Diskurssintutkimuksen menetelmiä digitaalisen retoriikan tutkimuksessa

Abstract

Digital rhetoric is an emerging field, not yet very known among researchers and students in Finland. The term ‘digital rhetoric’ refers both to the production of persuasive digital texts and to their analysis. In this paper, we concentrate on the latter, the analysis, and we especially focus on the methods used in studies pertaining to digital rhetoric. Furthermore, instead of reviewing the variety of methods used in digital rhetoric research, we concentrate on how discourse analytic methods can be used in digital rhetoric research. We illustrate some of these uses through examples of studies on two rhetorical concepts in digital communication, namely ethosand argumentation. Our review shows that discourse analytic methods offer useful tools for the study of digital rhetoric.

“I thought asking the experts of the board first before turning at the unctuous salesmen.” Requesting special field related advice and information on online communities

“…Personal beliefs were the most frequently used justification for claims on both discussion boards. The results are in line with previous studies which indicate that in digital communication environments, citizens' own experiences may be more convincing than the research-based justification presented by an expert in many situations, and they are also a very commonly used means of justifying claims in online discussions(Lehti/Kallio 2017, Lehti/Eronen-Valli 2018. On the specialized, controlled discussion board, the writers used more often factual information based on some information source and online information sources to justify the claims when compared to the open discussion board, where other people were used as a source of information more often.…”