LAUSR

ABSTRACT This article describes the emergence, application, development, and refinement of intergroup communication theory to explain the social effects of computer-mediated communication. It highlights the social identification-deindividuation model as a critique and alternative to models of computer-mediated communication based on interindividual and interpersonal perceptions. The article chronicles how tensions between interpersonal and intergroup approaches led to reevaluations of research methods, to measures, and to critical tests of the perspectives, and how these developments ultimately led to reformulations and the evolution of explanatory models from both the intergroup and interpersonal domains. Recent developments in social media and their challenges and opportunities for continuing and expanding applications of intergroup conceptualizations are discussed, concluding with recommendations for the resurgent vitality of intergroup approaches to help explain new social media practices and problems.