The Impact of Language Variety and Expertise on Perceptions of Online Political Discussions

An experimental design was employed in the investigation of the impact of two status cues, language style and source expertise, on people’s perceptions of online political discussants and their intentions and motivations to participate in local online political discussion fora. Specifically, the colloquial form of Singapore English, known as Singlish, was manipulated, together with information about the expertise of a discussant, in a 2 3 2 between-subjects factorial design, with the discussion issue manipulated as a within-subjects variable. Eighty undergraduates, 42 male and 38 female, participated in the study. Overall, the results of this study provide very limited support for the significant effects of status cues on perceptions and participation. The implications of the results of this study for theories of computer-mediated communication and linguistics in the context of the Internet are discussed.