Mediated Discourse Analysis

Mauri, T.; Clarà, C.; Remesal, A. (2011). La naturaleza del discurso en la escritura colaborativa online: intersubjetividad y elaboración del significado. Infancia y Aprendizaje. 34/2, pp.219-233.

by Ana Remesal

Since the irruption of Information and Communication Technologies, the use of on-line collaborative writing has... more Since the irruption of Information and Communication Technologies, the use of on-line collaborative writing has increased substantially at all educational levels, and especially in higher education. The specific operational conditions of this kind of collaboration suggest the existence of specific forms of meaning-making and specific features in discourse that participants use in collaboration.

This paper presents a study of collaboration amongst university students working on a collaborative text by means of computer-supported written asynchronous communication. Four cases are studied in which small groups of students write collaboratively a text during six weeks. Analysis focuses on the nature of discourse, meaning-making, and development of intersubjectivity. Results permit to identify different phases of intersubjectivity in which meaning-making works in different ways and discourse takes specific forms.

"'Apology Made to Whoever Pleases': Cultural Discipline and the Grounds of Interpretation"

by John Sloop

A FRAMEWORK FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF INTERACTIVE NORMS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF TEXTUAL IDENTITY IN WRITTEN DISCOURSE …

by alexanne don

A PhD thesis submitted in 2007

This thesis proposes a framework designed to describe a variety of asynchronous written modes of interaction, based on... more This thesis proposes a framework designed to describe a variety of asynchronous written modes of interaction, based on a case study of an email discussion list. The framework focuses on the generic conventions of a representative set of texts produced by the email group whose core members had been actively participating for a period of 8 years. A corpus of texts—comprised of sets of posts written by three list identities, sections of selected 'threads', plus other strips of list activity—is used to illustrate the approach to analysis which the thesis outlines.

The thesis argues that generic conventions within a discourse community are a product of the overall social purpose of the interaction and the rhetorical purpose of each contribution. The underlying social purpose of group participation and in this list in particular was taken to be the negotiation of identity through the legitimation and reproduction of group conventions. In the service of this negotiation, the rhetorical purpose of the texts was persuasive and therefore argumentative or expository in stance. For this reason, the deployment of resources of evaluation using the Appraisal framework formed one of the primary means of tracking rhetorical organisation.

Looking Healthy: Visualizing Disorder & Wellness Online

by Riki Thompson

(in press--November 2012). Visual Communication. 11(4).

Through a historical case study of the mental health community website HealthyPlace.com, the author applies social... more Through a historical case study of the mental health community website HealthyPlace.com, the author applies social semiotics and critical discourse analysis to interrogate the visual discourse surrounding mental health online. Web design transformations over the course of a decade demonstrate how visual imagery conveys a shift from a biomedical discourse focused on illness to a social-therapeutic discourse centered on health and wellness. Ultimately, the author argues that the utilization of faces in stock photography, stylized images, and social media platforms on HealthyPlace reflects a growing trend in virtual visual synthetic personalization on the internet to market mental health disorders as a concern for the everyday person while selling the promise of wellness through online participation. This article explores the visual language of mental health and wellness online to expanding on research in the field of visual communication, health communication, and new media studies.

The Microformation of Criminal Defense: On the Lawyer's Notes, Speech Production, and a Field of Presence

by Thomas Scheffer

Talk and Digital Text as Mediational Means: A Mediated Discourse Analysis of a Collaborative Writing Event

by Ryan Rish

A paper presented at the 2011 AERA Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA.

This paper presents an investigation of a single, collaborative writing event selected from a larger study in order to... more This paper presents an investigation of a single, collaborative writing event selected from a larger study in order to accomplish two objectives. The first objective is empirical in nature; this paper aims to consider how three students attempted to accomplish collaborative writing using talk and digital text as mediational means. The second objective is theoretical and methodological in nature; this paper aims to demonstrate a mediated discourse analysis (Scollon, 2001b) of three students composing fantasy fiction in order to refine two theoretical constructs used in literacy research: literacy event (Heath, 1983; Street, 2000) reconsidered as sites of engagement (Jones, 2005a; 2005b; Scollon, 2001b) and literacy practice (Street, 1984; 2000) reconsidered as nexus of practice (Scollon & Scollon, 2004). This investigation brings to the fore the ideological complexities implicated when middle and high school students use digital tools to facilitate collaborative forms of writing (e.g., Kajder, 2010; DeVoss, et al., 2010).

