La définition des destinataires dans les forums web: codification automatique et codification qualitative des messages

Many studies in the field of Social Network Analysis applied to CMC derive their indices from the computer logs, on the assumption that the kind of data source recorded in log files reflects the way people really interacted online. However especially novices and beginners rarely make a proper use of the communication functions provided by the environment (for instance, they reply to other messages posting a new message, and not using the Reply function). Furthermore the public nature of web forums, in which messages are sent to a group of people, may affect the detection of specific addressees. This study presents the outcomes of an exploratory research aiming at making a comparison between an automatic and a qualitative coding of the postings addressees.