ABSTRACT
Whether through social media, online discussions, discussion forums, computer-mediated communication, or online conversations, research into what happens when people talk together online has a long history. This chapter establishes the need for this book, arguing that too little attention has been paid by researchers to ensuring the methodological alignment needed to produce trustworthy, valid findings around what happens in online talk. Insight, transformation, and moments of learning occur in these interactions, and careful research designs can help identify them in meaningful, coherent, and trustworthy ways. We introduce ourselves as authors and our interest in online talk, discuss typical approaches that have been taken to studying online talk, define key concepts, and describe the book’s purpose and focus. The opportunities and challenges of systematically analyzing insight, transformation, and learning when they are made visible in online talk are explored. Finally, our research design framework is introduced and explained through a preview of the remaining chapters.
