Online support groups are considered highly valuable in addition to traditional health care services, but we know very little about how people actually join such a group. This book offers a microanalysis of an online support group on eating disorders, specifically the communication through textual messages between newcomers and regular members and members' nicknames. The study uses an ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approach to show that members of online support groups treat the group as a community in which their illness-identity is highly relevant. It appears that members invoke community norms regarding legitimacy for newcomers: Newcomers are expected to admit that they are ill, but this is a very difficult step for those who have not yet fully adopted the "sick role" (Parsons, 1951). In the field of eating disorders, it is particularly difficult for people that tend to "pro-ana," i.e. the glamorization of eating disorders. The insecurity and anxiety that newcomers display as they enter the online group could probably be relieved when a special entry subforum would be installed in which they can take time and space to actually recognize that they are ill.

This book investigates interaction-focused scholarship on online communication. It focuses on a broad range of online contexts including social media, dating apps, online comments, instant messaging and video-mediated interaction. Bringing together experts from a variety of scholarly backgrounds, chapters demonstrate how different microanalytic methods, including conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis and discursive psychology, can be applied to online communication. The book also goes on to address ethical, methodological and theoretical issues of analysing online social interaction. With the explosion of the use of online platforms for everyday and institutional interaction, this book is a timely collection which explores the current state of the field, and considers future directions for microanalysis of online communication.

This book investigates interaction-focused scholarship on online communication. It focuses on a broad range of online contexts including social media, dating apps, online comments, instant messaging and video-mediated interaction. Bringing together experts from a variety of scholarly backgrounds, chapters demonstrate how different microanalytic methods, including conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis and discursive psychology, can be applied to online communication. The book also goes on to address ethical, methodological and theoretical issues of analysing online social interaction. With the explosion of the use of online platforms for everyday and institutional interaction, this book is a timely collection which explores the current state of the field, and considers future directions for microanalysis of online communication.