Analyzing Online Discourse: Some Theoretical Ideas and a Visualization Approach

A distinctive feature of Web 2.0 is greater interactivity occurring through electronic forums. Such forms of communication are increasingly playing important roles in ensuring the success of electronic marketplaces, online communities, etc. and therefore, understanding online discourse is critical. We use concepts from the rich tradition of discourse analysis to study these patterns. We note that online discourse, with disjointed sequences and multiple overlapping conversations, is quite challenging to study. Visualization enables disentangling forum postings into a comprehensive yet rich view. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how discourse analysis can be applied visually in order to understand communication patterns evident on online forums. We call our visualization approach a Communication Action Map (CAM), highlighting the action orientation of discourse and illustrate its use with empirical data from a crowdfunding campaign.