Participation as a tool for interactional work on Twitter: A sociolinguistic approach to social media 'engagement'

This work approaches the concept of social media engagement through a lens of participation theory. Following the work of Goffman (1981) and others, this dissertation uses the concepts of the participation framework and the participant role to explore engagement as a function of participation in interaction. The purposes of this dissertation are three-fold: to model participant roles as they are built in interaction on Twitter, to discover the ways in which participation is established through the linguistic choices enacted by participants, and to demonstrate the role of the medium as an important factor influencing possibilities for participation. Using discourse analysis as a methodology, tweets from accounts associated with National Hockey League (NHL) organizations are analyzed for the linguistic resources that are used to reference interactional roles traditionally understood as “speaker” and “hearer”. In turn, the linguistic and discursive resources deployed in team tweets are used to reveal these speaker and hearer roles as more detailed and complex production and reception frameworks. The modal affordances of Twitter are also investigated as to their role in influencing the building of participation frameworks through talk, including unique linguistic forms that are available to Twitter users and possibilities for hiding or revealing participants through the Twitter screen. The findings of this investigation reveal three primary models for production frameworks for NHL accounts: an Impersonal Model that eschews identification of the parties in production roles, an Interpersonal Model that highlights the individuals involved in the interaction, and a Team Model that obscures the individual to focus on the team or organization as a primary participant. Additionally, a framework for understanding recipient audiences on Twitter is proposed, incorporating both actual and intended audiences. Consistent patterns in the language choices used to construct participatory identities for production and reception roles are demonstrated, highlighting the value of using linguistic data as a resource for investigations of participation. Finally, Twitter’s modal affordances are shown to be an integral part of the ways that users enact participatory concepts, such as co-presence and address, revealing the importance of considering the role of the medium in participation studies

Revisiting the Maori English Vowel Space:Exploring variation in /ɪ/ and /u/ vowel production in Auckland, New Zealand

REVISITING THE MAORI ENGLISH VOWEL SPACE: EXPLORING VARIATION IN /ɪ/ AND /u/ VOWEL PRODUCTION IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALANDFawn T. Draucker, M.A.University of Pittsburgh, 2009This study examines the correlation of proposed features of Maori Vernacular English (MVE)with ethnicity, gender, and Maori language ability. Earlier studies propose "decentralized" /ɪ/ and "extremely fronted" /u/ as features distinguishing MVE speech from a more standard form of New Zealand English (Bell, 1997, 1999). Bell (1997) also suggests that a high, close production of /ɪ/ could be the result of language transfer and would likely be correlated with Maori language ability. In this work, I investigate these claims within a generation of speakers born between 1915-1937. Interviews were used from a group of participants in an oral history project conducted by the Auckland Public Library in 1990, and include background on the participants' lives, including information about their ethnicity and languages used in their homes. Tokens of target vowels, /ɪ/ and /u/, were collected from the speech produced during these interviews, along with tokens of all other English monophthongal vowels. First and second formant measurements were taken from these tokens in Praat and the data were then normalized. Data were tested for correlation with ethnicity, Maori language ability, and gender using linear mixed effects regression and generalized linear modeling. Results showed that high, close productions of /ɪ/ are correlated with English-Maori bilingualism. This correlation is discussed within both a language transfer framework and a community-based sociolinguistic framework, with the proposal of a sound change in progress at different stages in different communities being the preferred interpretation. Results for the /u/ vowel show that extremely fronted production of /u/ could not be correlated with Maori ethnicity, but instead could be identified as a Pakeha female variant. These results are again discussed within a sociolinguistic framework, focusing on the /u/ variable as a possible sound change in progress. Ultimately, it is determined that neither decentralized /ɪ/ or fronted /u/ can be established as identifying features of the MVE dialect for this group of speakers

Connecting with fans in under 140 characters: Participation frameworks in the NHL's use of Twitter

As social media become more prevalent, they provide opportunities for both individuals and organizations to communicate in new and innovative ways. Many professional and collegiate sports teams have taken advantage of these media to reach their fan bases, with Twitter in particular taking a strong hold in the sports world. Twitter has been shown to provide a way for sports organizations to not only provide fans with updated news and information about the team, but also to provide so-called backstage information, showing off the personalities of players, coaches, and owners (Gregory, 2009). While there has been a significant push to use such ‘insider’ information to make fans feel more engaged with the team, participation structures are often overlooked as a potential tool for engaging fans via social media. Complex participation structures are available in interaction, and these structures can be manipulated to display stances and alignments to both the interaction and its participants and to the talk itself (Irvine, 1996; Hill and Zepeda, 1992). In order to understand how these participation structures can be manipulated to evoke different stances, a vocabulary and framework for discussing these structures are needed. Using the National Hockey League (NHL) and its official team accounts as a case study, this paper adds to the current body of research on the interactional use of social media tool Twitter by analyzing Goffman’s (1981) concept of participation frameworks, examining the ways that language use on Twitter both embodies and challenges the traditional participation roles enacted in face-to-face conversation. Through analysis of a corpus of 4,266 tweets produced by the NHL team accounts in a one-week span in March 2011, this project looks to define the participant roles and frameworks available to sports organizations in producing talk for their fans via Twitter. This analysis suggests that while Goffman’s conventional participant roles can be extended to this medium, they are not sufficient on their own for describing the interactions between sports teams and their fans on Twitter, indicating the need for both new participant roles and revised conceptions of these traditional roles. Finally, linguistic tools specific to the Twitter medium, such as @mentions and #hashtag terms, are discussed in regards to their role in manipulating the participation frameworks available to NHL team accounts

