Showing papers in "Discourse, Context and Media in 2018"

The appeal to political sentiment: An analysis of Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s speech themes and discourse strategies in the 2016 US presidential election

Abstract: This study investigated Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s speeches during the 2016 presidential election to identify their sentiments and discourse themes and strategies by using machine-based methods, including computerized sentence-level sentiment analysis, structural topic modeling for themes, and word2vec exploration for thematic associations. The machine-based automatic analyses were also complemented by a qualitative examination of the speech data motivated by the top thematic terms identified by the automatic analyses. The results of the study revealed that Trump’s speeches were significantly more negative than Clinton’s. The results also provided evidence supporting many previous findings regarding Clinton’s and Trump’s discourse/rhetoric styles and major campaign themes produced by studies using different research methods. The results of this study might also help explain Trump’s victory despite the significant more negative sentiment in his discourse.

A multimodal mixed methods approach for examining recontextualisation patterns of violent extremist images in online media

Abstract: This paper uses a multimodal mixed methods approach for exploring general recontextualisation patterns of violent extremist images in online media. Specifically, the paper reports on the preliminary findings of a preliminary study which investigates various patterns in the reuse of images which appear in ISIS’s official propaganda magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah by others across various public online media platforms (e.g. news websites, social media news aggregates, blogs). Using a mixed methods approach informed by multimodal discourse analysis, and combined with data mining and information visualisation, the study addresses questions such as which types of images produced and used by ISIS in its propaganda magazines recirculate most frequently in other online media over time, on which types of online media these images reappear, and in which contexts they are used and reused on these websites, that is that is, whether the tone of the message is corporate (formal) or personal (informal). Preliminary findings from the study suggest different recontextualisation patterns for certain types of ISIS-related images of over time. The study also found that the majority of violent extremist images used in the sample analysis appear to circulate most frequently on Western news and politics websites and news aggregate platforms, in predominantly formal contexts.

Functions of emojis in WhatsApp interaction among Omanis

Abstract: This paper examines the functions of emojis as used by Omani men and women friends and relatives in messages exchanged on WhatsApp. The data consists of naturally occurring WhatsApp conversations taken from one male-only and one-female only WhatsApp groups. In order to determine the types of emojis used and the frequencies, I used what Herring (2004) describes as “coding and counting” in her description of computer-mediated discourses analysis. Then, I performed a qualitative analysis of selected extracts using theories and methods of interactional sociolinguistics. In line with studies such as Dresner and Herring (2010), the analysis of select, representative excerpts including various emojis demonstrates that emojis do not only serve as indicators of users’ emotions, but also serve many other communicative functions. They can serve as what Gumperz (1982) calls “contextualization cues”; indication of celebration; indication of approval of others’ messages; responses to expressions of thanks and compliments; conversational openings and closings; linking devices; and indication of the fulfillment of a requested task. In other words, emojis serve to create alignments between participants, structure interactive exchanges, and indicate message tone.

Discursive strategies of resistance on Weibo: A case study of the 2015 Tianjin explosions in China

Abstract: The internet and social media are increasingly seen as one of the major channels for public participation and through which anxiety and discontent about social and political issues are voiced and dealt with in non-democratic countries like China. Weibo, as a platform of this type, has been attracting growing attention in the fields of political communication and media studies in recent years. This study takes a discourse approach to explore resistance on Weibo by drawing upon a case study of the 2015 Tianjin explosions. Based on a discourse analysis of 1322 microblogs immediately following the explosions, this study unravels the details and dynamics of how Weibo users challenge the official discourse and offer an alternative discourse of the disaster online. It identifies three discursive strategies of resistance in Weibo: (a) resisting by quoting cross-platform witness accounts; (b) resisting by creating rumors; (c) resisting by ridiculing the official discourse through satire. These strategies of resistance exemplify how Chinese netizens actively use social media platforms to express sociopolitical arguments in non-democratic contexts, and in turn, reshape the power relations between the state and the public.

