[Air-L] Text analysis of blog posts and comment threads: discourse analysis vs. conversation analysis

[Barbara Clark]

Hi Alexander (and list as this is the first public post for me),

I'm currently in the 3rd year of my PhD in Linguistic Anthropology, and my data come from 3 different textual sources including online discussion forums, so let me jump in here with my 2p.

In the research I did for my own thesis, I came to the conclusion that CA was not the most appropriate methodology for me or my data. I felt that its micro-focus strictly on how interlocutors orient to ideologies, etc, only by analysing the talk-in-interaction (and not taking into account contextual and ethnographic influences on the discourse) did not offer the type and level of analysis which I wanted. Moreover, I felt that CA was more useful and applicable for spoken conversations or back-and-forth talk between two or more interlocutors, as opposed to the often asynchronous talk one gets in textual discourse and CMC.

For my thesis I'm using two complementary methodologies, Interactional Sociolinguistics and Ethnography of Communication. Both emphasise the importance of analysing situated discourse - this is in contrast with CA which can tend to abstract the discourse as it focuses almost exclusively on how participants themselves orient in the talk being analysed to various world views, attitudes, contextualising factors, etc. Interactional Sociolinguistics and Ethnography of Communication both use ethnographic methods to understand the contexts framing and perhaps driving the discourse being analysed.

Having said all that, I don't know what specifically you are focussing on with your research, so perhaps CA would be good for you after all. I can recommend the Hutchby & Wooffitt (1998) book on CA (I'm pretty sure there's a newer, revised edition available) for more information on CA. Also, if you're interested in discourse analysis, I'd recommend Schiffrin's incredibly useful (1994) book, Approaches to Discourse, wherein she discussed several major qualitative approaches to analysing discourse. Very helpful, detailed book. I couldn't do my thesis without it. Finally, Duranti (1997) Linguistic Anthropology is a useful text on, well, linguistic anthropology! And associated methods :-) He writes in an approachable, uncomplicated manner, and would be very suitable for someone who needs to know information but doesn't want to or can't take the time to wade through extraneous words.

Best of luck to you in your research!

Barb

--
Barbara Clark, PhD student
School of Languages, Linguistics and Film
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS
United Kingdom

b.l.clark at qmul.ac.uk
@drjavafox




On 9 Jul 2010, at 01:23, Semenov Alexander wrote:

> Hello everybody,
> I'm interested in qualitative text analysis of posts and comment treads in
> LiveJournal. I've found previous request on this topic in the aoir
> archieves, but it was 2 years ago (
> http://listserv.aoir.org/htdig.cgi/air-l-aoir.org/2008-September/017172.html).
>> From one of the responses (
> http://listserv.aoir.org/htdig.cgi/air-l-aoir.org/2008-September/017187.html)
> I've founded the following articles relevant to my interest:
> 
> Harrison S (2004) 'Subverting conversational repair in computer-mediated
> communication: pseudo repair and refusal to repair in a hostile email
> discussion' in Mike Baynham, Alice Deignan and Goodith White (eds.)
> Applied Linguistics at the Interface, British Studies in Applied
> Linguistics Volume 19. London: BAAL Equinox, pp63-77
> 
> Harrison, S (2007) 'Transgressions, miscommunication and flames:
> problematic incidents in email discussions' in Mia Consalvo & Caroline
> Haythornthwaite, (Eds.) AoIR Internet Annual Volume 4, New York: Peter
> Lang, pp 105-117
> 
> Harrison, S (2008) 'Turn taking in email discussions' in Sigrid Kelsey
> and Kirk St.Amant (eds.) Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated
> Communication. Hershey, Pennsylvania: Information Science Reference
> 
> Harrison S and Allton D (forthcoming - draft paper submitted) 'Apologies
> in email discussions'
> 
> But I still have some questions:
> 
> 1) Which method would you prefer for such kind of analysis: discourse
> analysis or conversational analysis?
> 2) Are there any other artcles about qualitative text analysis of blog posts
> and comment threads?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Alexander Semenov.
> MA student
> Faculty of Sociology
> Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences (MSSES)
> http://www.msses.ru/English/index.html
> 
> Graduate Student in Sociology at
> State University - Higher School of Economics
> http://www.hse.ru/eng
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