How African American Adolescents Manage Depression: Being With Others

BACKGROUND: African American (AA) adolescents with depression face serious negative outcomes. Despite racial/ethnic disparities in treatment utilization, few studies have explored how AA adolescents manage their depression. OBJECTIVE: To describe common ways AA adolescents manage depressive symptoms through relationships with people in their lives. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive methods were used to analyze the narratives of 22 AA young adults who had been depressed as adolescents and 5 AA adolescents in treatment for depression. RESULTS: A typology describing the varied ways AA adolescents manage their depressive symptoms through interactions with other people was constructed and labeled Being With Others. The five categories in the typology are keeping others at bay, striking out at others, seeking help from others, joining in with others, and having others reach out CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians might use the Being With Others typology to guide discussions related to detecting, assessing, and treating AA adolescents with depression

Managing participation through modal affordances on Twitter

On Twitter, retweets function as a method of reporting speech and spreading the talk of other users. We propose that changes to the interface and mechanisms of Twitter have led to the coexistence of two complementary forms of retweeting. The Preserving Retweet, enabled by the Twitter interface, directly reports speech and retains attribution to the original author, but it does not allow for any modification or indication of stance. The Adapting Retweet, a user-created norm studied by boyd et al. (2010), allows users the option to add comments to pre-existing tweets but resulting in confusion in attribution. Using an updated form of Goffman's participation framework, we analyze the use of these two types of retweets and their impact on attribution

Self-monitoring Lifestyle Behavior in Overweight and Obese Pregnant Women: Qualitative Findings

Background: Excessive maternal gestational weight gain increases pregnancy and infant complications. Self-monitoring has been shown to be an effective strategy in weight management. Literature, however, is limited in describing pregnant women’s engagement in self-monitoring. Aim: This qualitative study explored the experiences of overweight and obese pregnant women who self-monitored their eating, walking, and weight as participants in an intervention for excessive gestational weight gain prevention. Methods: Thirteen overweight and obese pregnant women participated in semistructured interviews. Reflexive iteration data analysis was conducted. Findings: Five themes were identified: making self-monitoring a habit, strategies for self-monitoring, barriers to self-monitoring, benefits of self-monitoring, and drawbacks of self-monitoring. The women viewed self-monitoring as a “habit” that could foster a sense of self-control and mindfulness. Visual or tracing aids were used to maintain the self-monitoring habit. Forgetting, defective tracking aids, complexities of food monitoring, and life events could impede self-monitoring. Being unable to keep up with self-monitoring or to achieve goals created stress. Conclusions: Self-monitoring is a promising approach to weight management for overweight and obese pregnant women. However, healthcare providers should be aware that, although women may identify several benefits to self-monitoring, for some women, consistently trying to track their behaviors is stressful

Facilitators of and barriers to successful teamwork during resuscitations in a neonatal intensive care unit

OBJECTIVE: Effective teamwork is essential in high-risk healthcare delivery environments. In this study, we aimed to identify facilitators of and barriers to successful teamwork during resuscitations in the NICU Study Design: 36 in-situ interprofessional simulation sessions were held in a level 4 NICU. Each session was followed by a debriefing where staff talked about the simulation scenario but also about their prior experiences during resuscitations in the NICU. Using content analysis, we analyzed the transcriptions of debriefings to address the study aims. RESULT: Participant responses yielded three major themes: communicating well, getting tasks done well, and working well together. Each main theme had subthemes. CONCLUSION: Teamwork is a complex process that is enhanced and hindered by a variety of factors. The factors identified in this study can be used to enhance relationship-based teamwork training programs. Future research is needed to determine which teamwork behaviors are most associated with patient outcomes

Emerging Adult Women’s Views-of-Self in Intimate Partner Relationships that are Troubled

The purpose of this study is to describe how emerging adult (EA) women describe their views-of-self in troubled relationships. Fourteen EA women (ages 18–25) wrote four stories about their troubled relationships during a guided-writing intervention. Qualitative descriptive methods and content analysis were used to identify common views-of-self. Four views-of-self in troubled relationships and contrasting views-of-self emerged: (1) silent self-vocal self, (2) sacrificing self-prioritized self, (3) caretaking self-boundary-setting self, and (4) insecure self-secure self. Mental health nurses and other clinicians can use these views-of-self pairs to guide their discussions with EA young women who are involved in troubled relationships

Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Grounded Theory Research

National initiatives in the United States call for health research that addresses racial/ethnic disparities. Although grounded theory (GT) research has the potential to contribute much to the understanding of the health experiences of people of color, the extent to which it has contributed to health disparities research is unclear. In this article we describe a project in which we reviewed 44 GT studies published in Qualitative Health Research within the last five years. Using a framework proposed by Green, Creswell, Shope, and Clark (2007), we categorized the studies at one of four levels based on the status and significance afforded racial/ethnic diversity. Our results indicate that racial/ethnic diversity played a primary role in five studies, a complementary role in one study, a peripheral role in five studies, and an absent role in 33 studies. We suggest that GT research could contribute more to health disparities research if techniques were developed to better analyze the influence of race/ethnicity on health-related phenomena

A feasibility test of an online intervention to prevention dating violence in emerging adults

Dating violence in emerging adults is a significant problem and few prevention programs based on the developmental needs of this age group have been developed. Our research team developed an online dating violence prevention program called WISER (Writing to Improve Self-in-Relationships) for emerging adults. The program is based on narrative therapy principles and uses structured writing techniques. A single group pre-post feasibility test of WISER was conducted with 14 college women. WISER was demonstrated to be feasible and acceptable and to show promise as an effective program to decrease dating violence in this population