Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5123995 | Discourse, Context & Media | 2017 | 8 Pages |
â¢News discussions as a space of everyday opinions.â¢News discussion forum as content-based online discussion.â¢Public vernacular discourse derived from the private space of users.â¢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.