This book contributes to the scholarly debate on the forms and patterns of interaction and discourse in modern digital communication by probing some of the social functions that online communication has for its users.
‘Analysing Digital Discourse: Between Convergence and Controversy is an exciting and thought-provoking collection of papers, which addresses crucial dimensions of contemporary digital discourse. The volume is expertly framed by its editors as centering around three key themes: online cooperation and convergence, metapragmatic negotiations, and digital practices related to conflict and controversy. An excellent resource for students and scholars interested in the latest research on technologically-mediated communication.’
—Camilla Vásquez, University of South Florida, USA
This book contributes to the scholarly debate on the forms and patterns of interaction and discourse in modern digital communication by probing some of the social functions that online communication has for its users. An array of experts and scholars in the field address a range of forms of social interaction and discourses expressed by users on social networks and in public media. Social functions are reflected through linguistic and discursive practices that are either those of ‘convergence’ or ‘controversy’ in terms of how the discourse participants handle interpersonal relations or how they construct meanings in discourses. In this sense, the book elaborates on some very central concerns in the area of digital discourse analysis that have been reported within the last decade from various methodological perspectives ranging from sociolinguistics and pragmatics to corpus linguistics. This edited collection will be of particular interest to scholars and students in the fields of digital discourse analysis, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, social media and communication, and media and cultural studies.
Marjut Johansson is Professor of French Studies in the School of Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Turku, Finland.
Jan Chovanec is Associate Professor in the Department of English and American Studies at Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen is Associate Professor in Applied English Linguistics in the Department of Languages at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
—Camilla Vásquez, University of South Florida, USA
This edited collection provides valuable insights on the analysis of digital discourses on a wide range of social media platforms and other digital communication contexts. It draws on an exciting mix of research studies from Twitter and Tumblr, to chatbot 'conversations', and online discussion forums, to name a few. Collectively the chapters explore how convergence, controversy and power are digitally articulated and negotiated in relation to social presence, gender, culture, and language use. This book is of use to those trying to navigate the complex techno-scape of digital discourse.—Carey Jewitt, Professor of Learning and Technology, University College London
This volume is a welcome addition to the field of digital discourse analysis. The theoretical framework of ‘convergence’ and ‘controversy’ adopted by the editors creates space for a lively debate among contributors around the different ways digital platforms are simultaneously sites of solidarity and discord. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in how digital technologies are affecting our social relationships.
—Rodney H. Jones, University of Reading, UK