university of bergen, 13 feb 2012 workshop sociolinguistic ... · workshop sociolinguistic and...

University of Bergen, 13 Feb 2012 Workshop Sociolinguistic and discourse analysis of social media data

Jannis Androutsopoulos !!University of Hamburg [email protected]!http://jannisandroutsopoulos.wordpress.com/!!!!

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Sociolinguistic and discourse analysis of social media data

This workshop is intended as a (partially hands-on) illustration of procedures and problems in sociolinguistic research on social network sites and participatory online environments. It is organised in four parts:

a)  Some analytical and methodological distinctions in language-

centred CMC research.

b)  Two descriptive devices developed in my recent work on

YouTube and Facebook, with demonstration of their use in analysis: the ‘participatory spectacle’ and the ‘wall event’.

c)  Hands-on: metalinguistic discourse on (German) YouTube.

d)  Hands-on: Code-switching in Facebook wall events.

2 Jannis Androutsopoulos, University of Hamburg, 2012

Obvious problems

»  Heterogeneous data

»  Invisible social contexts

»  Language in multimedia environments

»  Technological determinism vs. social practice


media factors in CMD (Herring 2007)

4

Herring, Susan C. (2007) A faceted classification scheme for computer-mediated discourse. In: Language@Internet, 4, article 1. URL: http://www.languageatinternet.de/articles/2007/761/index_html/

Jannis Androutsopoulos, University of Hamburg, 2012

social/situational factors in CMD (Herring 2007)


CMDA data sampling techniques (Herring 2004)

6 Herring, Susan C. (2004) Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis: An Approach to Researching Online Communities. In: Barab, Sasha A. et al. (eds.) Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning, 338-376. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Some distinctions in CMD (or language-centred CMC) research

1.  Screens and users

2.  Modes, genres, and platforms

3.  Writers and audiences

4.  Time and space

5.  Units, sequences, and intervals

6.  Language in multimodal/multimedia context


Data set 1:

»  Dialects on YouTube (metalinguistic discourse,

performance and negotiation of dialects)

»  ‘Participatory spectacle’


‘participatory spectacle’

»  Media material produced by web users, displayed on a media-sharing platform, and responded to by other users

»  Shaped by participation and convergence

»  ‘Spectacle’ is meant to evoke:

 visual reception, multimodal resources

 entertainment as communicative aim (primarily, though not exclusively)

 orientation to audiences, seeking and receiving responses


Participatory spectacles across platforms


Participatory spectacle – a new kind of ‚text‘?

»  A multimedia, multi-authored, dynamically

expanding text

»  An outcome of the interaction between:

»  produced material,

»  modalities of display,

»  audience responses

(References on last slide) 11 Jannis Androutsopoulos, University of Hamburg, 2012

Participatory spectacles: produced, displayed, responded to

»  Produced  Wide range of available media and modes!

 Pre-existing material can be used, modified, recombined

 Potential for planning, scripting, aesthetic elaboration

»  Displayed  Made retrievable through tags (and title) by producers

 Supplied with framing information by hosting platform

»  Responded to  Viewers’ engagement with a spectacle in terms of

›  Video responses / Comments / Circulation, re-imbedding

 Videos as an occasion to reproduce larger social discourses


Participatory spectacles as cultural productions

»  situated outside, but related to and interacting with mainstream media

»  unregulated public space offering a forum to voices that are excluded from mainstream media

»  site of grassroots media engagement, where dominant texts are appropriated and creatively modified

»  repository of ‘dynamic’ semiotic material characterised by "detachability” and circulation


Participatory spectacles as sites of localness

»  Spectacles often represent, refer to, depict etc. a particular (geographical) place or (social) space

»  Places/spaces can be shown or talked about, but also indexed, alluded to, stylized, or stereotyped

»  Spectacle makers position themselves with respect to these places and spaces - they live there, have been

there, like or dislike them etc.

»  Thus engaging with localness also means doing identity

work: displaying and negotiating one’s own claims of belonging


15

Participatory spectacles as sites of vernacular language practice

»  ‘vernacular’ in sociolinguistics and literacy studies (e.g. Barton & Hamilton 1998; Coupland 2009):   local, linked to a specific place or region  non-institutional, limited to the everyday

 non-standard (distinct from standard language)

»  Participatory spectacles draw on and recontextualize vernacular speech:

 A resource in home-made representations of local community and culture

 Performed and stylised (staging social types or stereotypes)

 Embedded into complex multimodal/multimedia texts  Often linked to globally circulated materials and discourses


16

Descriptors for dialects/regions used as video tags

17

Use of dialect/region tags on YouTube (September 2010)

17

Kölsch: 1630

Berlinerisch: 28 Berlinisch: 12

Hessisch: 418

Bay(e)risch: 2417 Bairisch: 176 Boarisch: 478

Fränkisch: 298

Alemannisch: 50

Schwäbisch: 3000

Pfälzisch: 98

Niederdeutsch: 58 Nedderdüütsch: 10 Plattdeutsch: 532

Plattdütsch: 62 Sächsisch: 387


Videos tagged as “Berlinerisch”

»  Drawing on videos and transcripts, discuss the different ways dialect is engaged with in these videos. Consider:

 Genre, including the distinction between fictional and non-fictional

 Stylization of “typical” dialect speakers

 Use of vs. talk about dialect

 Links between dialect and social identities, as expressed or performed in the videos


Comments to “Berlinerisch” videos

»  Handout: a selection of comments to two videos of the compilation (the earliest 35 or so comments per video). Use the coding of Berlinerisch features from the video handout. Consider :  Dialect use in the comments: frequency, variation in

dialect spelling; switching between dialect and standard (to the extent you can decode that); and relations between dialect and writer’s voice.

 Dialect discourse in the comments: what language attitudes are expressed in he comments; what dialect stereotypes are mentioned; how authenticity of dialect use ion the videos is judged upon; and whether writers disclose their own dialect identity.


Data set 2:

»  More data from the facebook pages of the German-Greek pupils.

»  ‘Wall event’

(References on last slide)


‘Wall event’

»  Facebook walls can be regarded as an ‘endless’ sequence of multi-authored ‘events’.

»  Any sequence of user-contributed comments that is displayed on a user’s wall:  Consist of ≥ 1 post (the initiative

contribution or opener) followed by ‘likes’ and/or user comments (responsive posts).

 Displayed in reverse chronological order

 Visually set off from each other.


‘Wall event’

Analytical categories

(a)  participation formats

(b) types of initiative contribution

(c)  dialogic and interactive

relations between posts

(d)  extent of a wall event (time,

length).


Papers

»  Androutsopoulos, J. (2010) Localising the global on the participatory web. In: Coupland, Nikolas (ed.): Handbook of Language and Globalization, S. 203-231. Oxford: Blackwell.

»  Androutsopoulos, J. (in press) Participatory culture and metalinguistic

discourse: performing and negotiating German dialects on YouTube. Forthcoming in Discourse 2.0: Language and new media , eds. Deborah Tannen & Anna-Marie Trester, Georgetown University Press.

»  Androutsopoulos, J. (in press) Intermediale Varietätendynamik: Ein

explorativer Blick auf die Inszenierung und Aushandlung von ‚Dialekt’ auf YouTube. Sociolinguistica Vol. 26 (2012).

»  Androutsopoulos, J. (forthcoming) Networked multilingualism: Some

language practices of Facebook and their implications. In: International Journal of Bilingualism.

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