Social media has created a two-pronged dilemma for the journalism world. On one side is an attack of the basic notions of identity and authority for an age-old profession while on the other side supporting journalists by making available an endless amount of new tools and resources for them to work with. This thesis establishes and examines the online community of practice that has formed in the crosshair of the two sides, where the future of newspapers is a hotly debated subject. Using innovative data collection, the conversations of 20 experts is studied qualitatively through computer mediated discourse analysis to examine and explore the debate while providing consideration of the key issues to allow for an in-depth study.

Social media has created a two-pronged dilemma for the journalism world. On one side is an attack of the basic notions of identity and authority for an age-old profession while on the other side supporting journalists by making available an endless amount of new tools and resources for them to work with. This thesis establishes and examines the online community of practice that has formed in the crosshair of the two sides, where the future of newspapers is a hotly debated subject. Using innovative data collection, the conversations of 20 experts is studied qualitatively through computer mediated discourse analysis to examine and explore the debate while providing consideration of the key issues to allow for an in-depth study.

This study examined the electronic discourse in an online course to investigate if culture exhibited itself in the communication of students. The researcher also sought to find out if a third culture was built in this course and if so, what design features facilitated the emergence of this third culture. A graduate-level online course at a Southwestern university was examined in a case study. Computer-mediated discourse analysis was used as the method. The students were administered an online demographic survey to collect information about their background. The online communication of the students, the instructor, and the assistants were analyzed. A semantic analysis matrix was developed based on the pilot study that was used to investigate the content of the messages posted in the discussion conferences. The results showed that culture did not exhibit itself in the discourse. A third culture, however, was formed by the students. The discourse characteristics of this third culture are producing timely and intelligent comments and equal levels of participation; use of materials from both cultures; constant interaction among participants; creating a side conversation between two different cultures; a common discourse accent; words, expressions, acronyms created in the course; curiosity, sensitivity, openness towards otherness, critical engagement with others; and ability to understand and tolerate different perspectives and cultural phenomena. The design features of the particular online course were discussed. The design features that may have helped create a third culture among students are face-to-face meetings and introductions conference in the course; instructor’s teaching strategies such as creating expectations for participation and her scaffolding and mentoring throughout the course; and features of the course communication platform such as the ability to embellish the thoughts through the use of fonts, colors, and quoting.

Social media has created a two-pronged dilemma for the journalism world. On one side is an attack of the basic notions of identity and authority for an age-old profession while on the other side supporting journalists by making available an endless amount of new tools and resources for them to work with. This thesis establishes and examines the online community of practice that has formed in the crosshair of the two sides, where the future of newspapers is a hotly debated subject. Using innovative data collection, the conversations of 20 experts is studied qualitatively through computer mediated discourse analysis to examine and explore the debate while providing consideration of the key issues to allow for an in-depth study.

