Article published In:
Skype and domestic settings: Interpersonal video communication as a site of human socialityEdited by Richard Harper, Rod Watson and Christian Licoppe
[Pragmatics 27:3] 2017
► pp. 351–386
Edited by Richard Harper, Rod Watson and Christian Licoppe
[Pragmatics 27:3] 2017
► pp. 351–386
Skype appearances, multiple greetings and ‘coucou’
The sequential organization of video-mediated conversation openings
This paper analyses the organization of ‘openings’ in Skype video-mediated conversation. It uncovers order in their apparent complexity by showing the relevance of a particular sequential adjacent pair organization, the appearing/noticing sequence, and its particular instantiation as an appearance-for-the-first-time greeting. The paper shows how this is a crucial resource in establishing a joint video interactional frame for the parties involved. This accounts for the occurrence of some specific phenomena in Skype openings, such as multiple greetings, and for the use of greetings which reflexively index their being occasioned by an appearance and related greeting, such as the French ‘coucou’, even when these do not occur at the start of Skype calls. When analysed this way, Skype openings, though complex, can be seen as an accomplished ‘dance of appearances and multiple greetings’.
Keywords: Skype, video-mediated conversation, conversation analysis, openings, appearances, greetings, coucou
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Analysis
- 2.1Pre-beginnings and the collaborative assemblage of a social scene for video-mediated encounters
- 2.2Multiple greetings
- 2.3Analyzing various actual instances of multiple greetings in the opening of Skype conversations
- 2.4Multiple greetings and the embedding of video-mediated communication in larger communicative ecologies
- 2.5Not only appearing, but appearing in a certain way
- 2.6A subtly orchestrated choreography of multimodal appearances and greetings
- 2.7‘This is not to be seen as the beginning’: Designing visual appearances and greetings so as to neutralize some of their sequential implications
- 2.8A sequentially frustrating succession of finely coordinated appearances and withdrawals
- 2.9Actually beginning the video conversation: A third greeting sequence
- 3.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
References
Beck, U., and E. Beck-Gersheim
2014 Distant Love. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Brubaker, J., G. Venolia, and J. Tang
2012 “Focusing on Shared Experiences: Moving Beyond the Camera in Video Communication.” Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference (June 11–15, Newcastle, UK), 96–105. New York: ACM Press. 
Button, G., and W. Sharrock
1998 “The Organizational Accountability of Technological Work.”. Social Studies of Science 281: 73–102.
De Fornel, M.
1994 “Le cadre interactionnel de l’échange visiophonique.” Réseaux 641: 07–132.
Duranti, A.
1997 “Universal and Culture-Specific Properties of Greetings.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 7 (1): 63–97.
Enfield, N. J.
2011 “Sources of Asymmetry in Human Interaction: Enchrony, Status, Knowledge and Agency.” In The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, ed. by L. Mondada, J. Steenswig, and T. Stivers, 285–312. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C.
2000 “Action and Embodiment within Situated Human Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 321: 1489–1522.
Heritage, J.
1984 “A Change-of-State Token and Aspects of its Sequential Placement.” In Structures of Social Action, ed. by J. M. Atkinson, and J. Heritage, 299–345. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kendon, A.
1990 Conducting Interaction: Patterns of Behavior in Focussed Encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kirk, D. S., A. Sellen, and X. Cao
2010 “Home Video Communication: Mediating ‘Closeness’.” Proceedings of the 2010 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. New York: ACM Press.
Licoppe, C., and J. Morel
2012 “Video-in-Interaction: “Talking Heads” and the Multimodal Organization of Mobile and Skype Video Calls.” Research in Language and Social Interaction 45 (4): 399–429.
Madianou, M., and D. Miller
2012 Migration and New Media: Transnational Families and Polymedia. London: Routledge.
Mondada, L.
2010 “Eröffnung und Vor-Eröffnung in technisch vermittelter interaktion: Videokonferenzen.” In Situationeröffnungen: Zur multimodalen Herstellung fokussierter Interaktion, ed. by L. Mondada, and R. Schmitt, 277–334. Narr: Tubingen.
Mortensen, K., and S. Hazel
2014 “Moving into Interaction. Social Practices for Initiating Encounters at a Help Desk.” Journal of Pragmatics 621: 46–67.
Neustaedter, C., and S. Greenberg
2011 “Intimacy in Long Distance Relationships over Video Chat.” Proceedings of CHI 2012 ACM Press.
Piaget, J.
1954 The Construction of Reality in the Child. New York: Basic Books.
Pomerantz, A.
1984 “Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred / Dispreferred Turn Shapes.” In Structures of Social Action, ed. by J. M. Atkinson, and J. Heritage, 57–102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Relieu, M.
2007 “La téléprésence, ou l’autre visiophonie.” Réseaux 1441: 183–223.
Sacks, H.
1992 Lectures on Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schegloff, E.
1972 “Sequencing in Conversational Openings.” In Directions in Sociolinguistics. The Ethnography of Communication, ed. by D. Hymes, and J. Gumperz, 346–380. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
1998 “Body Torque.” Conversation 65(3):535–596.
