Speaker: Dr. Andrew S. Ross

Date：26/2/2025, 14:50

Venue：Room 136, Institute of Language Sciences

Abstract:

In recent times, we have all become hyper-aware of the presence and influence of social media in our lives, and it has provided substantial data for analysis by scholars across almost all academic disciplines. Applied linguistics is no different, with researchers showing an ongoing fascination with people’s everyday communication and discourse as it plays out online. While social media discourse has undoubtedly afforded us an opportunity to observe aspects of social life as they unfold in real time across various platforms and utilising different affordances, there have also been – and continue to be – challenges. Specifically, this challenge revolves around developing an understanding of how language and other semiotic resources act as tools to help us organise, commune around and contest the different social bonds that connect and divide us. Applied linguists and discourse analysts continue to grapple with this and other issues in comprehending what is actually going on when people engage in social media communication.

In this presentation, I will outline the rationale and focus of a new book – authored by Michele Zappavigna and me – focusing precisely on this topic. The title of the book is Innovations and Challenges in Social Media Discourse Analysis, from a wider series on Innovations and Challenges in Applied Linguistics. Although it is beyond the scope of the talk to cover the entire book, I will seek to provide insights to some of the key content and theoretical and topical content.

Speaker: Dr. Andrew S. Ross

Date：26/2/2025, 14:50

Venue：Room 136, Institute of Language Sciences

Speaker’s Bio: Andrew Ross is an applied linguist whose interdisciplinary research interests revolve around social media discourse and communication. His work has been published in such venues as Discourse, Context & Media; Communication and Sport; Environmental Communication; Journal of Pragmatics; Social Media+Society and New Media & Society. He is the co-author of Innovations and Challenges in Social Media Discourse Analysis (2025, Routledge) and of the forthcoming Understanding the Language of Virtual Interaction: Communities, Knowledge and Authority (2025, Cambridge University Press). He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Discourse, Context & Media.

Organizer: Institute of Language Sciences