Teenage binge drinking is a significant health issue. To explore teenagers talk about binge drinking, four peer-group interviews were conducted with 20 teenagers, aged 16-18 years, with experience of excessive alcohol use. A discourse analysis showed that a 'drinking is cool' discourse constructed 'getting wasted' as an integral part of social life, while a 'drinking as a social lubricant' disc...

This paper reports our progress in using the Knowledge Space Visualizer (KSV) as a tool for formative assessment of online discourse. Whereas social network analysis has been used in research on computer-supported collaborative learning, it only examines the social structure of discourse participants, and does not provide information about the content of the discourse. We discuss two types of n...

We present in this paper, the application of a novel approach to computational modeling, understanding and detection of social phenomena in online multi-party discourse. A two-tiered approach was developed to detect a collection of social phenomena deployed by participants, such as topic control, task control, disagreement and involvement. We discuss how the mid-level social phenomena can be re...

We present in this paper, the application of a novel approach to computational modeling, understanding and detection of social phenomena in online multi-party discourse. A two-tiered approach was developed to detect a collection of social phenomena deployed by participants, such as topic control, task control, disagreement and involvement. We discuss how the mid-level social phenomena can be re...

About 110 years ago, Iran experienced a revolution, which was known to be an attempt for development and modernization. The revolutionary roots had been established by new-coming social forces named as intellectuals. Since studying the past highlights the future, the necessity of intellectuals’ discourse as well as understanding their discourse strategies on the road to development and modernit...

media can be a good representation of dominant ideologies in society. the analysis of such discourse can shed light on the mental and social structures of people in society. adopting van dijk’s (1995) layout of discourse ideology and his (2000) practical and general outline of ideological analysis, this study analyzes the iranian movie a separation, the winner of the 84th annual academy award f...

The news feeds of two U.S. politicians’ Facebook sites were examined across 22 months leading up to an election 6 in order to explore changes in social-network-mediated public political discourse over time. Changes over time were observed 7 in who was being addressed and in the affective valence of comments. A complex flow of attention between in-group and 8 out-group concerns was observed with...

Social media is increasingly being adopted in health discourse. We examine the role played by identity in supporting discourse on socially stigmatized conditions. Specifically, we focus on mental health communities on reddit. We investigate the characteristics of mental health discourse manifested through reddit's characteristic 'throwaway' accounts, which are used as proxies of anonymity. For ...