Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2015-12-17T14:13:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 kriciahelenabarreto.pdf: 3497141 bytes, checksum: 31704e8e9549f637c3c5ef61daf9437b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2015-12-17T18:01:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 kriciahelenabarreto.pdf: 3497141 bytes, checksum: 31704e8e9549f637c3c5ef61daf9437b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-17T18:01:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 kriciahelenabarreto.pdf: 3497141 bytes, checksum: 31704e8e9549f637c3c5ef61daf9437b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-06 / Este estudo tem como objeto o fenômeno conhecido como “memes de Internet”, produzidos no ambiente virtual do website denominado <9gag>, tendo sido focalizada a seção de comentários realizados sobre os memes postados por seus participantes. A partir de uma perspectiva interacional dos estudos do discurso, investigamos a maneira como a replicação dos memes de Internet sinaliza as práticas rituais constitutivas desse grupo e afeta a forma como as faces dos participantes são co-construídas e negociadas no curso da interação. Os rituais e as faces reivindicadas são vistos, então, como práticas que emergem e são sensíveis ao aqui e agora do uso da linguagem nesse contexto. As práticas de reprodução memética, compreendidas como unidades de transmissão cultural e de difusão da informação, fundamentadas na imitação, quando analisadas sob a perspectiva dos rituais relacionais (Kádár, 2013), vão muito além do simples entretenimento dentro de um grupo como o <9gag>. Elas auxiliam na formação e na manutenção do ethos dessa comunidade virtual, fornecendo o status de membros legítimos àqueles que acatam as regras interacionais estabelecidas através dessas práticas. A participação e o alinhamento às práticas rituais do grupo gerou o sentimento de pertencimento e identificação entre os participantes, legitimando-os como membros dessa comunidade, unidos pelo compartilhamento dos valores disseminados pelos memes, do conhecimento das práticas do grupo, e das representações simbólicas construídas pelo grupo. Além disso, através dos processos de elaboração das faces, pudemos verificar como os interagentes modelam as interações da comunidade ao se (des-)alinharem com os tipos de face que emergem nesse website. / The object of this study is the phenomenon known as ‘Internet memes’, produced within a virtual environment, in a website called <9gag>. The comments section was the main focus of analysis. From an interactional perspective on discourse, it has been investigated the way Internet meme replication signals ritual practices constitutive of this group and how it affects the way participants’ faces are co-constructed and negotiated in the course of interaction. Thus, rituals and faces claimed are seen as emergent practices that are sensitive to the interactional here-and-now of language use in this context. Meme-replication practices (understood as units of cultural transmission and dissemination of information, based on imitation), when analysed from the perspective of relational rituals (Kádár, 2013), have interactional effects that go beyond simply entertaining a group such as <9gag>. They help build and maintain the ethos of this virtual community, by giving membership status to those participants who abide by the interactional rules established through these practices. Participation and alignment with the group’s ritual practices have generated the feeling of belonging through identification among participants, legitimating them as members of this community, connected by the sharing of values disseminated by memes, the knowledge of the group’s practices and the symbolic representations constructed by the group. Moreover, it has been verified that through facework processes interactants model interactions within this community by (dis-)affiliating themselves with the types of face that emerge in this website.