Magister Artium - MA / Social networking sites are used on a daily basis, to communicate with friends we have known for quite some time as well as make new friends from all over the globe - a global phenomenon. According to Aparicio (2011) the use of social networking sites have given way to a new “social dynamic” where friendships are formed with individuals from diverse backgrounds and geographical locations. Larsen (2007) continues to state that social network sites make for the creation of new friendships and the maintenance of new relationships. Using social networking sites to develop relationships provides us with new social skills, but through constant use of these sites we lose valuable interpersonal skills learnt through the use of face to face interaction (Aparicio, 2011). This thesis investigated the notion of social networking sites, specifically focusing on interpersonal relationships and language use within the networking context. The social networking site in question is that of Twitter, as majority of existing studies in this area focuses on the more popular Facebook. The main objective was to determine whether social networking sites, specifically Twitter, influence the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships and language use. Participants included a group of 11 males and 11 females (22 in total), ranging from the ages of 17 to 33 and from different geographical locations (e.g. United Kingdom, South Africa, Tokyo, and so on). These participants frequently keep in contact with each other. Four ways in which Twitter has been adapted to emulate face to face communication have been found, namely: (1) the use of Paralinguistic and Prosodic Features to imitate speech, (2) Ustream, although not prominent within the data collected, is used to make up for the lack of face to face communication.This, however, is one-way; only one user provides a video link while those communicating with him or her (as there can be more than one) would type messages, (3) as expected a variety of shortenings can be found within the data collected. Shortenings imitate speech among the younger generation, and (4) participants make use of an informal register, as the most common type of relationship found on Twitter is that of friendships. Both strong and weak ties exist in the collected data; with weak ties being the majority. It is possible for weak ties to become strong ties. All online relationships start off as weak and gradually, over time, become strong ties. This is done through establishing trust between participants and communicating on a regular basis. Paolillo (1999) found that online relationships manifests as both weak and strong. However, “online ties are not ‘branded’ as weak ties” and these ties differ in quality; “those who have regular contact have strong ties and those with less frequent contact have weaker ties weak”. Social support is evident in the collected data and possible in online, textbased communication. In is manifested in four types of support, namely: instrumental, emotional, informational, and appraisal. The most common type of support found in the collected data is that of informational support. With regards to support activation strategies, most tweet fall under the ‘ask’ and ‘cry’ types of strategies. Also, considering the amount of emoticons found in the data, little or no emoticons were found in the activation strategies. There are also more indirect support activation strategies as opposed to direct. This could possibly be due to the fact that majority of the ties are ‘in the weak stage’. Textese has not been adapted in anyway; the same elements used by texters and IMers are used by tweeters, such as initialisms, phonetic spellings and contractions. Although present in the Twitter data, elements of textese did not occur as frequently as that found in e.g. Bieswanger’s (2007) and Thurlow’s (2003) studies; however more elements of Twitter language was found. If anything, the characteristics of textese are well-suited for Twitter; as shortened forms of words would make it easier for users to maintain a character count below the imposed limitation and it promotes the idea of writing quick and concise messages instead of filling message space with irrelevant content. With regards to the difference in the way male and female participants use language in terms of the linguistic characteristics of textese and the language unique to Twitter and the use of paralinguistic and prosodic features, it can be said that females tend to use these characteristics more than males do.

In this thesis, I use a multi-perspectival analytical approach to investigate the paralanguage of naturally occurring work-based Instant Message conversations. My research into the field of computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) has shown that written non-verbal cues have been considered as important means of contextualising text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC), yet their scholarly treatment has been scant. Previous findings about the importance paralanguage in CMD have been further strengthened by the findings of the field of business communication: in the virtual work environment the lack of audio-visual information has been found to contribute to miscommunication and consequently hinder cooperation. The linguistic devices and discursive strategies that are used in order to compensate for the limitations imposed by the text-based communicative channel have therefore been identified as in need of further exploration. In this thesis, I have outlined a CMC cue system based on the previous findings of CMDA to investigate the range of cues used as non-verbal signals in workplace text- based CMC. I have also used a multi-perspectival approach based on the theoretical frameworks of interactional sociolinguistics, communities of practice, relational work and politeness and conversation analysis (CA) in order to investigate the range of interactional roles of paralanguage during computer-mediated business conversations. The interpretive CA-informed analysis I have conducted has provided evidence of the important role of non-verbal signals during the contextualisation of complex transactional and relational communicative goals in the workplace. The analysis in this thesis has provided two significant results: firstly, by incorporating the findings of research into paralanguage of spoken as well as other written genres it resulted in a comprehensive description of the orthographic and typographic non-verbal cues used in text-based CMC and, secondly, by drawing on the multi-perspectival framework, it allowed for a description of the complex interactional functions of these cues during the contextualisation of content and relational intent and the creation of interactional coherence in IM.

