Effective Online Dialogue - Toward a Theory of Internet-Mediated Communication

Dialogue has become a lost art. Most public discourse takes place in the formof unilateral assertions argument or debate. By contrast dialogue can fosterthe co-creation of meaning among participants. Dialogue is therefore both acommunicative and an intensely creative process. Unfortunately the majorityof existing research on dialogue fails to take into account Internet-mediateddialogue while conversely most research on Internet-mediated communicationfocuses on methods of information exchange rather than true dialogue.The present study fulfills two purposes. First it synthesizes much of theexisting research on human dialogue emphasizing how cognitive styles andcultural values can influence its effectiveness. Second it relates the results ofan analysis of seventeen independent online dialogues and presents a theoryof effective Internet-mediated dialogue. This work is addressed to professorsand students of communication theory managers seeking to find better waysof dialoguing with clients online participants in Internet-mediated communicationof any type and software engineers designing online communicationspaces.