Analysing technological affordances of online interactions using conversation analysis

Meredith, JM

Abstract

The use of conversation analysis (CA) as a method for analysing the interactional practices of online communication has been growing in recent years (Giles et al., 2015). A key challenge for analysing online communication is the varied platforms through which interaction can occur. This paper demonstrates how using CA and the concept of affordances (Hutchby, 2001) can provide a lens through which to analyse not only the interaction, but also the technological context of that interaction. A corpus of instant messaging chats, captured from Facebook chat using screen-capture software, is used as a case study to demonstrate how the concept of affordances can be used alongside CA analysis to address the role of technology in the interaction. Two key interactional practices – turn adjacency and openings – are analysed to show the insights that CA can offer for providing an in-depth analysis of online interaction. By using affordances as a lens through which CA analysis can be refracted, scholars using ‘digital CA’ can better develop an understanding of patterns of interaction across different interactional platforms.

Citation

Meredith, J. (2017). Analysing technological affordances of online interactions using conversation analysis. Journal of Pragmatics, 115, 42-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.03.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jun 6, 2017
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 2, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 6, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Pragmatics
• Print ISSN: 0378-2166
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 115
• Pages: 42-55
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.03.001
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.03.001
• Related Public URLs: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-pragmatics