Forging a glorious past via the ‘present perfect’: A corpus-based CDA analysis of China’s past accomplishments discourse mediat(is)ed at China’s interpreted political press conferences

Abstract: With increasing attention on discursive power, the “proper telling of China’s story” (jianghao zhongguo gushi) has recently become a key slogan in mainland China. Held within the sociopolitical context of reform and opening-up, the televised and interpreter-mediated premier’s press conferences constitute such a discursive event that facilitates the articulation of China’s discourse to domestic and international audiences. This corpus-based CDA study explores how China’s discourse on its past actions and accomplishments is mediated by government interpreters cross-linguistically in China’s global voice — English. Through investigating the concordance lines containing the top 3 self-referential items (we/China/government), the use of present perfect (continuous) structures is established as a prominent feature in (re)presenting Beijing’s achievements in English. Critical comparisons with the Chinese originals suggest the interpreters’ proliferated use of these structures, which discursively leads to a stronger level of accomplishment, positive self-portrayal and, resultantly, political legitimisation. This interdisciplinary study highlights the interpreters’ often neglected yet vital agency in further legitimating and (re)constructing China’s image as important (re)tellers of “China’s story” beyond national borders. This is particularly the case, given the mediat(is)ed and (re)mediat(is)ed nature of the high-profile event.

Emoji and communicative action: The semiotics, sequence and gestural actions of ‘face covering hand’

Abstract: This paper uses conversation analysis to explore the communicative functions of one emoji in a mobile reading community in China. In contrast to semiotic approaches to emoji that focus on their cultural signification, or that treat them as reflections of users’ inner intensions, we analyse emoji as communication phenomena by exploring their relation to other textual actions in the production of text-talk. The emoji analysed here functioned as a laughter token, and performed specific interactional work related to laughter. We conclude that conversation analysis offers an important corrective to abstracted semiotic analysis and a useful resource for exploring the demonstrable meaning of emoji for interlocutors. However, we also emphasise the importance of capturing the process of composing messages, the challenges of dealing with the variety of forms that emoji take and their relation to gestural and other actions in face to face communication.

Mitigation in Chinese online consumer reviews

Abstract: With the increasing popularity of online shopping among consumers and the continuous development of interactive digital communication, online reviews are prevalent in contemporary life. As a new genre, online reviews deserve more attention in language and discourse studies. Existing studies in this field predominantly investigate online reviews in English. More research on a greater variety of languages is needed to better understand the linguistic features of this genre and the localization of the social practice. In addition, how consumers mitigate their evaluations lacks systemic exploration. This study provides an analysis of mitigation strategies in Chinese consumer reviews, based on a dataset of user-generated online comments on Kindle E-Reader collected from Amazon China. The study examines the usage and frequency of different types of mitigation devices in the reviews. The distribution of mitigation is further investigated against the positive or negative nature of the comments. Since Chinese is a logographical language, exploring Chinese mitigation identified some particular usages. The study demonstrates that the investigation into mitigation in Chinese online consumer reviews could provide insights into cross-cultural differences in this genre.

Digital academic discourse: Texts and contexts: Introduction

Abstract: This Special Issue focuses on how digital media – blogs, tweets, and other digital platforms – are used by researchers, and how these new modes of academic communication have impacted writing practices and language uses in the academy. It brings together research in two related areas of scholarship: academic discourse analysis and literacies research. In this introductory article, we first outline the concept of digital academic discourse as we perceive it in the context of our Special Issue and show how it is related to, and at the same time different from, its “analogue” predecessor. We then continue to discuss the practices surrounding the production of academic texts with the support of digital media, followed by an outline of how both digital academic discourse and related writing practices are tied to the networks, communities and spaces in which they take place. Next, methodological issues in the study of digital academic discourse are considered, and the articles in this special issue are presented in connection to the themes outlined above. We conclude by contextualising the studies reported here within current trends in discourse analytical and sociolinguistic research and identify venues for future studies.

