ABSTRACT
In the past decade, we have witnessed a tremendous increase in Internet use and computer-mediated communication (CMC) research. As an increasing amount of communicative activity takes place through this new medium, there has likewise been a significant increase in primary CMC research over the past 15 years on a variety of topics, including virtual communities, online relationships, online news, virtual organizations, political, cross-cultural communication, and a variety of other aspects of CMC (Cassidy, 2007; Flaherty, Pearce, & Rubin, 1998; Jarvis & Wilkerson, 2005; Nonnecke, Preece, Andrews, & Voutour, 2004; Walther, 1996; Walther & Boyd, 2002; Wright, 2004).
