Authenticity, normativity and social media

Social Media Discourse, (Dis)identifications and Diversities

“Are They Singing the National Anthem?” : Football Followers’ Responses to the Ethnic Diversification of Finland Men’s National Football Team

Multilingual language use and metapragmatic reflexivity in Finnish internet football forums : a study in the sociolinguistics of globalization

Pala Cantabriaa suomalaisella futisfoorumilla

Race, ethnicity and ‘African-ness’ in football discourse : perspectives in the age of superdiversity

Globalization, mass mobility, and economic and transcultural flows are changing the experience of diversity in many contemporary societies and communities. This is encapsulated in the notion of ‘superdiversity’, the growing complexity of what ‘diversity’ means, when new combinations of ethnicity and other variables, mobility, belonging, and identification intersect in complex, less predictable ways (see Creese & Blackledge 2010: 550–552; Blommaert & Rampton 2011). Also, the world of association football (soccer, henceforth ‘football’) is radically transformed by such processes of globalization (Giulianotti 1999; Giulianotti & Robertson 2009; Kytölä 2013). The mobility of ‘actors-in-the-fiel…

Investigating multilingualism and multisemioticity as communicative resources in social media

This chapter discusses the role of multilingualism and multisemioticity as key resources in communication in contemporary interest-driven social media. We approach social media as translocal arenas for social interaction and (trans)cultural activities (Leppänen 2008, 2012; Kytölä in press) which complement and intertwine with participants’ offline realities in different ways. In particular, we show how the investigation of such activities can benefit from a multi-dimensional framework drawing on insights from several fields, including online ethnography, the study of multimodality, and research into computer-mediated discourse (CMD). peerReviewed

Kansallinen kyselytutkimus englannin kielestä Suomessa : käyttö, merkitys ja asenteet

Entextualization and resemiotization as resources for identification in social media

Drawing on insights provided by linguistic anthropology, the study of multisemioticity and research in computer-mediated discourse (CMD), this chapter discusses how entextualization (Bauman & Briggs, 1990; Silverstein & Urban, 1996; Blommaert, 2005, pp. 46–8) and resemiotization (Iedema, 2003; Scollon & Scollon, 2004, pp. 101–3; Scollon, 2008) are key resources for identity work in social media. Three key arguments inspire and give direction to our discussion, each of them laying down touchstones for language scholars who wish to investigate identity in social media. First, for many individuals and social or cultural groups, social media are increasingly significant grassroots arenas for in…

The portrayal of deafness in Elizabeth George's For the sake of Elena

“I be da reel gansta”—A Finnish footballer’s Twitter writing and metapragmatic evaluations of authenticity

This article explores the ways in which ‘gangsta’ English features are deployed, evaluated and adopted in two types of social media, the web forum and Twitter, within the domains of hip hop culture and football (soccer) culture, from the dual perspective of authenticity and normativity. Empirically, we aim to break new ground by investigating the intricate interconnections between two social media formats and combining two highly popular but previously seldom connected cultural forms—football and hip hop. Our theoretical aim is to contribute to the current debate on authenticity, normativity, popular culture and social media, and the complex ways in which they are connected. We focus, first…

Negotiating multilingual discourse in a Finland-based online football forum : metapragmatic reflexivity on intelligibility, expertise and ‘nativeness’

Introduction: Social Media Discourse, (Dis)Identifications and Diversities

The focus in this volume is on social media discourse, (dis)identifications and diversities. It demonstrates how particular ways of mobilizing verbal, discursive and other semiotic resources serve as means for identity work (Bucholtz, 2003; Blommaert, 2003), involving acts, processes and practices of (dis)identification as essential aspects of sociality in social media. It will also illustrate how such social action also increasingly engages with a range of diversities in social media. peerReviewed

Translocality