Written Communication Jan 2009

Symbolic Capital in a Virtual Heterosexual Market: Abbreviation and Insertion in Italian iTV SMS

Susan C. Herring Indiana University Bloomington ; Asta Zelenkauskaite

Abstract

This study analyzes gender variation in nonstandard typography—specifically, abbreviations and insertions—in mobile phone text messages (SMS) posted to a public Italian interactive television (iTV) program. All broadcast SMS were collected for a period of 2 days from the Web archive for the iTV program, and the frequency and distribution of abbreviations and insertions, as well as overall message lengths, were analyzed according to sender gender. The results reveal that females posted more and longer SMS and followed more, and more varied, nonstandard typographic practices, contrary to previous gender-related findings in the sociolinguistics and computer-mediated communication literatures. A theoretically grounded explanation for these findings is developed in terms of the localized norms of a heterosexual market—and an implicit dating market—in Italian iTV SMS.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2009-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088308327911
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
digital rhetoric gender and writing
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