Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
5123995 Discourse, Context & Media 2017 8 Pages PDF
Abstract

•News discussions as a space of everyday opinions.•News discussion forum as content-based online discussion.•Public vernacular discourse derived from the private space of users.•Public vernacular discourse contains affective and unconfirmed information.

In this paper, news discussion forums are studied as vernacular public discourse and as a communicative genre in the digital context. First, these forums are defined as a vernacular public discourse since users base their reasoning on private sphere stancetaking, and their views do not receive legitimation. Additionally, the participants comprise a hybrid public that shares networking but not necessarily a common ground on the topic being discussed. Second, news discussion forums are based on the communicative activity of commenting as they are initiated by a news article or other types of professional news content. They can be compared to content-based and knowledge-based discussions in social media, but they have their own specific characteristics. Third, the users do not necessarily reveal their source of knowledge, but when they do, references are of a general nature or they are anchored in the private sphere of the participants.

Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities Arts and Humanities Language and Linguistics
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