Les interactions médiatisées en messagerie instantanée. Organisation située des ressources sociotechniques pour une coprésence à distance

摘要

This research deals with instant messaging (IM) mediated interactions. IM can be defined as writing and quasi-synchronous communication artifacts, whose specificity is to be based on a list of contacts (or buddy list) gathering previously co-ratified partners ant to provide a series of presence indicators. A large number of works has been carried out with a special interest in buddy lists and in icons bearing witness of “on line” connections in this repertory. Thus, is has been shown that the perception of these icons contributes to creating a feeling of copresence among the distant participants. The aim of our study is to carry on the discussion about distant copresence in IM through a multimodal and praxeological perspective. While resorting to an audiovisual corpus of mundane IM interactions, we pay a particular attention both to the course of situated actions and to the various local resources (interactional, discursive and technical) participants employ in order to get in touch. Using a multidisciplinary approach (conversation analysis, discourse analysis, distributed cognition, Goffman's interactionism, situated action), we demonstrate finally that, rather than being a sensation originating from the perception of the buddy list and its components (i.e. the “on line” icon), the copresence in IM is, above all things, a practical accomplishment which results from the embodied organization of sociotechnical resources, and which enables different forms of encounters.