Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article examines the ways in which Finnish cultural workers experienced and responded to their colleagues’ and peers’ distress on social media platforms during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The theory of media witnessing as mundane world-witnessing is employed to analyse cultural workers’ modalities of experience as audience-like followers on social media. The data comprise 26 focused interviews conducted via Zoom and over phone in 2021 with cultural workers representing the fields of theatre, television and film industry, literature, music and circus. We argue that various modes of affective and politicised witnessing offered cultural workers the mechanisms to articulate and reflect on their own and others’ experiences of inequality and vulnerability as well as develop a sense of responsibility. In the context of the pandemic, mundane world-witnessing involved engagement and identification with distress, peer support and activism, as witnessed and evaluated by cultural workers on social media. Furthermore, this article theorises a new mode of witnessing prevalent on social media platforms – speculative witnessing – which carries a reflective and hesitant approach to social media ‘bubbles’, obscure algorithmic agency and imagination of absent audiences. In other words, speculative witnessing captures a dimension of metacommunicative scepticism in media witnessing that reflects a specific condition of knowing in the context of social media platforms.
Analysing podcast intimacy: Four parameters
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article presents a case study study of a proposed analytical framework for dissecting and analysing intimacy in podcasts. The podcast medium is increasingly perceived as inherently intimate, but this discourse is still unprecise and has never been clearly outlined. It is furthermore essential to better define podcast intimacy because of its effective and widespread impact on podcasters and listeners. Over time, a self-reinforcing discourse and self-fulfilling prophecy of intimacy has built up around podcasts. Based on podcast literature (Berry, 2016; Euritt, 2023; Lindgren, 2021; Meserko, 2014; Spinelli and Dann, 2019; Swiatek, 2018) and podcast intimacy’s roots in, respectively, Web 2.0 and radio, four parameters for analysing podcast intimacy are outlined: Intimacy in listening, intimacy in what is said, intimacy in how it is said and intimacy in cross-media interactions – most significantly via social media. Each parameter contains several subcategories and questions for analysis which are collected in a schema. The schema is a tool for media researchers and students to identify how and why a podcast creates intimacy. It is also valuable for increasing the awareness of how podcasts work and impact the world. And it finally offers opportunities for podcast producers and publishers to learn more about how their podcast create intimacy and how they can attract listeners and followers through the creation of intimacy.
This article presents a case study study of a proposed analytical framework for dissecting and analysing intimacy in podcasts. The podcast medium is increasingly perceived as inherently intimate, but this discourse is still unprecise and has never been clearly outlined. It is furthermore essential to better define podcast intimacy because of its effective and widespread impact on podcasters and listeners. Over time, a self-reinforcing discourse and self-fulfilling prophecy of intimacy has built up around podcasts. Based on podcast literature (Berry, 2016; Euritt, 2023; Lindgren, 2021; Meserko, 2014; Spinelli and Dann, 2019; Swiatek, 2018) and podcast intimacy’s roots in, respectively, Web 2.0 and radio, four parameters for analysing podcast intimacy are outlined: Intimacy in listening, intimacy in what is said, intimacy in how it is said and intimacy in cross-media interactions – most significantly via social media. Each parameter contains several subcategories and questions for analysis which are collected in a schema. The schema is a tool for media researchers and students to identify how and why a podcast creates intimacy. It is also valuable for increasing the awareness of how podcasts work and impact the world. And it finally offers opportunities for podcast producers and publishers to learn more about how their podcast create intimacy and how they can attract listeners and followers through the creation of intimacy.
Book review: Anaïs Augé, Metaphor and Argumentation in Climate Crisis Discourse
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
Evolutions in hegemonic discourses of climate change: An ecomodern enactment of implicatory denial
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
We analyze public media talk that illustrate Norgaard’s spectrum of climate denial discourse. While these are theorized by Norgaard, our analysis of specific instances of media talk examines how speakers enact this spectrum of discourses to justify delay of immediate action on climate change. The analysis suggests there is an evolving public talk on climate where overt denial of climate science is increasingly seen at the political extreme and the more mainstream discourse, described here as an ecomodern discourse, appears aligned with climate science but delays the necessary immediate action to address climate change by among other things using fearful scenarios to argue against disrupting the status quo and appealing to technology to solve climate change.
