Great Expectations: Expected Seconds to Assessments on Social Networking Sites

• In Event: 239 - Section on Communication and Information Technologies Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Friendly Fire: Social Networking on Facebook

Abstract

This paper explores the system of preference in relation to the production of second parts after assessments in posts on social networking sites (henceforth SNSs). The different expectations regarding what might be preferred seconds in interaction on SNSs, as compared to face-to-face interaction, suggest the need to consider the factors that have an influence on the system of preference operating in this new genre. Relevant studies in the sequential organization of agreeing and disagreeing turns (Sacks 1973, Pomerantz 1975, 1984, Goodwin and Goodwin 1987, Mori 1999) show that their turn shapes differ due to their status as preferred and dispreferred activities respectively. In an attempt to discover the devices used on SNSs interaction in order to mark preference, I will analyze a corpus of two hundred messages from one particular site, i.e., Facebook (FB), containing interaction among friends, as distinct from other academic or professional types of interaction on this SNS. The methodology for processing the data borrows techniques from Corpus Linguistics (CL), and draws upon analytic resources from Conversation Analysis (CA) and Discourse Analysis (DA), as discussed in previous research (Santamaría García 2011). I will draw upon appraisal theory (Martin and White 2000, 2005) and politeness (Brown and Levinson 1987), in order to explore the connection between preference and the expression of attitude (affect, judgement and appreciation) together with face management and interpersonal rapport.
Key words: conversation analysis, preference, agreement, social networking sites, internet-mediated interaction

Author

• Carmen Santamaría, University of Alcala