The structure of a discontinuous dialogue formed by internet comments

Abstract

We are studying how a dialogue structure is established by an Internet opinion article and its anonymous comments. We are using the methodology of conversation analysis with the focus on membership categorization analysis. The study shows that the core structure of the dialogue is formed by many parallel micro-dialogues. Besides the linear micro-dialogue structure there is a structure layer which is formed by the complex category sets built by participants using membership categorization of the agents of the article as well as the commentators themselves. We investigate the strategies and the linguistic means used by the participants for creating interrelations in the complex multilayered structure. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.