CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
In recent years, social media are claimed to have a significant impact on the public discourse and communication in the society. Social media are believed
to be the fastest developing type of informative and communicative instrument beyond any other because it is supported by the awakening of a new age known as
the digital era.
1
They have introduced new communication practices and stimulated a wide civic participation through new forms of expression and
interaction which is mostly based on the application of discourses. In order to understand the application of discourse on social media, we
have to acknowledge the definition of it. Discourse is a systematically-organized set of statements which gives expression to the meanings and values of an
institution. It provides statements, organizes and gives structure to a particular area or topic. In line with that definition, James Paul Gee stated:
Discourses are out in the world and history as coordinations, “a dance”, of people, places, times, actions, interactions, verbal and nonverbal
expression, symbols, things, tools, and technologies that betoken certain identities and associated activities.
2
Discourse encompasses any meaningful use of language as well as communicative gestures in systematically-organized ways which take both written
and spoken forms. Written or printed discourses, which can also be referred as
1
Charlie Gere, Digital Culture: Expanded Second Edition, London: Reaktion Books, 2008, pp. 210-212.
2
James Paul Gee, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method 2
nd
Ed. ,
Oxon: Routledge, 2005, p. 28.
1
texts, can take up endless varieties of forms such as shopping lists and newspaper articles, but also transcripts of spoken conversations and interviews, as well as
television programmes and web-pages. Gee describes discourse as an example of a “thinking device” for us to
construct and construe the world. When we do it, we carry out seven building tasks to simultaneously construct “reality” about any piece of language-in-use;
significance, activities, identities, relationships, politics, connections, and sign systems and knowledge. They refer to the reciprocal process by which language
both creates institutions and is created by institutions. It is important to keep in mind the fact that spoken or written forms of discourse do not contain meaning
and that language does not merely transmit knowledge from one body to another; meaning is always constructively subjective by those engaged in the discourse.
This is the part where the roles as tools of transmission to support affiliation within the society is needed and suitably taken by social media. Kaplan and
Haenlein define: Social media are a group of internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.
3
Social media is becoming one of the main foundations of information
traffic by providing platforms which are not homogeneous; social networking sites e.g. Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, content communities e.g. Youtube
and Flickr, micro-blogging e.g. Twitter, and so on. All of the sites mentioned
3
Andreas M. Kaplan Michael Haenlein, “Users of the World, Unite The Challenges
a nd Opportunities of Social Media” in Business Horizon - Journal, vol. 53, no. 1 Indianapolis:
Elsevier, 2010, pp. 59-68.
have become the host for rapid growth of users. According to George Anders, a contributor for forbes.com, Facebook has more than 1.19 billion people
worldwide as members, while Twitter succeeded to attract more than 232 millionpeople to create accounts in total.
4
Since this study will conduct a research in discourse building of tweets in Twitter, a clear understanding of them as a service for social interaction provided
by the site and their suitability on the characteristics of a discourse needs to be created. Twitter users tweet about any topic within the 140-character limit and
follow others to receive their tweets. This represents its benefit with a systematically-organized form shown by the character limit which will delineate
its significance as a form of discourse. On its usage aspect, social media offers much more than traditional media;
it is free, allows users to reach far more people and gives a voice to those that otherwise might not have one. This opportunity is adopted and used by
individuals as well as numerous institutions, including news practitioners, to direct a great amount of attention on broadcasting their contents throughout social
media. One of the most prominent news companies which take this perfectly timed prospect is The Huffington Post. It identifies itself on its Google+ page:
The Huffington Post HuffPost or HuffPo is an American online news aggregator and blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer,
Andrew Breitbart, and Jonah Peretti. We offer news, blogs, and original content and cover politics, business, entertainment, environment,
4
George Anders, “A Twitter User Is Worth 110; Facebooks 98; LinkedIns 93”, in
http:www.forbes.comsitesgeorgeanders20131107a-twitter-user-is-worth-110-facebooks-98- linkedins-93
, Accessed on April 16, 2014.
technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy living, womens interests, local news and more.
5
The fact that The Huffington Post only utilizes social media and actively broadcast its contents through them is the main reason it gained much popularity
amongst the internet users. In utilizing Twitter, The Huffington Post is in track with citizens‟ preference to acquire informationfrom lighter form of information
source, rather than take time out of their busy lives to study an issue or watch more difficult news program.
Moreover, The Huffington Post attempts to entice a wide range of diverse communities by covering minorities issues such as the Latin-American, African-
American, and especially the LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender related themes which has become one of the most recent and fascinating topic of
discussion because it is no longer seen as a marginalized minority with small numbers, but as a complex integral part of the society constitutes of a wide range
of spectrum of its members. Study shows that an estimated 3.5 of adults in the United States identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3 of
adults are transgender.
6
This implies that there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans. The Huffington Post acknowledged this and the LGBT theme has
become a sub-division; moreover, created almost every social media platforms, including its own website, Facebook, Youtube, Tumblr, and Twitter, for it.
Regardless the platforms, the way news institutions, including The Huffington Post,
presents their contents, represents its social and cultural
5
The Huffington
Post‟s Google+
front page,
cited from
https:plus.google.com+huffingtonpostabout , Accessed on April 16, 2014.
6
Gary J. Gates, How Many People Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender?, Los Angeles: The Williams Institute - UCLA School of Law, 2011, p. 1.
perspective and identity which is one of the main concern of discourse analysis. Media generate their contents through discourse building. They do it with us as
well as to us through mass communication as a central of cultural force in our society. They also have a responsibility to do so in a professional and ethical a
way as possible. For example, a short discourse such as a tweet from The LGBT sub-division of
The Huffington Post on Tuesday, April , 2014: “Anti-gay pastor Scott Lively talks about LGBT rights, running for
Governor and Obama.” The excerpt above is built by the building tasks mentioned before. From
the significance aspect, the tweet shows that it is significant for the LGBT community because the refusal from a certain religious leader, as can be seen
from the foregrounding of adjective “anti-gay” and the noun “pastor”, is reflected through his action that will have an impact to the community from the use of
phrase “running for Governor” which will eventually affect their wellbeing,
depicted on the excerpt with the noun “rights”. On the activity aspect, the tweet attempts to warn as well as inform the community about a particular contradictory
movement that will rebut their ways of living shown by the transitive verb “use”.
There will still be layers of the building tasks of discourse that can be deeply extracted from this tweet.
Therefore, this research will analyze the building process of discourse which is depicted on the tweets posted by the LGBT sub-division of The
Huffington Post with the account of HuffPostGay on Twitter using the Building
Tasks concept.
B. Focus of the Study
Kategori