[Air-L] introducing Maria

[Maria Eronen]

Hi everyone,

Let me introduce myself: I am Maria Eronen, a PhD student of  
Communication Studies from University of Vaasa, Finland. I am  
currently working with my PhD dissertation concerning how celebrity  
gossip leads to moral discussion on Internet forums and discussion  
boards.

By utilizing the analysis of evaluative language (e.g. Martin & White  
2005) with rhetorical perspective, and by comparing Finnish and  
English language online discussions with each other, I hope to answer  
to two questions: 1) Do participants in celebrity-related online  
discussions form a moral community? and 2) Do they construe moral  
norms by interacting? The number of hate speech and naming of other  
discussion participants, for instance, can be seen as a sign of  
unsolved moral uncertainty typical of multinational and multicultural  
Internet discussions.

It would be nice to know if anyone else works with similar topics ;)

Greetings from sunny but very cold Finland,

Maria