L’utilisation de plusieurs applications de communication au lieu d’une est de plus en plus commune. En particulier, ces applications permettent à l’utilisateur de communiquer de diverses façons avec son partenaire, les membres de sa famille ou ses amis proches. En plus d’observer comment chaque application influence la communication, il est nécessaire de comprendre comment les gens communiquent au travers d’un écosystème d’applications. Dans la première partie, je décris comment les pratiques de communication d’un utilisateur via une application sont influencées par les contacts et fonctionnalités d'autres applications de l’écosystème. La première étude montre que les utilisateurs isolent leurs contacts dans différentes applications : ils créent des “lieux de communication”, ayant des règles uniques d’adhésion, des buts perçus et des connotations émotionnelles. Ces lieux de communication sont rompus lorsqu’un utilisateur ajoute un contact qui brise des règles d’adhésion d’une application, par exemple pour utiliser une fonctionnalité présente uniquement dans cette application. La deuxième étude montre que les utilisateurs personnalisent leurs applications de communication pour mieux exprimer leur identité et leurs liens avec d’autres personnes. Au-delà de ces personnalisations, les fonctionnalités d’une application influencent la manière dont l’utilisateur s’exprime dans d’autres applications. Pour cette raison, les fonctionnalités exclusives à une application empêchent les utilisateurs de s’exprimer de manière cohérente dans leur écosystème d’applications. Je propose quatre pistes pour explorer comment améliorer la communication via un écosystème d’applications : permettre la création de plusieurs lieux de communication dans une même application, soutenir une manière de communiquer propre à une relation à travers l’écosystème d’applications, accéder aux fonctionnalités d’une application depuis les autres applications, et de permettre des outils de communication qui appartiennent aux utilisateurs et non exclusivement aux applications. Dans la seconde partie, j’explore ces pistes/directions en réutilisant des mécanismes déjà disponibles dans les systèmes d’exploitation des téléphones mobiles : des notifications, des commandes gestuelles, et des claviers virtuels. Je réutilise les notifications comme un affichage périphérique d’alerte pour construire Lifelines, un canal de communication dédié aux couples qui partage des chronologies graphiques d’informations contextuelles, comme la proximité du lieu de vie, le niveau de batterie et le nombre de pas. Je réutilise les commandes gestuelles comme raccourcis personnels pour diverses fonctionnalités que les utilisateurs peuvent exécuter dans n’importe quelle application. Je présente une vision de conception et étudie les stratégies des utilisateurs pour créer des gestes personnels dans une étude comparative avec Fieldward et Pathward, deux techniques d’interaction pour créer des gestes qui sont faciles à mémoriser pour l’utilisateur et facile à reconnaître pour le système. Enfin, je réutilise les claviers virtuels comme des boîtes à outils de communication que les utilisateurs peuvent transporter d’une application à une autre. Je présente une vision de conception et explore sa faisabilité grâce à deux prototypes : La Shared Emoji Toolbox, qui permet de partager des collections de raccourcis pour des emojis, et CommandBoard, qui combine de la saisie gestuelle de texte avec des raccourcis gestuels pour accéder à un vaste ensemble de commandes. En conclusion, je soutiens que chaque application affecte la manière dont l'utilisateur communique dans les autres applications de l'écosystème. Nous devrions cesser de concevoir uniquement des applications isolées mais concevoir des mécanismes qui aident les utilisateurs à préserver leurs lieux de communication et à exprimer leur identité et leur intimité avec leurs proches de manière cohérente dans leur écosystème d'applications. / More and more, people communicate via not one, but a complex mix of apps. In particular, couples, close friends and families use multiple apps to express caring in diverse ways throughout the day. This calls for a new focus of study: besides observing how each app shapes communication, I argue that we need a deeper understanding of how people communicate via ecosystems of communication apps. In Part One, I show that users' communication practices in one app are not only influenced by its contacts and features but also by the contacts and features in their other apps. A first study shows that the contacts in an app affect the conversations with other contacts. To control this phenomenon, people isolate contacts in different apps: they create communication places, each with its own membership rules, perceived purpose, and emotional connotations. As relationships change, people move contacts in and out of their apps, driving communication places to redefine each other. People may break their places by bringing outsiders when the functionality they need exists only in one app.A second study shows that people customize their communication apps to better express their identities, culture and intimate bonds with others. Beyond customizations, the features of each app nurture expression habits that transfer to other apps, thus influencing how users express themselves across their entire app ecosystem. App-exclusive features prevent consistent identity expressions across apps and interfere with relationship-specific communication styles. Based on these insights, I propose four design directions for supporting ecosystems of communication apps: allow multiple communication places within the same app, support relationships across apps, provide access to functionality from other apps, and enable user-owned---rather than app-exclusive---communication tools. In Part Two, I explore those design directions by repurposing three mechanisms currently available in mobile operating systems: notifications, which users can overlay on top of any open app; gesture commands, which users could perform on any app that recognizes gestures; and soft keyboards, which appear in any app that accepts text input. I repurpose notifications as peripheral awareness displays to build Lifelines, a dedicated communication channel for couples which shares visual timelines of contextual information, e.g. closeness to home, battery level, and steps. A longitudinal study with nine couples shows how each couple leveraged Lifelines in unique ways, finding opportunities for coordinating implicitly, starting conversations, and being more understanding with each other. I repurpose gesture commands as personal gesture shortcuts to diverse functionality which users can perform in any app. I present a design envisionment and study user strategies for creating personal gestures in a comparative study of Fieldward and Pathward, two interaction techniques for creating gestures that are easy to remember and easy for the system to recognize. The results show large individual differences in users' gesture-creation strategies, reflecting their culture, their intimate bonds with special contacts and technology usage habits. Last, I repurpose soft keyboards as communication toolboxes that users can carry with them from app to app. I present a design envisionment and explore its feasibility by building two prototypes: The Shared Emoji Toolbox, which allows sharing collections of emoji shortcuts, and Command Board, which combines gesture typing with gesture shortcuts to access rich sets of commands. In conclusion, I argue that when people communicate via multiple apps, each app shapes how communication happens in others. We should shift from building isolated apps to designing mechanisms that help users preserve their communication places and express their identities and intimate bonds with others consistently across their apps.

