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Research has shown that gender disparities exist in online communication. Understanding the factors that enable students to effectively communicate online and ultimately manage their own discussions has important learning and pedagogical implications. This study examined the communication and interactional processes of peer-directed online discussions. Gender disparities were found in communication styles and in the use of socio-emotional content. Men were expository whereas messages posted by women were of an epistolary nature. Women used socio-emotional content more than men. However, interactions, such as the extent to which men and women persisted in message threads as well as responded to one another, were comparable overall. Although not significant, women posted more messages of longer length but men received more replies to their messages. The findings have important pedagogical implications for educators who wish to engage students in peer-directed text-based asynchronous discussions.

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News providers today offer interactive sources that engage people, enable them to build community, and to participate in the news. At the same time, the digital interfaces through which people access the news are continuingly evolving, diverse, and oftentimes visually complex. How these factors shape human information seeking in news-oriented virtual communities is a relatively new area of study and therefore greater understanding of their influence on human behavior is of much practical value. In this chapter, the authors explore trends and developments in news-oriented virtual communities. They review several data collection and analysis techniques such as content analysis, usability testing and eye-tracking and propose that these techniques and associated tools can aid the study of news communities. They examine the implications these techniques have for better understanding human behavior in virtual communities as well as for improving the design of these environments.