Rural Perspectives: Interpersonal Communication Online

• In Event: Constructing Meaning With and Through the Internet

Abstract

This project employs a discursive perspective to examine rural residents’ talk about engaging in interpersonal communication online. Sixty-three participants residing in rural Kansas participated in unstructured interviews. Implicit in participants’ talk were two values that shaped the way they made sense of the internet as medium for communication: knowledge of personal backgrounds and the preference for face-to-face communication. Contributing to their perceptions was a sense of social connectivity and shared history among community residents.

Author

• Kiley Larson, University of Kansas