03: Perceptions of Usefulness of Media and Actual E-mail Postings by Subject Category

 

Subject Category	Opinion of Other Media (0 - 3)	Opinion of CMC Usefulness (0 - 3)	Number of Actual Messages	Percentage of All Messages
1. Conducting housekeeping activities	1.68	1.99	164	13.2%
2. Finding out / publicizing dorm activities	1.75	1.94	229	18.4%
3. Finding out / publicizing other activities	1.65	1.86	115	9.3%
4. Sharing outside interests with dormmates	1.65	1.66	143	11.5%
5. Relieving stress	1.71	1.77	150	12.0%
6. Discussing academics	1.39	1.06	13	1.0%
7. Discussing social, political, or intellectual issues	1.52	1.59	152	12.2%
8. Discussing dorm community issues	1.63	1.81	161	13.0%
9. Metadiscussion	---	---	47	3.8%
10. Miscellaneous	---	---	69	5.6%
AVERAGE / TOTAL	1.62	1.71	1243	100%

Discussion:

The students rated computer-mediated media (private e-mail and the dorm e-mail list, columns F and G in the survey) more useful than the average of all other (non-CMC) media (survey columns A through E) for every purpose except discussing academics (6). These results are displayed in the first two columns. For sharing outside interests (4), relieving stress (5), and discussing social, political or intellectual issues (7), the students rated CMC and non-CMC media about the same. The average for the traditional, non-CMC media was brought down by the low ratings given to telephone usage (survey column E).

Reflecting their perceptions about the usefulness of the dorm e-mail list, residents actually used list in diverse ways, for diverse purposes; these results are displayed in the last two columns. With the exception of discussing academics (6), all the activities asked about in the survey had a significant proportion of the actual messages. Finding out about or publicizing dorm activities had the most messages (229, 18.4%), followed by housekeeping (164, 13.2%), discussing dorm community issues (161, 13.0%), discussing social, political, or intellectual issues (152, 12.2%), and relieving stress (150, 12.0%).

I categorized 47 messages (3.8%) as primarily metadiscussion -- not a category offered by the survey, obviously -- and 69 messages (5.6%) as miscellaneous (those that didn't easily fall into any of the given categories).