Nexus Analysis as a Framework for Internet Studies

Abstract

This chapter presents a discourse analytic framework for the study of online social practices, which takes into account that these practices are constituted multimodally by the participants’ communicative performances. Focusing on what people do – and not solely on what they say – is important if we wish to understand the way people use and integrate the Internet into their everyday lives. The chapter proposes a refinement of the framework nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon. Nexus analysis: discourse and the emerging internet. Routledge, London/New York, 2004), which distinguishes itself from other discourse analytic approaches by focusing on central-mediated actions (rather than solely on discourse). The framework combines an ethnographic methodological approach to discourse analysis, inspired by mediated discourse analysis (Scollon. Action and Text: Towards an integrated understanding of the place of text in social (inter) action, mediated discourse analysis and the problem of social action. In: Wodak R, Meyer M (eds) Methods of critical discourse analysis. Sage, London, pp 139–183, 2001; Scollon. Mediated discourse: the nexus of practice. Routledge, London/New York, 2001), linguistic anthropology (Norris and Jones. Discourse in action: introducing mediated discourse analysis. Routledge, London, 2005), sociolinguistics, and psychology. The purpose is to identify the key (but not necessarily discursive) practices within a loosely tied “nexus of practice” (a place-bound constellation of humans, discourses, and cultural artefacts that constitute social action). The investigation is done with a focus on action as consisting of (1) discourses, (2) human interaction and social identities, and (3) historical bodies.