Language and Technology – Lesson FourSocial Media

Starter: feedback from homework.

What did you notice about the way language is used on these websites?

Explain with reference to:

•How public the forum is•The topic of conversation•The power/intimacy of participant relationships•The purpose of talk

Shortis (2000) – features of electronic texts

• Enables storage and transmission of diverse information.– This is huge – imagine the sheer amount of information available on

Google, in comparison to print texts!– Digital storage is not perhaps as durable as we think!

• Includes electronic typed text and/or digitised information.– Almost any source can be ‘digitised’ and then transmitted– Some argue that this ‘impoverishes’ social interaction: Moore (2005)

refutes this by saying that a greater range of tools are placed at our disposal, and the end user can then use the ones that best fit their needs

• Allows instant communication across geographical space.– These communications are increasingly widely available – not the

preserve of technology specialists or the wealthy/powerful

Shortis (2000) – features of electronic texts

• Can be linked to other electronic texts and processes.– We can now control central heating through our phones...

• Keeps a record of its "history" automatically.• Echoes previous genres and technologies.• Challenges notions of fixity and authority.• Is conducive to new patterns of spelling and punctuation, and use of symbols.

– Although we have ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ spellings due to dictionaries/printing processes and conventions, in digital texts, spelling/grammar seem to be less strictly controlled – users seem more interested in the ideas and attitudes expressed.

– Emoticons/smileys are used as paralinguistic clues, but as Crystal notes below:• "Very few of them are ever used. Surveys of email and chatgroups suggest that only about 10

per cent of messages actually use them, and then usually just the two basic types - :) and :( . Yet they still exercise a fascination: as an art form, or for entertainment." Crystal, D (2004), A Glossary of Netspeak and Textspeak. 119

Boyd (2014) – categorising of YouTube commentersBoyd, M. (2014) (New) participatory framework on YouTube? Commenter interaction in US political speeches

Journal of Pragmatics. 72: 46—58.

Boyd (2014) – categorising of YouTube commentersBoyd, M. (2014) (New) participatory framework on YouTube? Commenter interaction in US political speeches

Journal of Pragmatics. 72: 46—58.

• Commenting is seen as crucial to the way YouTube operates• However, the majority of YouTube users are simply ‘watchers’ and

‘readers’• There is a difference seen with unregistered users only able to

like/dislike a video or comment, while logged in/registered users able to comment.

• Antagonistic comments are common and are often homophobic, xenophobic/racist, crude and flippant. Sometime this is accepted or even encouraged by some users who use this to increase the ‘watched’ rating or move the conversation higher on the ‘most discussed’ list.

• However, this might also discourage other users from participation on YouTube in different ways.

Discussion: in what ways is Boyd’s analysis of YouTube users similar/different to the social

network you looked at?

Linguistic features of social media websites –Cutting’s (2011) analysis of Facebook

• Imperatives• Synthetic personalisation• Positive politeness strategies• Register?• Interrogatives (these begin an adjacency pair when we complete an action in

response to the question)• Graphology shaping discourse (how long ‘should’ statuses/comments be?)

• Can you identify these features on the extracts from Facebook on the worksheet?• In what ways does the website you looked at share/differ form these

characteristics?

READING• Read the two articles by Dan Clayton about the

language used online.– eMag 69, p. 47 ‘Analysing Online Texts’– eMag 70 p. 29 ‘Computer Mediated Communication Part

2’

• How do these articles help you understand some of the features you identified?

HomeworkPaper 2 Question 1 – discursive essay

• Discuss the idea that technology has altered the ways we can communicate.

• You should use your own supporting examples and the data in Texts A and B.

• AO1: Apply appropriate methods of language analysis, using associated terminology and coherent written expression (10 marks)

• AO2: Demonstrate critical understanding of concepts and issues relevant to language use (20 marks)