/pol/emics: Ambiguity, scales, and digital discourse on 4chan

Abstract: This paper will explore the ways in which online, anonymous interaction on the website 4chan.org can complicate traditionally situated discursive theory. Through an examination of the politically incorrect board (/pol/), this paper begins to reanalyze scale, alignment, and double-voicing approaches in ways that necessitate novel understandings of digitally placed discourse. This website has demonstrated unique engagements with these categories, engaging with global and personal discourses through anonymity, geographically “situated” flag markers, and green-text narrative techniques, among others. This essay contains a number of examples found through 4chan’s /pol/ via qualitative-oriented, inscriptive gathering techniques of discourses concerning both the continuing European and American migration issues, as they are explored by a globally situated, digital community. Through banal, everyday engagements with both the material and the website features themselves, users craft new realizations of identity and interaction in a space that seeks to make all anonymous.

Public ritual apology – A case study of Chinese

Abstract: The present paper explores the phenomenon of ‘public ritual apology’. In our definition, this phenomenon covers an apology performed in front of public, and which is ritual in the sense that it is symbolic and expected to restore the moral order of the public, rather than grant actual reconciliation between the apologiser and the offended party. Thus, ‘public ritual apology’ usually occurs in contexts when someone apologises for acts that are deemed as grave and in the case of which apology is seemingly dysfunctional in the sense that it cannot usually grant forgiveness. Public ritual apology is a regretfully neglected area, in spite of the fact that such apologies are not only frequent but also generate significant public attention in media – thus, this paper fills an important knowledge gap. In our paper we focus on Chinese public ritual apologies, which are noteworthy to explore as Chinese is stereotypically referred to as a culture which disprefers apologising behaviour. Our methodology is predominantly interactional and metapragmatic, and it combines qualitative research with quantitative elements.

Facework by global brands across Twitter and Weibo

Abstract: Applying a micro-analytical form of discourse analysis to a set of microblogging record over a three-month period, the study examines how ten top global brands utilize linguistic resources and strategies to build positive and socially acceptable images with the public across two significant social media platforms, i.e., with the English speaking public on Twitter and with the Chinese speaking public on Weibo. In the process of the examination, the notions of face and facework from interactional linguistics are utilized and further defined. It is found that impression management by these global corporations on social media is characterized by duality of facework: on one hand, global brands promote their corporate assets, as evidenced in the use of speech acts such as disclosing corporate information and broadcasting corporate products and campaigns; on the other hand, they build solidarity with their followers, as evidenced in the use of speech acts such as greeting, directing, expressing, sharing, and retweeting. Finally, the study points to the emergence of a global culture on social media and concludes with a glocalization perspective for further studies of corporate communication practice in the age of digitalization.

Chinese-English bilinguals’ online compliment response patterns in American (Facebook) and Chinese (Renren) social networking sites

Abstract: Prior research has documented cross-cultural differences in Western and East Asian societies as reflected in their language use patterns. Research also shows that people with bilingual and bicultural competency can flexibly change their language use patterns in response to different cultural contexts (Canagarajah, 2013). In this paper, we studied compliment response patterns of the same Chinese-English bilinguals in two highly popular social networking platforms (Facebook and Renren). Results showed that while Renren and Facebook are two technically similar platforms, Chinese-English bilingual users who are members of both online cultures flexibly switched and adapted their compliment response patterns in response to the online community in which they were participating. The Chinese-English bilinguals’ compliment response patterns were aligned with modesty principles more when they participated in Renren community, and less so when they participated in the Facebook community. Conversely, their compliment response patterns on Facebook were aligned with agreement principle more, and less so when they participated in Renren community. Our findings support that the linkage between language and culture are immutable even in a virtual context, and that bilinguals, who are members of both Renren and Facebook, change their compliment response patterns in response to the online community in which they are participating. The study has both theoretical and methodological significance.

‘It’s not the fact they claim benefits but their useless, lazy, drug taking lifestyles we despise’: Analysing audience responses to Benefits Street using live tweets

Abstract: This paper capitalises on the instantaneity of Twitter as a communicative medium by analysing live audience responses to the second series of the controversial television programme Benefits Street. We examine the discourses and representation of social class drawn upon in public reactions to the program. We compiled a corpus of live tweets that were sent during the first airing of each episode of Benefits Street II, which included the hashtags #BenefitsStreet and/or #BenefitStreet. Our corpus comprises 11,623 tweets sourced from over four thousand Twitter accounts. Drawing on techniques from corpus-based discourse analysis, and contrasting our findings to an earlier study on Benefits Street by Baker and McEnery (2015a), we offer an insight into viewers’ discursive constructions of benefit claimants not just as scroungers, but as a more generally morally inadequate and flawed underclass. We argue that poverty porn programmes such as Benefits Street encourage viewers to see any positive representations of benefits claimants as exceptions to the rule.

