Communicative practices in an online financial forum during abnormal stock market behavior

We offered a new perspective on communication in computer-mediated environments by examining communicative practices used during discussion in an online financial forum about a listed company that was experiencing abnormal trading behavior. The analysis of communicative practices showed how the linguistic nature of the online forum allowed covert manipulation of inexperienced and unsuspecting forum participants – against all the norms and rules governing online financial forums. Based on our theoretical understanding of communicative practices, we found a discrepancy between the expectations of and the actual divergence from an ideal communicative environment free from distortion and manipulation that is normally assumed to govern online forums. The discrepancy, which remains largely concealed, can be seen as a major factor in the negative implications of online financial forums.