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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1310

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Tracing the vernacular roots of contemporary global practices: the case of everyday photography online.

Authors: Barton, David
Submitted by: Barton, David (Lancaster University, United Kingdom)

Vernacular literacy practices are changing as people draw upon the resources of the internet when carrying out everyday activities. This paper examines a particular example of this, people’s language practices when using the online photo sharing site Flickr. The paper argues that sociolinguistics needs to include a practice account of linguistic phenomena complementing analyses of texts and discourses, especially when researching online spaces. This argument parallels the call by Androutsopoulos (2008) for ethnographically informed discourse analysis.

As background, the paper first turns to data collected 20 years ago as part of the ‘Local Literacies’ study, a detailed study of everyday reading and writing practices in one town in England which identified a range of vernacular practices which people drew upon (Barton & Hamilton 1998). A comparison with contemporary practices identifies significant changes in people’s practices. The example of the literacy practices around family photo albums will be used in the paper.

This earlier study then informs an investigation of people’s changing language practices. In the past 20 years digital technology and online platforms have been radically changing the practices of family record keeping. This paper reports an ongoing study of the language around the uses of Flickr for sharing photos, discussing and learning about photography, and interacting socially. This broader study is based on the analysis of sites and interviews with users, showing how they draw upon their linguistic resources. As well as being a place for uploading photos, Flickr offers a set of powerful and contrasting writing spaces, each offering different affordances. These include titles, descriptions and tags; users can write profile pages and interact with other users through comments and a dedicated blog space. In keeping with the conference theme, the particular examples utilised will come from an investigation of the sites of 40 Flickr users who have sets of photos of major cities. These demonstrating how online representations of cities are constructed and how the gaze of locals and tourists are intertwined.

In these examples and elsewhere people are using online spaces to extend their everyday lives. People draw upon the resources of language to assert new identities and to represent the self in these new spaces. Vernacular practices are thrust into a global public space where they are more accessible and more valued. People are creating and participating in a new global cosmopolitan world, thus refashioning the nature of vernacular practices. Such vernacular practices continue to be self-generated, creative and learned informally, but rather than being private and local, they are now more valued by having a more public and global circulation.

Androutsopoulos, J. (2008) Discourse-centred online ethnography. In: Androutsopoulos, J. & M. Beißwenger (eds.) Data and Methods in Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis. Special Issue, Language@Internet 5.

Barton, D. & M. Hamilton (1998, 2012) Local Literacies: Reading And Writing In One Community. London and New York: Routledge.