Presentation

The research group DIHIS (after the Spanish acronym La Digitalización de la Interacción humana y su Impacto Social) was launched in 2021 by a group of researchers from Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They began working together after being granted a FEDER project (UPO-1380703) on the digitalisation of human interaction and its social impact.

More specifically, this project analyses, from a pragmatic perspective, how communication develops on different types of digital discourse: social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), online chats (YouTube, online newspapers), mobile apps (WhatsApp), sharing economy platforms (Airbnb and BlaBlaCar), sales platforms (Amazon), and review platforms (TrustPilot).

We account not only for the pragmatic characteristics of each genre, but also for the social impact these have on the way the media are used, the management of leisure, the development of experiences and trips, and the online services sector. That is, stemming from a linguistic analysis, we deepen its social impact.

These virtual environments are being examined from different theoretical perspectives. Since its creation, DIHIS’s collaborative work has revolved around the following topics within digital discourse analysis, in English and Spanish:

  • Digital identity (cultural, transnational, social, ethnic, political, gender-related).
  • (Im)politeness in virtual environments.
  • Conflict management: hate speech and conflict talk.
  • Multimodal discourse.
  • Speech acts (complaints, compliments, etc.)
  • Users’ perceptions and expectations
  • Gender studies: the use of digital discourse as a tool of patriarchy or feminism; empowerment, and gender confrontation through language.
  • Intercultural studies (English-Spanish).
  • Education: use of social media among teenagers; cyberbullying.
  • Technology-mediated service encounters: e-commerce; sharing economy platforms; leisure platforms; online reviews (eWOM).

MEMBERS

SOCIAL MEDIA