scholarly journals Characterising Online News Comments: A Multi-Dimensional Cruise Through Online Registers

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Ehret ◽  
Maite Taboada
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Analysis ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Online News ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Large Dataset ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Different Types

News organisations often allow public comments at the bottom of their news stories. These comments constitute a fruitful source of data to investigate linguistic variation online; their characteristics, however, are rather understudied. This paper thus contributes to the description of online news comments and online language in English. In this spirit, we apply multi-dimensional analysis to a large dataset of online news comments and compare them to a corpus of online registers, thus placing online comments in the space of register variation online. We find that online news comments are involved-evaluative and informational at the same time, but mostly argumentative in nature, with such argumentation taking an informal shape. Our analyses lead us to conclude that online registers are a different mode of communication, neither spoken nor written, with individual variation across different types of online registers.

Are online news comments like face-to-face conversation?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Katharina Ehret ◽  
Maite Taboada
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Online News ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Evaluative Language ◽  
Widespread View

Abstract This article focuses on the question of whether online news comments are like face-to-face conversation or not. It is a widespread view that online comments are like “dialogue”, with comments often being referred to as “conversations”. These assumptions, however, lack empirical back-up. In order to answer this question, we systematically explore register-relevant properties of online news comments using multi-dimensional analysis (MDA) techniques. Specifically, we apply MDA to establish what online comments are like by describing their linguistic features and comparing them to traditional registers (e.g. face-to-face conversation, academic writing). Thus, we tap the SFU Opinion and Comments Corpus and the Canadian component of the International Corpus of English. We show that online comments are not like spontaneous conversation but rather closer to opinion articles or exams, and clearly constitute a written register. Furthermore, they should be described as instances of argumentative evaluative language.

When Fringe Hate Goes Mainstream: How White Nationalist Discourse Manifests in Online News Commenting

2021 ◽  
pp. 019685992110408
Author(s):  
J. David Wolfgang
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Online News ◽  
Nationalist Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
White Culture ◽  
White Nationalism

After protestors clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia over the planned removal of a statue of a Confederate general, President Trump refused to condemn white nationalists. Over the following days, numerous news stories were written about the protests, allowing the public to discuss white nationalism through online comments. Using theories on ideology, discourse, and framing, this study considers how white nationalist discourse emerged in those comments. The findings show broad support for white nationalism, including complaints about threats to white culture, reinterpretation of American history to support white nationalist ideas, and rejection of the idea that marginalized people face oppression. However, the study also shows a burgeoning force of critical commenters struggling to challenge white nationalism’s emergence in public spaces.

The Effect of Searching Versus Surfing on Cognitive and Emotional Responses to Online News

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Wise ◽  
Hyo Jung Kim ◽  
Jeesum Kim
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Online News ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Mixed Design ◽  
Information Need ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Rate Acceleration

A mixed-design experiment was conducted to explore differences between searching and surfing on cognitive and emotional responses to online news. Ninety-two participants read three unpleasant news stories from a website. Half of the participants acquired their stories by searching, meaning they had a previous information need in mind. The other half of the participants acquired their stories by surfing, with no previous information need in mind. Heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator activation were collected as measures of resource allocation, motivational activation, and unpleasantness, respectively, while participants read each story. Self-report valence and recognition accuracy were also measured. Stories acquired by searching elicited greater heart rate acceleration, skin conductance level, and corrugator activation during reading. These stories were rated as more unpleasant, and their details were recognized more accurately than similar stories that were acquired by surfing. Implications of these results for understanding how people process online media are discussed.

Een typologie van jonge nieuwsgebruikers in een multimediaal landschap

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Van Cauwenberge ◽  
Hans Beentjes ◽  
Leen d’Haenens
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Television News ◽  
Online News ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Low Level ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
Combined Use ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Online News Sites

A typology of young news users in the Low Countries A typology of young news users in the Low Countries This article investigates different types of young news users (15-34 years) in the Low Countries. Therefore a survey among 1200 Flemish and Dutch youngsters and adolescents was conducted, analyzing the combined use of media platforms for news consumption and time spent with these news carriers. The cluster analysis identified five types of news users: the sound and vision group, characterized by the use of mainly audiovisual news platforms, combined with online news sites; the e-news users, who give most prominence to online news sites but also rely on traditional news platforms, the all rounders, depending on a range of off- and online news channels; the traditionalists, who spent most time with offline news media; and the dabblers, a group with an overall low level of news consumption. Our results indicate that Flemish and Dutch youngsters combine online and traditional news platforms for their news gathering, giving most prominence to traditional news media, especially television news.

