Discourse analysis of the American working youth communities on the social network Reddit


Cite item

Full Text

Abstract

The article discusses the working conditions and employment of American working youth during the global pandemic (2020) within the discursive space of the online communities of the social network Reddit. The aim of the study was to conduct a discourse-analysis of professional virtual communities of American working youth. The main tasks were to analyze the specifics of the language of online communication of American working youth, to identify the main problems of employment and labor relations relevant to young Americans, to find out how much American working youth identify with the working class, and to study its class interests, class positions and feelings of solidarity. Infrequent (basic) and frequent (additional) content analyses were used to analyze empirical information (143 text and visual posts in 11 communities of the social network Reddit). The results of the study draw conclusions about the presence of a specific language of communication, similar conditions of employment and living standards, the stability of class positions and the high level of virtual solidarity of American working youth. Comparison of the data obtained with the results of our previous study of virtual communities of Russian working youth allows us to tell about the similarities and differences between American and Russian youth. The main common feature characteristic of both (American and Russian) working youth is the presence of their own group identity.

About the authors

Vladislav Yu. Bocharov

Samara National Research University

Author for correspondence.
Email: vlad.bocharov@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3915-2189

Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor

Russian Federation, 34, Moskovskoe Shosse (St.), Samara, 443086, Russian Federation

