Technography as a synergetic methodology for the study of stories
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Both qualitative and quantitative linguistic work online strive to integrate context into their analyses, the former as an indispensable part of a thick description, while the latter, as a way of ‘qualitizing’ big data. But if context has been elusive vis-à-vis face-to- face data, the challenges of contextual work online are even more accentuated (e.g. see Blommaert et al 2020; Author 2017a). At the heart of such challenges lies the irreducibly socio-technical nature of communication, shaped by the workings of technologies, a key-player in the constitution of context. In recognition of the need to factor in the role of technologies in a non-deterministic and historicized way, in this article, I re-work technography, a social media-tailored ethnographic approach (Bucher 2018), for the purposes of a contextual linguistic study of stories online. I specifically present the methodological premises & steps for integrating the triptych of platformed affordances, discourses and users’ practices into a contextual analysis, well-suited to investigating the ‘total linguistic fact’ (Silverstein 1985). I focus on what I have used as the key technographic principle, real-time tracking. Tracking involves an inductive and recursive combination of ethnographic observations, corpus compilation, corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis and multi-semiotic micro-analysis that inform both data collection and analysis in mutually feeding ways. To make my discussion tangible, I bring in selectively insights from my longitudinal technography of the development of storytelling facilities on major platforms (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Tik Tok).
Source: Discourse Context & Media
Author: Alex Georgakopoulou
Institution: King's College London
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,540
OpenAlex ID: W4401900244