This study is based on data gathered from two corpora. It investigates and analyses the written English of second language users, in this case English used by Swedes, with the English used online in blogs found in the Birmingham Blog Corpus, which includes blogs written in English by authors of various nationalities. The aim is to compare Swedes’ use of English in blogs and the English used in general in blogs. The study focuses on typical features associated with either American English (AmE) or British English (BrE) and investigates which variety is the most prominent online.  The results indicate that features that are generally associated with AmE have a higher frequency in both analysed corpora in this thesis. The conclusion is therefore that AmE tends to dominate both Swedish and international authors’ use of English in blogs.

This thesis focuses on mapping the action of the multimedia technologies (MMT) on selected aspects of the partner relationship. In the theoretical part the particular components of the relationship (relationship satisfaction, trust, communication and leisure time) and their association with the usage of particular media by partners are described. For the research the mixed methods design was chosen, while in the quantitative part online questionnaire was used, which was filled in by 210 respondents. In the qualitative part semi-structured interviews with three couples were made. The outcome of this thesis is a description of the frequency and ways of using MMT, mapping effects on the relationship and overall evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of using MMT for the relationship. The results showed that partners mainly use MMT to contact the other partner, mainly to express love. Mostly they use chat to contact each other, then phone calls and text messages. As a disadvantage of the mediated communication partners perceive the absence of nonverbal communication and presence of misunderstanding. To sum it up, the positive effects on the relationship are: frequent contact with partner, use of MMT to express love to partner, full attention from partner without use of MMT, use of MMT for spending...

This research study investigates if and how international students in Stockholm, Sweden use Facebook as a tool to make friends and integrate themselves within their new society. To gather information and data for the first part in 2011 a qualitative- and a quantitative approach was used. An online survey was applied to gather numerical data and in-depth interviews were conducted for the qualitative insights. Ten years later, in 2021, follow-up interviews were done with the interviewee subjects of the qualitative data gathering. This to contextualize the findings from 2011, as well as put in perspective with scholarly insights about Facebook and international students presented between the years 2011 and 2021. During the first part of the study, in 2011, Facebook had been available outside the United States for five years and not a significant amount of research had been conducted on the subject. Findings indicated that international students in Stockholm used Facebook to a wider extent when having arrived in a new country. Additional findings showcased that Facebook usage increased in terms of using the site to retrieve information about events and activities. Findings from both 2011 and 2021 showcased that Facebook and other social media applications are mainly used as means to maintain existing relationships, not to search for new friends. Findings also indicated that messenger services have obtained user patterns that originally existed on traditional social networks, such as Facebook. More research must be done on the topic to state whether these findings hold any statistical truthfulness. Suggested topics for further research are included in the conclusions and discussion section of this paper.