A multi-dimensional analysis of register variation in Brazilian Portuguese

Corpora ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Berber Sardinha ◽  
Carlos Kauffmann ◽  
Cristina Mayer Acunzo
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Analysis ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Linguistic Community ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Six Dimensions ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation

In this paper, we present a Multi-Dimensional analysis of Brazilian Portuguese, based on a large, diverse corpus comprising forty-eight different spoken and written registers. Previous research in MD analysis includes multi-register investigations of a range of languages, including English, Spanish, Somali and Korean, among others. At the same time, a large body of literature on text varieties in Brazilian Portuguese exists, but previous research focusses on specific aspects of one, or at the most, a few varieties at a time and, therefore, does not present a comprehensive picture of register use in the linguistic community of Brazilian Portuguese speakers. In this study, we attempt to fill this gap by employing the MD framework, enabling researchers to account for a large number of different registers, based on a wide repertory of linguistic features. The analysis revealed six dimensions of variation, which are presented, illustrated and discussed here.

scholarly journals Online comments as input enhancement

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-54
Author(s):  
Dukhayel Aldukhayel
Keyword(s):  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Input Enhancement ◽  
Teaching Of Reading ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Different Types ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Youtube Videos ◽  
Linguistic Input

Chapelle (2003) proposed three general types of input enhancement that help L2 learners “acquire features of the linguistic input that they are exposed to during the course reading or listening for meaning” (p. 40): input salience, input modification, and input elaboration. In 2010, Cárdenas-Claros and Gruba argued that Chapelle’s different types of input enhancement “can be and have been operationalized through help options” primarily utilized in the teaching of reading, listening, writing, grammar, and vocabulary such as glossed words, video/audio control features, captions, subtitles, and grammar explanations (p. 79). As understood from Cárdenas-Claros and Gruba’s classification of help options, input enhancement can only be accomplished through one process: salience, modification, or elaboration. In this article, we argue that YouTube comments have the potential to be (1) a help option that facilitate both listening comprehension of the videos and vocabulary learning and that (2) input enhancement accomplished by comments can be achieved by a combination of different types of input enhancement. Put another way, the aural input of a YouTube video can be salient, modified, and elaborated, thanks to the various types of comments YouTube videos often receive.

scholarly journals Critical analysis of the discourse on Judith Butler´s visit to the country in the most popular online news portals

MEDIACIONES ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (23) ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
Katia Maria Belisario ◽  
Kaitlynn Menders
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Online News ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Media Reports

In November 2017, feminist theorist Judith Butler travelled to Brazil to participate in an international conference. During the event, protesters gathered, carrying signs, chanting slogans, and burning an effigy of her while shouting, “Burn the witch!” According to media reports, these protesters wanted to preserve notions of the traditional nuclear family within Brazil and protect children against Butler’s “diabolical gender ideology”, which includes her theory that gender is a social construct and a cultural interpretation that overlaps with biological determinism. The protest attracted mainstream media attention. This article aims to identify the key discourses used by anti- and pro-Butler activists commenting in the most popular news portals in the country, UOL and G1. The questions guiding this study are: 1) How is feminism represented in Brazil? 2) How do protesters and counter-protesters understand and argue about “gender ideology”? The methodology used is the critical discourse analysis of online comments of readers of both portals.

scholarly journals Finiteness in South Slavic Complement Clauses

Linguistica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-137
Author(s):  
Susanne Wurmbrand ◽  
Iva Kovač ◽  
Magdalena Lohninger ◽  
Caroline Pajančič ◽  
Neda Todorović
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
The South ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Complement Clauses

This paper shows that the distribution of (non‑)finiteness in the South Slavic languages reflects an implicational scale along an independently attested semantic complementation hierarchy (e.g., Givón 1980). We suggest that in the South Slavic languages, finiteness is triggered by clausal agreement features associated with different syntactic heads. Building on a complexity approach to the complementation hierarchy, we propose that cross-linguistic variation in finiteness and variation across different types of complements are the result of language-specific differences in the distribution of agreement features. More broadly, we conclude that there is no (universal) semantic correlate of (non‑)finiteness and, contra cartographic approaches, that finiteness is not confined to a particular domain in the clause. Following Adger (2007), we argue that finiteness can be distributed over all clausal domains.

scholarly journals Public Opinion Polls and Experts in Election News

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Guðbjörg Hildur Kolbeins
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Online News ◽  
Parliamentary Election ◽  
Radio Stations ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Election News ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

By employing the theoretical framework of framing, the present paper attempts to examine the Icelandic media’s coverage of the 2013 parliamentary election by paying particular attention to coverage of public opinion polls and the policies of the political parties, i.e. the “horse-race” frame and the issue frame, and to examine media’s reliance on experts for interpretation of election news. Seven online news media, two newspapers, two radio stations and two television channels were monitored for 25 days prior to Election Day, i.e. from April 2 to April 26, 2013, - resulting in 1377 election news stories. The findings show, for example, that 29.8% of all the election news stories had public opinion polls as their primary angle while 12% of the stories were primarily issue-oriented. In addition, the media rely on experts for interpretation of the polls; five of the 10 most interviewed or quoted sources on public opinion surveys were political science experts who were affiliated with universities. Finally, news coverage of polls was generally amplified as media outlets had a tendency to report on public opinion polls that were commissioned by other media.

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