When Friends Who Talk Together Stalk Together: Online Gossip as Metacommunication

Graham M. Jones; Bambi B. Schieffelin; Rachel E. Smith

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795437.003.0002

When Friends Who Talk Together Stalk Together: Online Gossip as Metacommunication

Graham M. Jones, Bambi B. Schieffelin, Rachel E. Smith

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

Drawing on instant messaging (IM) conversations recorded between 2006 and 2009, this chapter analyzes American teenagers' normative assessments of peers' online practices. These assessments do not take the form of reflexively elaborated metadiscourses, but rather emerge through and within metacommunicative gossip, i.e., morally motivated stories about others' online communication. In particular, it concentrates on gossip conducted via IM about communication on the social networking site Facebook. Such gossip is not only metacommunicative; it is also metasemiotic insofar as participants incorporate materials from one media channel into another, drawing on evidence gathered by "stalking", "lurking", and "creeping" on Facebook to constitute moral assessments of others' online activity. This account shows that Facebook-an affectively charged arena of self-display and mutual scrutiny in which participants construct desire and build alliances through strategies of concealment and revelation-is a powerful catalyst for metacommunicative talk.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Digital Discourse
Subtitle of host publication	Language in the New Media
Publisher	Oxford University Press
ISBN (Electronic)	9780199919321
ISBN (Print)	9780199795437
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795437.003.0002
State	Published - Jan 19 2012

Keywords

Adolescents
Facebook
Gossip
IM
Instant messaging
Metacommunication
Multimodality
Reported speech
Social networking sites
Teenagers

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Arts and Humanities

Access to Document

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795437.003.0002

Cite this

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abstract = "Drawing on instant messaging (IM) conversations recorded between 2006 and 2009, this chapter analyzes American teenagers' normative assessments of peers' online practices. These assessments do not take the form of reflexively elaborated metadiscourses, but rather emerge through and within metacommunicative gossip, i.e., morally motivated stories about others' online communication. In particular, it concentrates on gossip conducted via IM about communication on the social networking site Facebook. Such gossip is not only metacommunicative; it is also metasemiotic insofar as participants incorporate materials from one media channel into another, drawing on evidence gathered by {"}stalking{"}, {"}lurking{"}, and {"}creeping{"} on Facebook to constitute moral assessments of others' online activity. This account shows that Facebook-an affectively charged arena of self-display and mutual scrutiny in which participants construct desire and build alliances through strategies of concealment and revelation-is a powerful catalyst for metacommunicative talk.",

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N2 - Drawing on instant messaging (IM) conversations recorded between 2006 and 2009, this chapter analyzes American teenagers' normative assessments of peers' online practices. These assessments do not take the form of reflexively elaborated metadiscourses, but rather emerge through and within metacommunicative gossip, i.e., morally motivated stories about others' online communication. In particular, it concentrates on gossip conducted via IM about communication on the social networking site Facebook. Such gossip is not only metacommunicative; it is also metasemiotic insofar as participants incorporate materials from one media channel into another, drawing on evidence gathered by "stalking", "lurking", and "creeping" on Facebook to constitute moral assessments of others' online activity. This account shows that Facebook-an affectively charged arena of self-display and mutual scrutiny in which participants construct desire and build alliances through strategies of concealment and revelation-is a powerful catalyst for metacommunicative talk.

AB - Drawing on instant messaging (IM) conversations recorded between 2006 and 2009, this chapter analyzes American teenagers' normative assessments of peers' online practices. These assessments do not take the form of reflexively elaborated metadiscourses, but rather emerge through and within metacommunicative gossip, i.e., morally motivated stories about others' online communication. In particular, it concentrates on gossip conducted via IM about communication on the social networking site Facebook. Such gossip is not only metacommunicative; it is also metasemiotic insofar as participants incorporate materials from one media channel into another, drawing on evidence gathered by "stalking", "lurking", and "creeping" on Facebook to constitute moral assessments of others' online activity. This account shows that Facebook-an affectively charged arena of self-display and mutual scrutiny in which participants construct desire and build alliances through strategies of concealment and revelation-is a powerful catalyst for metacommunicative talk.

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When Friends Who Talk Together Stalk Together: Online Gossip as Metacommunication

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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