"No.. like you don't get it": The functionality of conflict speech and the construction of the young adult feminist identity on Tumblr

1 online resource (127 pages) : PDF

2019

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

As social media grew in popularity, online discourse became a more frequent focus of study because it represented an entirely new form of communication. While technological innovations led to easier and more accessible communication on a global scale, they also resulted in the rise of online conflict. This study focuses on the role of conflict speech within online discourse, specifically connecting conflict to the construction of the young adult feminist identity on Tumblr, a microblogging social media platform. Adopting a social constructionist approach, this study incorporates the theoretical frameworks of Culpeper (1996) and Bucholtz and Hall (2005) in combination with a close discourse analysis and thematic analysis in order to understand the functionality of conflict speech between feminist and non-feminist users within comments left on Tumblr. Through this framework and analysis, this study found that Tumblr users employed a range of discursive patterns, including quotatives, hashtags, and instances of name-calling, all while utilizing several impoliteness strategies. Moreover, this study found that there exists a distinction between conflict occurring between feminist and non-feminist Tumblr users as opposed to conflict between two or more feminist users. Through strategies like polarization and selective dissociation, Tumblr users are continuously enacting, constructing, and negotiating the young adult feminist identity when responding to and engaging in conflictual interactions. Ultimately, the conflict speech examined in this study contributes not only to the construction of this collective identity but emphasizes the value of unity within the young adult feminist identity.

masters theses

Linguistics

M.A.

Conflict Speech
Feminism
Online Discourse

English

Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar

Lewis, Janaka
Miller, Elizabeth

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2019.

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