The Language of Technoself

Author(s):  
Federica Fornaciari

The goal of this chapter is to suggest theoretical means to address a fundamental question, what strategies do people use when presenting their selves online? This implies another question, how do people react to the context collapse when shaping their online profiles? The chapter analyzes the concept of identity and provides an analytical approach to the presentation of self online where traditional contextual and non-verbal cues lack. It tackles the issue of self presentation online through the frameworks of symbolic interactionism and narrative theory. The initial hypothesis is that individuals create online selves based on their offline selves; they attempt to shape online personas using similar communication strategies than in the offline world, but do so lacking traditional social cues, and this may generate dissonance for individuals who struggle defining the features of an imagined audience.

1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Monière

AbstractThis article compares the lexical performances of Canadian political leaders in the French-language leaders' debate broadcast during the federal election of 1988, in order to test some hypotheses concerning the relations between the communication strategies adopted by the leaders and their respective role in the party system. The author shows that the political discourse of the leader of the government party does not follow the same line of argumentation as those developed by the leaders of the opposing parties. To do so, the study employs indicators like tenses clauses, name-dropping, frequency of numbers, self-presentation and criticism of the adversaries. The author also identifies the most significant words and compares the issues developed by each leader to test the relevance of the political mimesis thesis and to estimate the importance granted to the critiques of the respective adversaries and specific propositions for the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Meskill ◽  
Gulnara Sadykova

This study examines the patterns and substance of student self introductions in nine fully online graduate courses in education. A composite of social identity frameworks with an emphasis on language as the tool for self-presentation is first developed to guide the analysis and interpretation of these data. In particular Sfard and Prusack’s operationalization of the telling of identity, along with Bruner’s construct of turning points in self-tellings are discussed and employed as analytic lenses. The question of how, in a tightly defined social/academic context, adults use written language to present themselves to others is taken up through content analysis supported by linguistic concordancing. Two hundred twenty-three “Meet Your Classmates” entries are examined for their form and content. Entries composed by preservice teachers, inservice teachers, and doctoral students reveal differences regarding academic and professional identity-telling with the tenacity of institutionally situating and situated forces prevailing.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Karell ◽  
Michael Raphael Freedman

How do sociocultural dynamics shape conflict? We develop a relational understanding of how social relations, culture, and conflict are interwoven. Using this framework, we examine how combatants' associations with cultural elements affect the interpersonal relationships underlying conflict dynamics, as well as how these relationships engender associations to cultural elements. To do so, we first introduce a novel analytical approach that synthesizes computational textual analysis and stochastic actor-oriented models of longitudinal networks. We then use our approach to analyze a two-level socio-semantic graph representing both the cultural domain and social relationships of prominent militants operating in one Afghan province, Balkh, between 1979 and 2001. Our results indicate that militants' interpersonal comradeships rely, in part, on their connections to cultural elements and relative power. Comradeship, in turn, fosters militants' connections to cultural elements. We conclude by discussing how conflict studies can continue to build on insights from cultural sociology, as well as how cultural sociology and socio-semantic network research can benefit from further engaging conflict studies and developing our analytical approach. We also highlight provisional insights into endogenous mechanisms of conflict resolution and cultural change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 459-477
Author(s):  
Aurora Donzelli

The global spreading of neoliberalism requires discursive technologies capable of producing forms of subjectivity congruent with the extension of market rationality to all dimensions of social life. Since the millennium, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-driven implementation of governance reform in Indonesia has entailed the dissemination of electoral mission statements – a discursive genre aimed at consolidating a new morality of accountability, transparency and proactive entrepreneurialism. Drawing on audiovisual data recorded in a peripheral region of Indonesia, this article examines the circulation of this transnational genre and reveals how its uptake has not been fully successful. The analysis shows how, through a series of verbal and non-verbal cues, candidates would signal their disalignment from the genre’s metapragmatic structure. By performing their statements through the affectless prosody of written texts read aloud, candidates evaded the moral and discursive expectations of transparent accountability and neoliberal entrepreneurialism and reasserted the ethos of impersonal acquiescence underlying the local modes of political self-presentation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-408
Author(s):  
David Niven ◽  
Alexis Straka ◽  
Anwar Mhajne

Do women candidates in the United States more openly provide the specific details of their policy preferences and make clear their political ideology? Previous research supports all manner of conflicting expectations regarding gender and campaign communication strategies. Here, with an eye toward offering evidence on the degree to which candidates make clear their issue positions, we consider how more than 1,300 candidates running in the 2016 elections from fifteen randomly chosen states answered voter guide questions. We do so both to better understand the murky theoretical relationship between gender and communication styles and to offer insight into the practical realities of how women run for office. Ultimately our findings support the notion that women run for office differently, offering less transparency of their issue positions than men. The implication, consistent with a theory of conditional political ambition, is that women weigh more seriously the decision to run for office and, thus, run more sophisticated campaigns when they do pursue office.