References

  1. Baumgartner, J., Zannettou, S., Keegan, B., Squire, M. and Blackburn, J. (2020), The Pushshift Reddit Dataset, Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, vol. 14(1), pp. 830–839, [online], available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338789455_The_Pushshift_Reddit_Dataset (Accessed 22 feb 2021).
  2. Choudhury, M.D. and De, S. (2014), Mental health discourse on reddit: Self-disclosure, social support, and anonymity, AAAI Publications, Eighth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Michigan, USA, from June 1–4, [online], available at: http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM14/paper/download/8075/8107 (Accessed 22 feb 2021).
  3. Collins, R. (2020), Social distancing as a critical test of the micro-sociology of solidarity, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, vol. 8, рр. 477–497, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-020-00120-z.
  4. Derksen, C., Serlachius, A., Petrie, K.J. et al. (2017), «What say ye gout experts?» a content analysis of questions about gout posted on the social news website Reddit, BMC Musculoskelet Disord, vol.18, Article number: 488, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-017-1856-y.
  5. Duggan, M. and Smith, A. (2013), 6% of Online Adults are Reddit Users, [online], available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/07/03/6-of-online-adults-are-reddit-users/ (Accessed 22 feb 2021).
  6. Gjurković, M. and Šnajder, J. (2018), Reddit: A Gold Mine for Personality Prediction, Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Computational Modeling of People’s Opinions, Personality, and Emotions in Social Media, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, June 6, pр. 87–97, DOI: https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/W18-1112.
  7. Jacobsson, D. and Ekström, M. (2015), Dismantling discourses: compassion, coping and con-sumption in journalistic representations of the working class, Critical Discourse Studies, рр. 1–18.
  8. Kallas, P. (2021), Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites and Apps, [online], available at: https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-sites/ (Accessed 22 feb 2021).
  9. Kucher, K., Martins, R.M., Paradis, C. et al. (2020), StanceVis Prime: visual analysis of sentiment and stance in social media texts, Journal of Visualization, vol. 23, pp. 1015–1034, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12650-020-00684-5.
  10. Prakasam, N. and Huxtable-Thomas, L. (2020), Reddit: Affordances as an Enabler for Shifting Loyalties, Information Systems Frontiers, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-020-10002-x.
  11. Shen, J.H. and Rudzicz, F. (2017), Detecting anxiety on Reddit, Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology – From Linguistic Signal to Clinical Reality, Vancouver, Canada, August 3, рр. 58–65, DOI: https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/W17-3107.
  12. Thelwall, M. and Stuart, E. (2019), She’s Reddit: A source of statistically significant gendered interest information, Information Processing & Management, pp. 1543–1558, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2018.10.007.
  13. Yang, D. and Counts, S. (2018), Understanding Self-Narration of Personally Experienced Racism on Reddit, Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, vol. 12(1), рр. 704–707, [online], available at: https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/15049/14899 (Accessed 22 feb 2021).
  14. Zomick, J., Levitan, S.I. and Serper, M. (2019), Linguistic Analysis of Schizophrenia in Reddit Posts, Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 6, pр. 74–83, [online], available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332844683_Linguistic_Analysis_of_Schizophrenia_in_Reddit_Posts (Accessed 22 feb 2021).
  15. Baryshnikova, I.V. (2009), The concept of identity in the sociological discourse, Vestnik Volgo-gradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, Ser.7 «Philosophy». no. 2 (10). pp. 166–171.
  16. Bocharov, V.Ju. (2020), The concept of work-life balance as the basis for a typology of strategies for labor behavior of working youth, Sotsial'no-trudovye issledovaniya = Social and labor research, no. 39(2). pp. 113-129, DOI: https://doi.org/10.34022/2658-3712-2020-39-2-113-129.
  17. Gur'eva, N.R. and Polojan A.V. (2019), Popular foreign Internet resources as a reflection of the language culture and mentality, Gumanitarnyj vestnik = Humanitarian Bulletin (GORLOVKA), issue 7, part 2, pp. 93–98.
  18. Dobrosklonskaja, T.G. (2015), Mass Media discourse in the system of medialinguistics, «Medialing-vistika» mezhdunarodnyj nauchnyj zhurnal, no. 1(6). pp. 45–57.
  19. Life strategies of new working-class youth (2020), T.V. Gavrilyuk (ed.), Flinta, Moscow, Russia.
  20. Karpova, M.K. and Monina, M.A. (2018), Social networks as a special channel of self-presentation of an individ, Nauka. Obshhestvo. Gosudarstvo, vol. 6. no. 1. [Online], available at: https://esj.pnzgu.ru/files/esj.pnzgu.ru/karpova_mk_monina_ma_18_1_25.pdf (Accessed 22 Feb 2021).
  21. New working-class youth in modern Russia (2019), T.V. Gavrilyuk (ed.), Flinta, Moscow, Russia.
  22. Nguen, T.M.Ch. and Shherbakov, M.V. (2017), Method of forming a FACEBOOK user profile based on the analysis of reactions and sensitivity of the text, Izvestija volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo tehnicheskogo universiteta = Proceedings of the Volgograd State Technical University, no. 1 (196). pp. 73–78.
  23. Pavlova, N.D., Voronin, A.N., Grebenshhikova T.A. and Kubrak, T.A. (2019), Development of an approach to the typology of network communities based on discursive features of collective sub-jectivity, Vestnik Rossijskogo universiteta druzhby narodov = Bulletin of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, «Psychology and Pedagogy», vol. 16. no. 3. pp. 341–358.
  24. Semenova, A.V. (2011), Content analysis in sociology: methodological innovations, Vestnik VjatGU, no.3–1. pp. 11–15.
  25. Semjonova, A.V. and Korsunskaja, M.V. (2010), Content analysis of mass media: problems and experience of application, V.A. Mansurov (ed.), Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
  26. Tarshis, E.Ja. (2002), Prospects for the development of the content analysis method, Sociologija: 4M, no. 15. pp. 71–92.
  27. Tjon, A. van Dejk. (2013), Discourse and power: Representation of dominance in language and communication, Knizhnyj dom «Librokom», Moscow, Russia.
  28. Flenina, T.A., Bogdanovskaja, A.B. and Klimanova, A.V. (2015), The possibilities of using content analysis in the study of the network identity of modern Russian youth, Pis'ma v jemissija.offlajn: Jelektronnyj nauchnyj zhurnal, no. 6. pp. 23–68.
  29. Hilhanova, Je.V. (2012), Media research from the standpoint of critical analysis of discourse, Vestnik ChitGU, no. 3 (82). pp. 72–75.

Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
Action
1. JATS XML
Download

Copyright (c) 2021 Bocharov V.Y.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website uses cookies

You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

About Cookies