Inhalt
1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 11
1.1 Knowledge Transfer via the World Wide Web ......................................... 11
1.2 Cultural Turn in Linguistics ....................................................................... 12
1.3 Research Question ....................................................................................... 12
2. From Text to Text Linguistics .................................................................. 17
3. Genre .................................................................................................................. 21
3.1 Genres as Analytical Categories ................................................................. 21
3.2 The Multiple Layers of Genre ..................................................................... 24
3.3 Contrastive Textology ................................................................................. 24
3.4 Genre Change ............................................................................................... 33
3.5 Intertextuality ............................................................................................... 37
3.6 Genre and Culture ....................................................................................... 39
4. Previous Research ......................................................................................... 43
4.1 Letters to the Editor ..................................................................................... 43
4.2 Readers’ Comments ..................................................................................... 45
4.3 Facebook Comments ................................................................................... 49
4.4 Tweets ............................................................................................................ 52
4.5 Disqus & Livefyre ........................................................................................ 55
5. Conversation Analysis ................................................................................ 59
5.1 Comparing Conversational Patterns ......................................................... 61
5.2 Topic Changes .............................................................................................. 645.3 Topic Continuation .................................................................................. 66
5.4 Conflictual vs. Non-Conflictual Conversations ................................... 67
6. Corpus ............................................................................................................ 71
7. Diachronic Development of Letters to the Editor ...................... 77
7.1 National Geographic ................................................................................ 77
7.2 Discover ..................................................................................................... 80
7.3 Sciences et Avenir .................................................................................... 87
7.4 GEO ........................................................................................................... 93
8. Diachronic Development of Online Comments ......................... 99
8.1 National Geographic ................................................................................ 99
8.2 Discover ................................................................................................... 107
8.3 Sciences et Avenir .................................................................................. 112
8.4 GEO ......................................................................................................... 121
9. Multiple Commenters ........................................................................... 127
9.1 Commenters in Multiple Threads ........................................................ 127
9.2 Commenters on More Than One Platform ........................................ 131
9.3 Long-Term Commenters ...................................................................... 134
10. Layout Comparison ............................................................................... 139
11. Situation ...................................................................................................... 149
12. Topic Management ................................................................................. 155
12.1 Examples of Topic Maintenance ........................................................ 155
12.2 Examples of Topic Change ................................................................. 16212.3 Topic Changes within Conversations ................................................. 167
12.4 Interim Summary: Topic Maintenance and Topic Changes ............ 176
12.5 Quantitative Analysis of Topical Actions ........................................... 177
13. Qualitative Analysis ................................................................................ 181
13.1 Conflict Conversations ......................................................................... 181
13.2 Complete Support Conversations ....................................................... 198
13.3 Sharing with Friends ............................................................................. 208
13.4 The Use of Links .................................................................................... 210
13.5 The Use of Emoticons ........................................................................... 217
13.6 Hashtags ................................................................................................. 224
13.7 Quote Article ......................................................................................... 226
14. Quantitative Analysis ............................................................................. 233
14.1 Language Comparison .......................................................................... 233
14.2 Platform Comparison ........................................................................... 235
14.3 Comparison of Overall Magazine Websites ...................................... 239
14.4 Discussion of Results ............................................................................ 243
15. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 247
Appendix .............................................................................................................. 251
List of Figures .................................................................................................... 257
List of Tables ....................................................................................................... 259
References ............................................................................................................ 261
Corpus ................................................................................................................... 279