Author(s):  
Maggie Griffith ◽  
Zizi Papacharissi

Blogs are a form of self-presentation on the Internet and variations like video blogs (vlogs) have expanded with the support of sites like YouTube. This study examines the culture of video blogging --- its rhythm, language, and communication style. Utilizing Goffman's (1959) notions on the presentation of self as dramaturgical, multi-stage and multi-audience processes, this textual analysis of ten personal vlogs deconstructs the structure of each site, text, links, as well as the videos and their comments to identify dominant modes of communication. Three dominant themes emerge, reflecting employment of vlogs as diaries, media for identity expression, and a means to indulge in narcissism. Vloggers emphasize one or more of these modes in creating their online performances.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Addie Martindale ◽  
Ellen McKinney

Garment sewing was once a necessity for women to present themselves and their families in a socially acceptable manner. Despite societal and economics changes, as well as, an abundance of readily available cheap clothing, there is a resurging interest in personal garment sewing by women. This qualitative study explored the control gained by women who sew their own clothing finding that among the women interviewed personal garment sewing allowed them control over their clothing’s style, fit, and quality, which was not found through purchasing ready-to-wear clothes. Garment sewing permitted these women to present themselves in clothing that they felt more accurately represented their personality and taste. These findings provide insights into the usage of garment sewing by women to control their appearance which allowed them more authority over their clothing selection than their non-sewing peers. Validation of the women’s time spent sewing was established as the findings postulate noteworthy benefits that include increased satisfaction with both their appearance and their presentation of self to others. The findings are explained using theories related to self-presentation and identity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-260
Author(s):  
Fernando Teixeira Luiz

Revela-se, nas últimas décadas do século XX, a incidência de séries animadas protagonizadas por heróis primordiais, afinados à mitologia pagã e às Novelas de Cavalaria. Nessa direção, o presente estudo ocupa-se em rastrear, a partir de uma perspectiva crítica, descritiva e historicista, as propostas veiculadas pelo cinema gráfico entre 1980 e 2000 e suas articulações com a literatura, o cinema e os quadrinhos. Não está em cogitação, assim, a análise minuciosa de uma obra, mas o delineamento de um panorama histórico que permita visualizar as perspectivas de representação de heróis tradicionais ao longo de vinte anos. Para tanto, recorre-se à crítica especializada, às teorias da narrativa e aos estudos sobre desenho animado e indústria cultural. Em linhas gerais, a pesquisa apontou para um quadro curioso, se comparado às décadas anteriores, marcado, predominantemente, pelo hibridismo. Assim, diversos estúdios lançavam mão de uma teia de signos típicos de circuitos específicos, como o universo da mitologia, o substrato medieval, a literatura arturiana, a fantasia futurista, o faroeste norte-americano e as fontes lendárias dos samurais. Palavras-chave: Desenho animado. Literatura. Estética. Leitor. Herói. THE CONSTRUCTION OF HEROES IN CARTOONS: THE PERIOD OF HYBRID NARRATIVES (1980 – 2000) Abstract: The last decades of the 20th century saw the incidence of animated series featuring primordial heroes, attuned to pagan mythology and to chivalric romance. From a critical, descriptive and historical perspective, this paper aims to track the initiatives conveyed in animated movies between 1980 and 2000 and their correlation with literature, cinema and comic books. The paper offers a historical outline, which provides an overview of perspectives that traditional heroes were represented within a twenty-year time span. In order to do so, it relies on specialized criticism, narrative theory, and on studies about animation and cultural industry. Overall, it points towards an interesting scenario if compared to earlier decades, which were mostly marked by the presence of hybridity. Thus, diverse studios employed a network of signs from specific contexts, such as mythology, medievalism, Arthurian literature, science fiction, American western, and Japanese samurai epics. Keywords: Animated Cartoon. Literature. Aesthetics. Reader. Hero.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Ita Musfirowati Hanika

Abstract: The Sims 4 is a life simulation digital game, wherein the player can create and manage their virtual world. This research aims to reveal the players’ ideas in constructing their virtual world in this game. It is a qualitative research, using indepth interview to collect the data. Based on Ervin Goffman’s dramaturgy theory, “The presentation of self in everyday life”, this research concludes that The Sims 4 is played like a “real” life to create the expected self-image in the real world.Abstrak: Permainan digital The Sims 4 merupakan permainan simulasi kehidupan yang memberi kesempatan pemainnya untuk menciptakan dan mengatur dunia virtualnya. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengungkapkan gagasan yang mendasari pemain dalam mengonstruksi dunia mereka dalam permainan digital. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dengan wawancara mendalam sebagai metode pengumpulan data. Menggunakan teori dramaturgi Ervin Goffman, “The presentation of self in everyday life”, penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa permainan The Sims 4 dijalankan layaknya kehidupan “real” untuk menciptakan citra diri yang diharapkan di dunia nyata.


Author(s):  
Giovanna Mascheroni ◽  
Jane Vincent ◽  
Estefanía Jimenez

This paper examines how children aged 11-16 in three European countries (Italy, UK and Spain) develop and present their online identities, and their interactions with peers. It focuses on young people’s engagement with the construction of an online identity on social media through pictures, and explores how peer-mediated conventions of self-presentation are appropriated, legitimated, or resisted in pre-teens’ and teenagers’ discourses. In doing so, we draw on Goffman’s (1959) work on the presentation of self and “impression management” to frame our analysis. Mobile communication and social network sites serve an important role in the process of self-presentation and emancipation, providing “full-time” access to peers and peer culture. Our findings suggest that there are gender differences and the presence of sexual double standards in peer normative discourses. Girls are positioned as being more subjected to peer mediation and pressure. Boys blame girls for posing sexy in photos, and negatively sanction this behaviour as being aimed at increasing one’s popularity online or as an indicator of “a certain type of girl.” However, girls who post provocative photos chose to conform to a sexualised stereotype as a means of being socially accepted by peers. Moreover, they identify with the pressure to always look “perfect” in their online pictures. While cross-national variations do exist, this sexual double standard is observed in all three countries. These insights into current behaviours could be further developed to determine policy guidance for supporting young people as they learn to manage image laden social media.


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