Re-appraising self and other in the English translation of contemporary Chinese political discourse

Abstract: Drawing on appraisal system (Martin and White, 2005), this paper examines the variation of attitudes towards China and other countries by analyzing a corpus of the Chinese-English translation of evaluative epithets in graduation—the sub-category of appraisal system—in contemporary Chinese political discourse from 2000 to 2017. The findings suggest that: (1) translation shifts do exist in the translation of graduation epithets, particularly in the form of zero translation, though the cardinal principle of remaining faithful to the original Chinese political discourse is respected; (2) statistical analysis indicates a significant difference in the variation of attitudes towards China and other countries through translation shifts, and the variations of attitudes are in such a way that attitude towards China becomes less positive while attitude towards other countries less negative in the translation of political discourse from Chinese into English. It is argued that the translation participants’ adherence to the General Strategy of Politeness (Leech, 2014) can partially account for the research findings. It should also be noted that the basis for their adherence, ideologically speaking, is to serve the Self’s interests.

A chronotopic approach to identity performance in a Facebook meme page

Abstract: This paper focuses on the negotiation of normativity in Facebook pages that create, share and react to multimodal cultural artefacts generally known as internet memes. Attention is paid to performances of ‘vigilante’ identity – reactions in comment sections to perceived or possible transgressions against normative orders of the community. It is assumed that normative negotiations largely depend on characteristics of internet memes that are also shaped by their trajectories of usage in various environments, and hence also by their history. Identity work is thus approached as a chronotopically organized phenomenon; memes appear in certain chronotopic (timespace) configurations which ratify certain communicative practices and the way people orient to them in discussion. Seeing much of the identity work as chronotopically organized and dialogically negotiated opens up the path to a greater degree of complexity in analysis and brings new insights for the study of identity in social media.

Populist discourse on a British social media patient-support community: The case of the Charlie Gard support campaign on Facebook

Abstract: This article draws from an ethnographically motivated non-participant observation of an ongoing and very young online patient support community in the UK, to present an analysis of its discursive practices. It demonstrates how it performs populism (c.f. Canovan, 1982, 1999; McRae, 1969), and both draws upon and contributes to a climate of opinion (Gunther et al, 2011) fuelled by what has recently been described as media populism (Kramer, 2014). Using the theoretical lens of populism and climate of opinion, it demonstrates how the more than sixty thousand strong social media ‘army’ (61,337 members at the time of writing this paper) formed around a terminally ill baby at the centre of a parent-judiciary-hospital legal battle in Britain in 2017, uses key tropes and devices of populist rhetoric to establish lay-expertise in its performance of support for the ordinary patient and their family, de-recognising and vilifying medical expertise and publicly funded healthcare systems built on socio-democratic ideals. The article also demonstrates how ordinary users’ mobilisation of populist rhetoric to reject both professional expertise and public institutions, make use of established architectural features of the online community’s socio-technological design (c.f. Escobar, 1994; Ley, 2007), such as immediacy, remediation and protective gatekeeping. Populism has, till now, been used largely for the study of politics and mediated political communication (c.f. Meyer, 2006; Hameleers & Schmuck, 2017). By drawing upon this body of work to inform the analysis of a patient-support community (see also Loader et al 2002; Preece 2010; Armstrong et al, 2011 on online patient communities), this paper also discusses the public implications of these findings, calling for considerations of the impact of digitally mediated populist ideologies, campaigns and rhetoric on public perceptions and expectations of healthcare systems and professionals.