Den tekniska utvecklingen bidrar till nya möjligheteter och sätt att kommunicera på nätet. Grafikoner introduceras successivt i Facebook och andra sociala medier och erbjuder nya funktioner för användare. I denna studie görs en jämförande analys av grafikoners användning och pragmatiska funktioner i en Facebookgrupp mellan 2012 och 2022. Syftet är att undersöka och diskutera grafikoners utveckling i en svensk kontext. Analysen är avgränsad till följande grafikontyper: emotikoner, emojier och dekaler. Grafikoner i inlägg och kommentarer analyseras med utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning om grafikoners funktioner. Funktionerna som identifieras i denna studie är: dekoration, benämning, handling/gest, reaktion och modifikation av ton. Studiens resultat visar att emotikoner endast förekommer i enstaka fall i materialet från 2012 och inte alls i materialet från 2022. Användningen av emojier har däremot ökat avsevärt mellan 2012 och 2022. I materialet från 2012 fyller emotikoner och emojier liknande funktioner, vilka främst är som modifikation av ton och som reaktion. Den vanligaste emojifunktionen i materialet från 2022 är som handling/gest. Resultatet visar en mer varierad användning av emojier i form av typ, placering och funktion 2022 jämfört med 2012. Den breddade användningen indikerar att emojin fortfarande är aktuell och användbar för svenska sociala media-användare 2022. Dekaler finns endast representerade i materialet från 2022 och den vanligaste funktionen är som reaktion på tidigare innehåll. Dekaler används fortfarande i mindre utsträckning än emojier 2022, men det finns indikationer som tyder på att dekalen kommer att följa samma utvecklingskurva som dess föregångare och öka i popularitet över tid.

Cette recherche a pour objet de comparer l’identité numérique et les particularités du langage écrit interactif dans des contextes numériques différents. Quelle est la différence entre l’identité numérique de ces deux réseaux sociaux numériques dont l’un est tellement utilisé dans le monde entier (à part quelques pays comme la Chine) et l’autre principalement par les Chinois? Et est-ce que l’identité numérique de la même personne s’exprime pareillement sur ces deux réseaux sociaux numériques ? Comment les utilisateurs s’expriment et interagissent-ils avec différents amis sur les réseaux sociaux numériques différents? Les interactions écrites dans un contexte numérique peuvent-elles manifester des aspects émotionnels? Afin d’éclairer nos questions, la recherche se focalise sur une étude comparative de l’identité numérique, des interactions écrites et des émotions exprimées dans les interactions sur les deux réseaux sociaux numériques. L’analyse des données permet de repérer aussibien les phénomènes d’ordre linguistique que ceux d’ordre social et émotionnel. Des entretiens et des questionnaires viennent éclairer l’analyse du vécu et du ressenti des sujets étudiés. Ce travail tente donc à travers la description de l’utilisation des Facebook et Renren par quatre étudiants chinois nouvellement arrivées en France de mieux comprendre les particularités de l’identité numérique et des échanges interactifs de chacun de ces réseaux sociaux numériques. / This research aims at comparing digital identity and nature of the peculiarities of interactive written language on two digital social networks (Facebook and Renren). We are interested in the difference between the digital identity of these two digital social networks, one is worldwide used (except a few countries such as China) and the other is mainly used by the Chinese. Is that the digital identity of one person is also the same on these two different social network sites? How the users interact and express vis-à-vis different friends in different digital context? Can the online interactions manifest emotional aspects? In order to respond to these problems, this research questions the digital identity and their function in the identity construction, the relational and social aspects of online interaction, the types of emotions expressed in the online interactions, and the role of emoticon in the expression of emotions of these two digital social networks. The data analysis enables to identify the linguistic, social and emotional phenomena in online interactions of the corpus of study. Interviews and questionnaires clarify the analysis of the experience and the feeling of the different actors. So throughout the description of case use of Facebook and Renren by four newly arrived Chinese students in France, this work attempts to better understand the features of digital identity and interactive exchange of these two digital social networks.