We analyze public media talk that illustrate Norgaard’s spectrum of climate denial discourse. While these are theorized by Norgaard, our analysis of specific instances of media talk examines how speakers enact this spectrum of discourses to justify delay of immediate action on climate change. The analysis suggests there is an evolving public talk on climate where overt denial of climate science is increasingly seen at the political extreme and the more mainstream discourse, described here as an ecomodern discourse, appears aligned with climate science but delays the necessary immediate action to address climate change by among other things using fearful scenarios to argue against disrupting the status quo and appealing to technology to solve climate change.
A computational linguistic analysis of the anatomy of production, consumption, and diffusion of misinformation and authentic information in social media: The case of the COVID-19 pandemic
Discourse &Communication, Ahead of Print.
Social media has become a powerful conduit for misinformation during major public events. As a result, an extant body of research has emerged on misinformation and its diffusion. However, the research is fragmented and has mainly focused on understanding the content of misinformation messages. Little attention is paid to the production and consumption of misinformation. This study presents the results of a detailed comparative analysis of the production, consumption, and diffusion of misinformation with authentic information. Our findings, based on extensive use of computational linguistic analyses of COVID-19 pandemic-related messages on the Twitter platform, revealed that misinformation and authentic information exhibit very different characteristics in terms of their contents, production, diffusion, and their ultimate consumption. To support our study, we carefully selected a sample of 500 widely propagated messages confirmed by fact-checking websites as misinformation or authentic information about pandemic-related topics from the Twitter platform. Detailed computational linguistic analyses were performed on these messages and their replies (N = 198,750). Additionally, we analyzed approximately 1.2 million Twitter user accounts responsible for producing, forwarding, or replying to these messages. Our extensive and detailed findings were used to develop and propose a theoretical framework for understanding the diffusion of misinformation on social media. Our study offers insights for social media platforms, researchers, policymakers, and online information consumers about how misinformation spreads over social media platforms.
Social media has become a powerful conduit for misinformation during major public events. As a result, an extant body of research has emerged on misinformation and its diffusion. However, the research is fragmented and has mainly focused on understanding the content of misinformation messages. Little attention is paid to the production and consumption of misinformation. This study presents the results of a detailed comparative analysis of the production, consumption, and diffusion of misinformation with authentic information. Our findings, based on extensive use of computational linguistic analyses of COVID-19 pandemic-related messages on the Twitter platform, revealed that misinformation and authentic information exhibit very different characteristics in terms of their contents, production, diffusion, and their ultimate consumption. To support our study, we carefully selected a sample of 500 widely propagated messages confirmed by fact-checking websites as misinformation or authentic information about pandemic-related topics from the Twitter platform. Detailed computational linguistic analyses were performed on these messages and their replies (N = 198,750). Additionally, we analyzed approximately 1.2 million Twitter user accounts responsible for producing, forwarding, or replying to these messages. Our extensive and detailed findings were used to develop and propose a theoretical framework for understanding the diffusion of misinformation on social media. Our study offers insights for social media platforms, researchers, policymakers, and online information consumers about how misinformation spreads over social media platforms.
Representation of women in the digital discourse of Spanish far-right female leaders
Discourse &Communication, Volume 18, Issue 1, Page 28-50, February 2024.
The Spanish far-right party – Vox – articulates several ideological components in public discourse, among which nativism and anti-feminism stand out. Anti-feminism is being central in the digital discourse of Vox female leaders, Carla Toscano and Rocío de Meer, and of the former Congress deputy, Macarena Olona. With the aim of deepening the analysis of the discursive representation of women in Vox, this research employs the approach and methodology of critical discourse analysis with the corpus, consisting of 6753 tweets from the accounts of these three leaders, taking into account three of the representation that they (re)produce. The results show the imaginary of the Spanish and Catholic-woman. The discourse of racial Spanishness is initiated through mystified historical events. This occurs with the representation of the Mother-woman, which reinforces the device of patriarchal femininity and the frame of the demographic change based on nativism. The representation of the Tormentor-woman is used to deny both the specificity of gender violence and the need for gender equality policies. These three frames are used to justify the anti-feminist discourse and to explain its modulations. The results show that we need to pay attention to gender in order to understand the discursive strategies of the far-right parties, with special care to the femonationalism strategy, as well as to observe its mobilizing and agglutinating capacity.