Exploring Chinese college students’ construction of online identity on the Sina Microblog

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate identity construction on a social network site, the largest microblog platform, Sina Microblog, in China. By focusing on the action types and language use in the status updates and personal profiles of ten college student users from China together with individual interviews, this study finds that microblog users employ a variety of strategies to construct their online identities, such as different action types; visual, enumerative, narrative and self-labelling practices; and different forms of internet language. The results also show that microblog users tend to use more implicit identity claims and strategically use language to construct situation-appropriate multiple identities, using identity rhetoric to achieve some communicative needs. The user, displayed friends and distant audiences triangulate to mould and portray their online identities on the Sina Microblog. The related factors that shape identity construction are described, and the implications of these findings are discussed.

The translingual digital practices of Saudi females on WhatsApp

Abstract: This study examines the way young Saudi women use language and other communicative resources in their digitally mediated interactions. It is motivated by the debate in Saudi Arabia on the impact of digital media on the way people use language, especially Arabic, how they manage their social relationships, and how they enact their cultural identities. The study was conducted at a women’s university in Saudi Arabia. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of participants’ WhatsApp interactions, followed by an in-depth analysis of some examples, and highlights two important aspects: (1), an understudied linguistic variety used in Arabic digitally mediated communication, and (2), this paper proposes a more concrete approach to the analysis of “translanguaging,” which involves the utilization of tools from mediated discourse analysis (Jones and Norris, 2005).

Dementia on Facebook: requesting information and advice about dementia risk-prevention on social media

Abstract: Social media platforms like Facebook have the potential to make significant contributions to health communication and promotion, yet little is known about the social practices that routinely occur in such spaces. Health organisations can use social media to communicate about public health issues like the prevention of dementia for the purpose of improving population health outcomes. In this study, we examine posts on a conversation on a Facebook Page about dementia risk and prevention activity moderated by researchers affiliated with a prominent Australian dementia organisation. The analysis illustrates how posts in the conversation routinely functioned to make relevant and manage accountability and identity, and position users as responsible for risk-management. Understanding more about social norms of communicating about dementia risk-prevention online can provide insight into how posters experience and understand the issues of cognitive ageing and dementia, which may inform future tailored health communication strategies using social media. This is of significance given the increasing prevalence of dementia worldwide, and the growing importance of social media as sources of health information.

Weibo interaction in the discourse of internet anti-corruption: The case of “Brother Watch” event

Abstract: Extant studies have been predicated on the assumption that Weibo interaction plays important roles in the formation and development of Internet anti-corruption, but little attention has been given to how such interaction is locally constructed among Weibo users. Drawing upon analytical tools evolved from Conversation Analysis and Multimodal Discourse Analysis, this study examined a pool of Weibo tweets and responses employed in discussing an Internet anti-corruption event, i.e., the “Brother Watch” event which happened in 2012. The analysis showed that Weibo interaction featured an overarching sequence of “key tweet + responses”, wherein key tweets were formulated as newsworthy and authentic messages to engage the audience. Responses were designed to project new meanings and actions while orienting to prior turns. As a result, exposed information became repetitively circulated, amplified and reinforced, and eventually shaped into an online public event.

Mental health advocacy on Twitter:Positioning in Depression Awareness Week tweets

Abstract: Introduction Depressive disorders are experienced by nearly one in five UK adults (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2015) and are estimated to affect over 300 million people worldwide (World Health Organization, 2017). While social support is instrumental in helping the sufferers cope, stigma concerns often discourage people from discussing the symptoms and seeking help face-to-face. Social media, therefore, has emerged as a useful platform for communication and interaction on health topics including stigmatised conditions as it reduces some of the negative connotations of face-to-face disclosure (Jamison-Powell et al, 2012). Both individuals and organisations in the healthand social care sectors actively use commercially available platforms such as Facebook (authors/reference after review) and Twitter in order to provide support, raise awareness and campaign to improve attitudes towards depression. Participants with depression specifically prefer Twitter to Facebook because of the loose social connection that allows them to tweet more openly (Park et al, 2012). Founded in 2006, Twitter represents a mode of social media known as micro-blogging an internet-based service in which (1) users have a public profile for posting short messages or updates; (2) such messages are publicly aggregated across users, and (3) users can decide whose messages they wish to receive but not necessarily who can receive their messages, that is following each other is not necessarily mutual (Murthy, 2012). Twitter messages are short – the character limit was 140 characters until 20171. The hashtag symbol # allows tagging tweets with keywords that are searchable and followable (Zappavigna, 2015). Taken together, these micro-blogging features2 allow an array of communicative functions – for example, allowing individuals and organisations to use Twitter ‘as a broadcast medium, marketing channel, diary, social platform, and news source’ (Marwick & boyd, 2010: 9). While media studies and sociology research has examined

