Post on 03-Jan-2016
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
Christian HoffmannChristian Hoffmann
www.uni-augsburg.de
Once upon a blog…Once upon a blog…Paradigms of Narrative InteractionParadigms of Narrative Interaction
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Outlook
1. Weblog Narration
2. Narrative Interaction
3. New Concepts of Narrative Interaction
4. A Continuum of Weblog Narratives
5. Results
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
1. Weblog Narration
Multilinearity
Fragmentation
Interactivity
Multimodality
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Multilinearity
Fragmentation
Interactivity
Multimodality
Versatile AccessLack of Closure
Decomposition:Narrative Segmentation
Hypertext:De-Contextualization
Collaborative Authorship: Distributed Narratives
Semiotic Flexibility:Visual, Aural & Filmic Displays
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Although originally intended for individual use, in practice weblogs increasingly appear to facilitate distributed conversations. This could have important implications for the use of this technology as a medium for collaboration.(De Moor 2004)
Ordinary Storytelling, in sum, is (choose a term) a coconstruction, an interactional achievement, a joint production, a collaboration, and so forth.
(Schegloff 1997)
2. Narrative Interaction
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
(Efimova 2004)
Distributed Conversations Distributed Narratives?
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Taking ‘talk-in-interaction’ as the relevant domain, an analyst is constrained to take into account the different settings of ‘orality’ […] in which different speech-exchange systems with different turn-taking practices differentially shape stories and the practice of storytelling, not to mention the different practical activities in whose cause, and on whose behalf, storytelling might be undertaken.
(Schegloff 1997)
The Literary View: Interaction as Reading (Cognition)
The Conversational View: Interaction as Negotiation (Collaboration)
The Subjective View: Interaction as Browsing (Selection)
The Network View: Interaction as Co-Construction (Participation)
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
First Degree Interaction (Prototype: Written/Printed Text Types)
Inhibited Interaction Between Interlocutors (De-Contextualization) Difficulties to Negotiate Ad Hoc Text Meanings with Author Stable Discourse Structure or Design.
Second Degree Interaction(Prototype: Website) Readers / Users Determine Individual Reading Orders and Select Pre-Defined Text Units and Web Sites Via Activating Hyperlinks Using Search Engines Typing in Websites Manually
Third Degree Interaction (Participation) (Prototype: Weblog)
Readers / Users Attain High Degree of Interaction By Creating Personal Data Online Adding Information to Present Data Tagging Information According to Personal Interest Contributing to Online Evaluations / Opinion Polls Designing Specific Elements of the Webpage
Fourth Degree Interaction(Prototype: Face-to-Face Communication)
Synchronous Two-Way Interaction Negotiability of Discourse Meanings and Intentions Valuable Use of Deixis, Non-Verbal Language and Contextual Cues
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4.
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Classic Narrative Conversational Narrative
Interest Composition / Sequence Purpose / Function
Prototype Oral Monolog Oral Dialog
Initiators Labov & Waletzky (1967) Schegloff (1977)
Selective Narrative Distributed Narrative
Interest Composition /
Hyper-Sequence
Fragmentation of Themes / Perspectives / Functions
Prototype Website / Game Book / Computer Game
Weblogs / Social Network Sites
Initiators Landow (1994), Bolter (1998), Manovich (2001)
Walker (2003), Bizzocchi (2005)
3. New Concepts of Narrative Interaction
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
The point is not that we should add stories to our sites to ensnare narrative-starved readers. The point is that the reader’s journey through our site is a narrative experience. Our job is to make the narrative satisfying.
“Beyond Usability and Design: The Narrative Web” (Mark Bernstein)
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Weblog
…
= Entry / Comment
= Weblog as Database
Hypernarrative
= Narrative
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
http://www.gamebooks.org/canediff.htm; accessed 14 Sept. 2008
Gamebook Map
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
The Distributed Narrative (Walker 2003)
Distributed narratives don’t bring media together to make a total artwork. Distributed narratives explode the work altogether, sending fragments and shards across media, through the network and sometimes into the physical spaces that we live in.
(Walker 2003)
In the case of blogs, the shaping and reshaping of narratives, turn by turn, in the course of everyday face-to-face conversation [,,,] expand their potential in time and in forms (i.e. written, visual, and aural modes).
(Bazzanella: forthcoming)
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
The Distributed Narrative (Walker 2003)
Distribution of Authorship
Distribution in Time
Distribution in Space
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Distributed Authorship
One of the ways in which the story of a weblogger is distributed is by the story being told by several different narrators, [in comments] or on their independent sites.
(Walker 2003:9)
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Distribution in Time
Weblogs are an obvious example of the success of serial narrative onthe web. Most posts in weblogs are short enough to be read in a few minutes. Instead of watching a twenty-two minute episode each week, a weblog is read in two-or five-minute sessions once a day or once every few days.
(Walker 2003)
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Distribution in Space
The authors surrender control of how their work which spreads and is pasted in new contexts, and new context produces new meanings.
(Walker 2003)
Stickers. Hyperfiction project: Implementation (Scott Rettberg, Nick Montfort)
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Narrative Criteria Characteristics
Tellership Concerns the Amount of People Involved in the Telling.
Tellability Covers the Importance of the Narrative Event for the Interlocutors.
Embeddedness Refers to the Degree of Thematic Integration into the Ongoing Disourse.
Linearity Captures Organizational Features and Thematic Unfolding of the Narrative.
Moral Stance Relates to the Teller’s Perspective on the Recounted Events.
(Quasthoff & Becker 2005)
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
Default Conversational
4. A Continuum of Weblog Interaction
Selective Distributed
Classic Narrative
• One Active Teller• Highly Tellable Account• Relatively Detached From Context (Surrounding Talk and Activity)• Linear Organization• Constant Moral Stance
Hypernarrative
• Multiple (Co-)Tellers• Moderatly Tellable Account• Relatively Embedded in Context (Surrounding Talk and Activity)• Multilinear Organization• Vague, Fluid Moral Stance
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
First Degree Interaction Second Degree Interaction Third Degree Interaction (Participation)
Default Narrative 1 Author/ 1 Entry- Hyperlinks- Comments
Selective Narrative 1 Author/Sev. Entries+ Hyperlinks+ Comments
Collaborative Narrative + Multiple Authors (1 Blog)+ Multiple entries+ Hyperlinks+ Comments
Distributed Narrative+ Multiple Authors(Sev. Blogs)+ Multiple Entries+ Hyperlinks/ comment+ search eng./tags
Classic Narrative
• One Active Teller• Highly Tellable Account• Relatively Detached From Context (Surrounding Talk and Activity)• Linear Organization• Constant Moral Stance
Hypernarrative
• Multiple (Co-)Tellers• Moderatly Tellable Account• Relatively Embedded in Context (Surrounding Talk and Activity)• Multilinear Organization• Vague, Fluid Moral Stance
University of Augsburg
Department of English Linguistics
www.uni-augsburg.de
5. Results
- Weblog Narratives Vary in Size, Theme, Authorship & Interactivity
- Narrative Variation Affords Various Degrees of Interaction
- Weblogs Decompose & Disperse Narratives Across Time & Space
- There Are Four Concepts of Narration Interaction:
Default, Selective, Collaborative, Distributed Narrative
- Metaphorical Shift: Collaboration Personalization