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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Entextualization and resemiotization as resources for identification in social media

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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 interaction and cultural activities (Androutsopoulos, 2011; Kytola, 2012a, 2012b; Leppanen, 2012; Peuronen, 2011) which overlap, complement and intertwine in different ways with their offline activities. Importantly, social media encompass a range of diverse formats for social action, interaction and performance; thus they can be ‘social’ in quite different ways (see Baym, 2011, pp. 6–12) and offer various kinds of affordances for, and constraints on, identity performance.