Gender-based strategies in Malaysian student blog forums

In this study we explored gender-based strategies used in mixed gender blog forums among Malaysian students. The qualitative study was based on the comments and feedback messages posted at the researcher's blog by 53 students over a period of 13 months. By using Herring's [1] Computer Mediated Discourse Analysis [CMDA] approach, this study found that the female participants had used a significant percentage of stereotyping strategy, alliance building strategy, solidarity strategy and direct strategy compared to the male participants. This is contrary to some gender studies that found males to be more direct in gender-based interaction. Therefore, online interaction is not a representative of the way Malaysian men and women observe politeness system in face-to-face interaction.