Impact of digital tools on the research writing process : A case study of collaborative writing in computer science

Abstract: This paper reports on a case study on collaborative research writing in computer science, with particular focus on the researchers’ use of digital writing and social media tools. The research paper is still a prominent genre in the field, but technological advances such as the development of real-time collaborative writing tools and social media have created new opportunities for collaboration as well as the sharing of research results. This paper takes a closer look at how digital tools, particularly collaborative writing tools and Twitter, are utilised in the process of producing a research paper for publication, and how the authors and their colleagues view the role of such tools in the text production process. The data include a text history of a research paper, as well as research interviews with the main authors and their colleagues. The data have been approached from a local practices perspective, considering the paper as part of the writing practices of the multicultural research group where the authors worked. The interviews provide further perspectives on the researchers’ use of digital tools. The findings shed light on collaborative research writing practices, particularly how collaborative writing tools, which enable new practices such as synchronous writing, may not be utilised by the researchers in the ways intended by the developers. The findings also highlight the significance of social media tools, particularly Twitter, in post-publication activities, with important implications for researcher education.

‘Hitler had a valid argument against some Jews’: Repertoires for the denial of antisemitism in Facebook discussion of a survey of attitudes to Jews and Israel

Abstract: Existing research suggests that, in contemporary liberal democracies, complaints of racism are routinely rejected and prejudice may be both expressed and disavowed in the same breath. Surveys and historical research have established that – both in democratic states and in those of the Soviet Bloc (while it existed) – antisemitism has long been related to or expressed in the form of statements about Israel or ‘Zionist’, permitting anti-Jewish attitudes to circulate under cover of political critique. This article looks at how the findings of a survey of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attitudes were rejected by users of three Facebook pages associated with the British Left. Through thematic discourse analysis, three recurrent repertoires are identified: firstly, what David Hirsh calls the ‘Livingstone Formulation’ (i.e. the argument that complaints of antisemitism are made in bad faith to protect Israel and/or attack the Left), secondly, accusations of flawed methodology similar to those with which UK Labour Party supporters routinely dismiss the findings of unfavourable opinion polls, and thirdly, the argument that, because certain classically antisemitic beliefs pertain to a supposed Jewish or ‘Zionist’ elite and not to Jews in general, they are not antisemitic. In one case, the latter repertoire facilitates virtually unopposed apologism for Adolf Hitler. Contextual evidence suggests that the dominance of such repertoires within one very large UK Labour Party-aligned group may be the result of action on the part of certain ‘admins’ or moderators. It is argued that awareness of the repertoires used to express and defend antisemitic attitudes should inform the design of quantitative research into the latter, and be taken account of in the formulation of policy measures aiming to restrict or counter hate speech (in social media and elsewhere).

Expression of empathy in a Facebook-based diabetes support group

Abstract: Existing studies show that people suffering from chronic illnesses turn to online health communities not only to share and check relevant factual information but also to receive and express empathy from/to their fellow sufferers. Indeed, along with seeking and providing advice from and to others, expressions of social support, including empathic features, have been found to be central to discourse in online support groups (OSGs). This is the first study to use a pragmatics-based discourse analytic approach that focuses on “empathic communicative acts” (Pounds and De Pablos-Ortega, 2016) to investigate the expression of empathy on a social networking site (SNS), and specifically in a Facebook support group or FSG. The analysis is applied to 560 messages to a type 2 diabetes FSG and explores how empathy is expressed within the multi-dialogic context of asynchronous interaction. The study helps qualify the supportive value of FSGs and provides the basis for further studies of empathic communication in other SNS contexts.