The Spanish far-right party – Vox – articulates several ideological components in public discourse, among which nativism and anti-feminism stand out. Anti-feminism is being central in the digital discourse of Vox female leaders, Carla Toscano and Rocío de Meer, and of the former Congress deputy, Macarena Olona. With the aim of deepening the analysis of the discursive representation of women in Vox, this research employs the approach and methodology of critical discourse analysis with the corpus, consisting of 6753 tweets from the accounts of these three leaders, taking into account three of the representation that they (re)produce. The results show the imaginary of the Spanish and Catholic-woman. The discourse of racial Spanishness is initiated through mystified historical events. This occurs with the representation of the Mother-woman, which reinforces the device of patriarchal femininity and the frame of the demographic change based on nativism. The representation of the Tormentor-woman is used to deny both the specificity of gender violence and the need for gender equality policies. These three frames are used to justify the anti-feminist discourse and to explain its modulations. The results show that we need to pay attention to gender in order to understand the discursive strategies of the far-right parties, with special care to the femonationalism strategy, as well as to observe its mobilizing and agglutinating capacity.
Book review: Marianna Bolognesi and Ana Werkmann Horvat, The Metaphor Compass
Discourse &Communication, Volume 18, Issue 1, Page 146-149, February 2024.
Book review: Anaïs Augé, Metaphor and Argumentation in Climate Crisis Discourse
Discourse &Communication, Volume 18, Issue 1, Page 139-143, February 2024.
Aircraft accident reports: A corpus-based genre analysis
Discourse &Communication, Ahead of Print.
Based on a corpus of ‘Aircraft Accident Reports’ (AARs) collected from the official website of The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), issued during the years 2000–2021, this study used Bhatia’s Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) framework to examine how this type of techno-professional discourse is recognized by considering the text, the genre, the professional practice, and the professional culture of the corpus. It was found that (1) textually, both Move2 collecting information, and Move3 Analyzing Information are the lengthiest moves within the corpus regarding the number of tokens, while Move1 Summarizing the Accident, Move4 Reaching Conclusion, Move5 Sharing Recommendations, and Move6 Board Member Statement are the shortest in length; (2) the generic move structure of the corpus contained six-move pattern (five of them are obligatory, and only one is optional), 11 steps, and 40 sub-steps; (3) the professional practice of the corpus is expressed through two types of discursive processes, they are: genre-mixing, and genre-embedding; and (4) the professional culture is presented through a set of professional values imbedded in the corpus, they are: embracing change and learn from mistakes, and maintaining objectivity and impartiality. The results of this study contribute in understanding the realization of professional discourse and expand the application of CGA in professional practices.
Based on a corpus of ‘Aircraft Accident Reports’ (AARs) collected from the official website of The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), issued during the years 2000–2021, this study used Bhatia’s Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) framework to examine how this type of techno-professional discourse is recognized by considering the text, the genre, the professional practice, and the professional culture of the corpus. It was found that (1) textually, both Move2 collecting information, and Move3 Analyzing Information are the lengthiest moves within the corpus regarding the number of tokens, while Move1 Summarizing the Accident, Move4 Reaching Conclusion, Move5 Sharing Recommendations, and Move6 Board Member Statement are the shortest in length; (2) the generic move structure of the corpus contained six-move pattern (five of them are obligatory, and only one is optional), 11 steps, and 40 sub-steps; (3) the professional practice of the corpus is expressed through two types of discursive processes, they are: genre-mixing, and genre-embedding; and (4) the professional culture is presented through a set of professional values imbedded in the corpus, they are: embracing change and learn from mistakes, and maintaining objectivity and impartiality. The results of this study contribute in understanding the realization of professional discourse and expand the application of CGA in professional practices.
Corrigendum to “Ja’miezing’s podcast persona: Intertextual and intercommunicative”
Convergence, Ahead of Print.