Springer. http://ella.ils.indiana.edu/~herring/hcii2022.pdf
Professional website
International Conference on Multimodality 