1986 “The Routine as Achievement.” Human Studies 91: 111–151.
2007 Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J.
1969 Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sunakawa, C.
2012 “Japanese Family via Webcam: An Ethnographic Study of Cross-Spatial Interactions”. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 7258, ed. by M. Okumura, D. Bekki, and K. Satoh, 264–276. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Cited by
Cited by 19 other publications
Cserző, Dorottya
2021. Discourses and practices of attention in video chat. Multimodal Communication 10:2 ► pp. 143 ff. 
Dalby Kristiansen, Elisabeth & Nina Nørgaard
2024. Credibility in corporate testimonial videos: Addressed from a combined interactional and multimodal semiotic perspective. Discourse & Communication
D’Antoni, Federica & Elwys De Stefani
2022. On Being Known: Displays of Familiarity in Italian Café Encounters. Research on Language and Social Interaction 55:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Gan, Yumei, Christian Greiffenhagen & Christian Licoppe
2020. Orchestrated openings in video calls: Getting young left-behind children to greet their migrant parents. Journal of Pragmatics 170 ► pp. 364 ff.
Gan, Yumei, Christian Greiffenhagen & Christian Licoppe
2020. Die Eröffnung von Videoanrufen in Migrantenfamilien: Wie Großeltern ‚sprechende Köpfe‘-Begegnungen zwischen Kindern und ihren migrierten Eltern in China organisieren. In Digitale Kindheiten [Medien der Kooperation – Media of Cooperation, ], ► pp. 55 ff.
Haddington, Pentti, Laura Kohonen-Aho, Sylvaine Tuncer & Heidi Spets
2023. Openings of Interactions in Immersive Virtual Reality: Identifying and Recognising Prospective Participants. In Complexity of Interaction, ► pp. 423 ff.
Jakonen, Teppo & Heidi Jauni
2021. Mediated learning materials: visibility checks in telepresence robot mediated classroom interaction. Classroom Discourse 12:1-2 ► pp. 121 ff.
Meredith, Joanne, David Giles & Wyke J. P. Stommel
2021. Introduction: The Microanalysis of Digital Interaction. In Analysing Digital Interaction, ► pp. 1 ff.
Orthaber, Sara
2023. Routine Calls for Information and Request Emails. In (Im)politeness at a Slovenian Call Centre [Advances in (Im)politeness Studies, ], ► pp. 97 ff.
Phillips, Jake, Chalen Westaby, Sam Ainslie & Andrew Fowler
2021. ‘I don't like this job in my front room’: Practising probation in the COVID-19 pandemic. Probation Journal 68:4 ► pp. 426 ff.
Rudaz, Damien, Karen Tatarian, Rebecca Stower & Christian Licoppe
2023. From Inanimate Object to Agent: Impact of Pre-beginnings on the Emergence of Greetings with a Robot. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction 12:3 ► pp. 1 ff.
Seuren, Lucas M., Sakari Ilomäki, Evi Dalmaijer, Sara E. Shaw & Wyke J. P. Stommel
2024. Communication in Telehealth: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review of Conversation-Analytic Research. Research on Language and Social Interaction 57:1 ► pp. 73 ff.
Seuren, Lucas M., Joseph Wherton, Trisha Greenhalgh & Sara E. Shaw
2021. Whose turn is it anyway? Latency and the organization of turn-taking in video-mediated interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 172 ► pp. 63 ff.
Seuren, Lucas Martinus, Joseph Wherton, Trisha Greenhalgh, Deborah Cameron, Christine A'Court & Sara E Shaw
2020. Physical Examinations via Video for Patients With Heart Failure: Qualitative Study Using Conversation Analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research 22:2 ► pp. e16694 ff.
Shaw, Sara E, Deborah Cameron, Joseph Wherton, Lucas M Seuren, Shanti Vijayaraghavan, Satyajit Bhattacharya, Christine A’Court, Joanne Morris & Trisha Greenhalgh
2018. Technology-Enhanced Consultations in Diabetes, Cancer, and Heart Failure: Protocol for the Qualitative Analysis of Remote Consultations (QuARC) Project. JMIR Research Protocols 7:7 ► pp. e10913 ff.
Siitonen, Pauliina, Marika Helisten, Maarit Siromaa, Mirka Rauniomaa & Mari Holmström
Stommel, Wyke, Harry van Goor & Martijn Stommel
2019. Other-Attentiveness in Video Consultation Openings: A Conversation Analysis of Video-Mediated Versus Face-to-Face Consultations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Stommel, Wyke J. P. & Martijn W. J. Stommel
2021. Participation of Companions in Video-Mediated Medical Consultations: A Microanalysis. In Analysing Digital Interaction, ► pp. 177 ff.
Weiste, Elina, Inka Koskela, Aku Kallio, Hanna Keränen, Sanna Pesonen, Erja Sormunen, Pirjo Juvonen-Posti & Johanna Ruusuvuori
2023. Balancing participation in writing meeting minutes online in video-mediated return-to-work negotiations. Frontiers in Communication 8
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.