Analysis of Digital Discourse: Modes, Affordances, and User Engagement

This report analyzes digital discourse, focusing on the interplay between technological affordances and user engagement in social media interactions. The analysis examines three datasets from Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, identifying initiating moves, response moves, and the modes (verbal and visual) employed in each interaction. It explores how these modes construct dialogue, providing examples to illustrate the claims and considering the sites' technological affordances, such as the use of text, emojis and images. The report also discusses the importance of multimodality and how different modes contribute to meaning-making and social relations within the digital space. The findings highlight the diverse ways users utilize these platforms to communicate and express themselves, emphasizing the importance of understanding digital discourse.

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Digital Discourse
Name
Professor
Course
Date

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Data
Data 1; Verbal -verbal communication
Data 2; Visual -verbal combination

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Data 3; Visual -visual combination

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Analysis
1. What initiating moves and responses can you identify?
The obtained data includes several moves and responses in the various social media platform
used. According to Jovanovic and Van Leeuwen (2018), multimodal dialogue in media takes
multiple forms. The idea is that I have realized some of the aspects used in social media. Most of
the users do utilize when communicating through the use of social media platforms. Therefore,
some of the initiated moves and responses in the data obtained include;
In the first data the initiative and responses included;
Initiating moves
Response moves
The structure
I-information (created in message)
R-verbal

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I-message
R-visual
I-message
R-verbal
In the second that the initiating moves and responses were;
Initiating moves
Response moves
The structure
I-visual
R-Visual in the form of an emoji

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I-message
In the third data the initiating moves and responses were;
Initiating moves
Response moves

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The structure
I-visual
R- visual
2. Which of these are realized through verbal or visual modes, or both? Make sure you
provide examples from the interaction (screenshots) to illustrate your claims.
Data 1 indicates a verbal mode. The whole dialogue includes WhatsApp communication.
According to Jovanovic and Van Leeuwen (2018), the sender expects the receiver to give a reply
in either form. In some of the private and public chats, the verbal modes play a crucial role. The
point is that verbal styles in the image give a continuous conversation and interaction. The chat
appears endless, thus forming an ongoing and a verbally coherent text all through the
communication.
Data 2 shows an interaction that was obtained from Facebook. The communication can be
realized by use of the visual modes. It is one of the digital postcards elaborating on the visual
patterns in the chat. The point is that postcards are a well-known genre in this field which most
of the time, they tend to seek an appreciation note. The respond in this chat went on and the
receiver provided a thank you note. The respondent is anticipated to give an additional response,
and if he or she fails, then the sender can go further to call if the receiver does not provide a
reply.
Data 3 has visual modes throughout. There is no written communication in the chat. Bolander
and Locher (2014) describes this is as an emologue interaction in social media. According to,,,,,
this type of communication is always realized by use of the emojis and "off the shelf" responses.

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3. The pattern of modes by considering:
1. the site’s technological affordances (e.g., what types of modes or
combinations of modes does the site in question encourage, and where can
you see evidence of this?)
The data obtained above comes from three platforms. The sites used in the data collection
include Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Both sites tend to share common traits. The point is
that they have both employed verbal modes. In most of the social media platforms, the issue of
verbal patterns is common. A large number of users prefers to use the text and other related
verbal elements when having a dialogue. For example, the image below provides evidence of
verbal modes. The WhatsApp image outlines the use of text to convey a message.
On the other hand, platforms such as Instagram as indicated in the data contains visual
modes. Instagram is a commonly used type of social media platform that helps users to share
aspects such as audios and image. Most of the users in Instagram prefers to use visual elements
such as emojis and pictures to convey a specific message to the receivers. The image below
clarifies how visual modes are shared on Instagram.

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2. any system information (e.g., the Facebook prompt “What's on your mind?”)
Based on the data obtained in the first step, it is clear that no specific pattern that is employed
when using these modes in social media. In sites such as Facebook, there are no guiding
principles on what styles to use when one is in the conversation. The point is that users in this
site have the freedom to use what modes that they think satisfies them. Besides, one can choose
the right option that is either verbal modes or visual modes at any time.
4. In what ways do these different modes help to construct a dialogue?
According to Bolander et al (2020), visual and verbal modes provides a basis for interaction
in a social media platform. The point is that these modes convey a particular content in dialogue.
Besides, the styles will help the user in social media sites to construct social relations. Most of
the patterns tend to summarize a long conversation into short content that is easily understood by
both parties in the dialogue. Bolander and Locher (2014), shows how people use modes in their
conversation to express their feelings appropriately. Through this analogy, it means that the
styles will help in creating a contextual coherence in the dialogue.

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References
Bolander, B., & Locher, M. A. (2014). Doing sociolinguistic research on computer-mediated
data: A review of four methodological issues. Discourse, Context & Media, 3, 14-26.
Bolander, Brook, and Miriam A. Locher. 2020. Beyond the online offline distinction: Entry
points to digital discourse. Discourse, Context & Media
Jovanovic, D., & Van Leeuwen, T. (2018). Multimodal dialogue on social media. Social
Semiotics, 28(5), 683-699.