Mapping Multimodal Literacy Practices through Mediated Discourse Analysis: Identity Revision in What Not To Wear

by Karen Wohlwend

In this conceptual paper, I examine the exaggerated revision critique in one “makeover” television program to... more In this conceptual paper, I examine the exaggerated revision critique in one “makeover” television program to illustrate how MDA’s filtering process pinpoints practices of identity revision
that are so essential to makeovers, whether in reality television episodes or in schooling. To suggest MDA’s potential for revealing the identity-building accomplished through physical activity with objects, I analyze multimodal practices in one television episode of What Not to Wear, concluding with connections to familiar embodied literacy practices in classrooms. The dramatized and edited excerpts provide vivid examples of gatekeeping that make this fashion makeover program an apt choice for illustrating how the MDA process uncovers identity-building activity.

Disagreement, Confusion, Disapproval, Turn Elicitation and Floor Holding: Actions as Accomplished by Ellipsis Marks-Only Turns and Blank Turns in Quasisynchronous Chats

by Kenneth Keng Wee Ong

Published in Discourse Studies, 13(2), 211-234, April 2011. Please access the paper at http://dis.sagepub.com/content/13/2/211.abstract

This study evidences turn actions done by ellipsis marks-only turns and blank turns as employed in quasisynchronous... more This study evidences turn actions done by ellipsis marks-only turns and blank turns as employed in quasisynchronous chats that are not discussed in prior literature. A brief introduction to the research background of ellipsis marks in online chats is followed by a description of the data collected before delving into the actions done by ellipsis marks-only turns and blank turns. Data was culled from multi-party chats among tertiary students during a critical reasoning class. A Conversation Analysis-informed approach is applied in this paper to analyze the preference organization of elliptical turns that illustrates responses signaling disagreement, confusion and disapproval besides initial actions of eliciting responses and holding the floor. More than punctuation marks or paralinguistic restitution of silences, their interpersonal meaningfulness in sequential context and differentness/similarity vis-à-vis temporal silences are demonstratively shown in microscopic and interpretive description of chat excerpts.

Pre-print of 2011 Webkinz Virtual World article, JECL, 11(2)

by Karen Wohlwend

Draft only, please do not quote.

Co-authored with

Sarah Vander Zanden,  Ph.D., Asst. Prof. at University of Northern Iowa
Nicholas E. Husbye, Doctoral Candidate, Indiana University, Bloomington
Candace R. Kuby, Ph.D., Asst. Prof. at University of Missouri

The final definitive version of the manuscript appears in June 2011:

Navigating Discourses in Place in the World of Webkinz, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 11(2).

“Do you see me?": Locating Selves across Embodied and Virtual Spaces in the World of Webkinz”

In this... more “Do you see me?": Locating Selves across Embodied and Virtual Spaces in the World of Webkinz”

In this article, we examine online activity in Webkinz, a toy-based social networking and gaming website to understand how young children’s navigation of avatars within a virtual world engages two key aspects of participatory culture: collaboration and online connectivity. We look closely at the ways children mediate space-time to connect and stay connected in an online “club,” a place that blurs distinctions between digital communities and here-and-now friendships, between animated screen characters and inanimate stuffed toys, between schoolwork and after-school play, and between the discourses that circulate in classrooms and gamer communities.

In this paper, we extend the emerging research on web/toy hybrids to explore how young children synchronize space-time relationships to participate in online social networks. Specifically, we use a geosemiotic (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) framework to follow children’s flexible connectivity and dynamic interactivity with screens, web/toys, and space-time. This geosemiotic perspective enables examination of children’s web play as discourses in place: fluidly converging and diverging interactions among four factors: 1) social actors, 2) interaction order, 3) visual semiotics, and 4) place semiotics. The research took place in the computer lab of a not-for-profit after-school program for elementary school-aged children; the program served primarily working and middle class families in a US Midwest university community.

Review: Mediating Discourse Online, Magnan (2008)

by Mariza Georgalou