In the current new media age, communication is increasingly mediated by new media technologies. Some new media platforms include the social networking site Facebook, the microblogging site Twitter, the video sharing site Tiktok, the photo sharing site Instagram and the wiki Wikipedia. This course focuses specifically on the language we use when we communicate in new media contexts, which lies in the intersection of language, society and technology. It encourages students to consider how new media discourse is different from everyday face-to-face interactions and critically reflect upon how new media technologies extend human language capabilities. The course introduces students to key concepts, topics and linguistic frameworks that are currently used to research new media discourse and leads them through the research process. At the end of the term, students will have an opportunity to undertake a small-scale new media discourse study on their own.

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1. Computer-meditated discourse analysis
2. Multimodality
3. Facework and (im)politeness
4. Identity and community
5. Creativity and humour
6. Researching language and new media

1. To introduce students to key concepts and theories in the field of language and new media;
2. To develop students’ understanding of language use and discursive phenomena in new media discourse;
3. To enable students to engage with critical issues relating to power, inequalities etc in new media discourse;
4. To develop students’ knowledge and skills to apply the concepts and theories learnt to the analysis of new media texts

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2 lecture hours per week

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Participation                                                                                                      10%

Short essay                                                                                                        20%

Research proposal                                                                                            20%

Final paper                                                                                                         50%

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General readings:

Barton, D. & Lee, C. (2013). Language online: Investigating digital texts and practices. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Bou-Franch, P. & Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, P. (Eds.) (2019). Analyzing digital discourse: New insights and future directions. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Page, R., Barton, D., Lee, C., Unger, J. & Zappavigna, M. (2022). Researching language and social media: A student guide (2nd edn.). London: Routledge.

Vasquez, C. (2019). Language, creativity and humour online. Oxon: Routledge.

Zappavigna, M. (2012). Discourse of Twitter and social media. London: Continuum.

Zappavigna, M., & Ross, A. S. (2024). Innovations and challenges in social media discourse analysis. Oxon: Routledge.