New media and mobile technologies have opened up numerous 'unregulated spaces' (Sebba, 2009b) and public spheres for self expression, interpersonal interactions as well as the transnational transcultural flow and fusion of ideologies (Pennycook, 2007). The discursive and interactive possibilities of mobile and Web 2.0 technologies make computer-mediated communication (CMC) platforms techno-linguistic environments for virtual deliberation and discussions. Online multilingualism and contact phenomena easily flourish in such contexts. Many Nigerians at home and abroad are embracing the CMC technologies to interact with one another, to negotiate profitable ideas for the betterment of Nigeria and to redress endemic socio-political issues. This study examines the linguistic construction of textual messages by Nigerians and the sociocultural manifestations of 'Nigerianness' (Chiluwa, 2008) and Nigerianisms in digital discourse. The dissertation is divided into four parts, each comprising two chapters. Part I introduces the subject matter and research focus, with an examination of language and identity in the typographical representations of Nigerianness by theoretically using relevant aspects of discursive work (e.g. Benwell & Stokoe, 2006; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005; De Fina, Schiffrin & Bamberg, 2006; Le Page & Tabouret-Keller, 1985; Llamas & Watt, 2010); Part II is concerned with the theme of Internet code switching and language crossing; Part III addresses the dialectical connection of language, new media technologies and politics; while Part IV presents the questionnaire survey results and research findings. The study innovatively examines language contact features in Nigerian CMC in terms of Bourdieu's (1977) economics of linguistic exchanges and the Faircloughian (1992) application of intertextuality in the Bakhtinian spirit. By linguistic marketing is meant discourse as a vehicle for 'promotional acts' and for 'selling' particular cultures and ideologies to multicultural and multilingual readers/audiences. One interpretation of this is in terms of asserting language rights and linguistic equality. Therefore, the use of Nigerian languages with Nigerian Pidgin online is promotional and for existential negotiation. This results in language mixture which is an instantiation of freedom of speech, freedom of switch and the freedom to switch. The underlying pragmatic motivation for top-down language mixture and alternation in Nigerian virtual discourse is attention-getting with the aim of inducing an interdiscursive writer-reader cognitive as well as communicative interactions. Other pragmatic functions of code switching discussed in the study include allusive textuality, amusing phaticity, anticipated interactivity, affective expressivity, and audience affiliation or alienation. Thus, intertextuality is an explanatory technique for investigating previously unexplored phenomena in digital code switching. Rampton's (1995) conceptualisation of language crossing is used to explicate the graphemic representations of variation in Nigerian English phonology. Additionally, for the sake of explanatory exigency, relevant aspects of speech acts theory (SAT) (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) are fused with critical discourse analysis (CDA) for the construction of our data-derived, election-oriented, politico-pragmatic tweet acts, in terms of what we call Good Governance Maxims (GGM). Finally, there are two types of data employed in the study: (i) corpus (INEC i.e. Informal Nigerian Electronic Communication with PLANET - Purposeful Language Alternation in Nigerian Electronic Texts) and (ii) questionnaire survey. The random sampling of 1,154 Nigerian undergraduates offline illustrates how computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) can be supplemented by a sociolinguistic survey in what Androutsopoulos (2006:424) calls “the observation of Internet use in offline social spaces” through a blend of on- and offline ethnography.

In the use of medication and pharmaceutical products, non‐compliance is a major problem. One thing we can do something about is making sure consumers have the information they need. This thesis investigates how remote communication technology can be used to improve the availability for expressive advice‐giving services. Special attention is given to the balancing of expressiveness and availability. A solution is presented that uses 3D visualisation in combination with audio and video communication to convey advice on complex pharmaceutical products. The solution is tested and evaluated in two user studies. The first study is broad and explorative, the second more focused and evaluative. The solution was well received by participating subjects. They welcomed the sense of personal contact that seeing the communicating party over video link produced and appreciated the expressive power and pedagogical value of the 3D materials. Herbert Clark’s theory of use of language is suggested as a framework for the analysis of the dynamics of the relationship between consumer and advisor. / <p>Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2008:31.</p>

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) offers opportunities to assist world language students to become global communicators in a digital society. However, perceptions of high school world language (HSWL) teachers on the suitability of these applications are not known. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and document the professional perspectives of HSWL teachers who have taught over 10 years, to learn the benefits and obstacles that they must consider in teaching communicative language skills with CMC. The research questions explored possible reasons that would motivate or dissuade from teaching with these applications. The technology acceptance model extension (TAM2) provided the conceptual framework for this study because it elucidates the cognitive and social processes that affect teacher decisions when reviewing a technology to support their instruction. The collected data included 6 in-depth interviews, field observations, and document reviews. The data analysis began with a precoding based on TAM2, and coding to identify emergent themes such as student immaturity and content-specific professional development. In the findings, the teachers perceived CMC as unsuitable due to the digital divide and the focus on grammatical competence. However, the teachers noted the possible benefits of content-specific professional development. This study contributes to positive social change by providing insight into the current role of computer technology in HSWL instruction and suggestions for how to encourage teachers to adopt innovative uses of digital technology in their CLT practices.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This research project, inspired by the nationwide crisis following Hurricane Katrina, identifies mega-collaboration as an emergent social phenomenon enabled by the Internet. The substantial, original contribution of this research is a mega-collaboration tool (MCT) to enable grassroots individuals and organizations to rapidly form teams, negotiate problem definitions, allocate resources, organize interventions, and mediate their efforts with those of official response organizations. The project demonstrated that a tool that facilitates the exploration of a team’s problem space can support online collaboration. It also determined the basic building blocks required to construct a mega-collaboration tool. In addition, the project demonstrated that it is possible to dynamically build the team data structure through use of the proposed interface, a finding that validates the database design at the core of the MCT. This project has made a unique contribution by proposing a new operational vision of how disaster response, and potentially many other problems, should be managed in the future.