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A Social Network Analysis of Irish Language Use in Social Media

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A SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS OF IRISH LANGUAGE USE IN SOCIAL MEDIA JOHN CAULFIELD School of Welsh Cardiff University 2013 This thesis is submitted to the School of Welsh, Cardiff University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed ………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………….. STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed ………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………….. STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed ………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………….. STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………….. STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed ………………………………… (candidate) Date …………………. 2 ABSTRACT A Social Network Analysis of Irish Language Use in Social Media Statistics show that the world wide web is dominated by a few widely spoken languages. However, in quieter corners of the web, clusters of minority language speakers can be found interacting and sharing content. This study is the first to compare three such clusters of Irish language social media users. Social network analysis of the most active public sites of interaction through Irish – the Irish language blogosphere, the Irish language Twittersphere and a popular Irish language Facebook group – reveals unique networks of individuals communicating through Irish in unique and innovative ways. Firstly, it describes the members and their activity, and the size and structure of the networks they share. Then through focused discourse analysis of the core prolific users in each network it describes how the language has been adapted to computer-mediated communication. This study found that the largest networks of Irish speakers comprised between 150-300 regular participants each. Most members were adults, male, and lived in towns and cities outside of the language’s traditional heartland. Moreover, each group shared one common trait: though scattered geographically, through regular online interaction between core members they behave like communities. They were found to have shared histories, norms and customs, and self-awareness that their groups were unique. Furthermore, core users had adapted the language in new and innovative ways through their online discourse. This study is the first comprehensive audit of who is using the Irish language socially on the web, where they are forming networks online, and how they are adapting the language to online discourse. It makes a unique contribution in re- imagining what constitutes an Irish language community in the context of the Network Society. In the process, it contributes to the growing body of sociolinguistic research into globalisation and local identity on the web. 3 Tá ceantar ag taisteal ón spéir Tá comharsanacht suite ar mo mhéar *** A locality is forming in the ether A neighbourhood perches on my finger Fiabhras by Seán Ó Ríordáin (1964) Translated by Greg Delanty 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the support and generosity I received while carrying out this research. Without it this study simply would not have been completed. Firstly, thanks to my supervisor Prof. Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost for his support, advice and encouragement throughout the entire process. Thanks also to my co- supervisor Prof. Colin H. Williams, who was on hand for valuable advice at key moments in the study. This research would not have been possible without the financial support from an Roinn Gnóthaí Pobail, Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta / the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Ireland. I trust that the unique contribution this study makes to the sociolinguistic study of Irish was worth the investment. I would like to acknowledge in particular the support given to me by the administrative staff of Ysgol y Gymraeg / the School of Welsh, Cardiff University. When called upon, they stepped in to help fund my training and fieldwork, and I am very grateful for their continued commitment to my research. Finally, I would like to note the generosity of Prof. Kevin Scannell, Saint Louis University, and Dr Ruth Page, University of Leicester, who made their data and data capture software available to me. Without their shared expertise, the scope of this study would have been greatly limited. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES 8 LIST OF TABLES 10 I INTRODUCTION 12 A. THE NETWORK SOCIETY 12 1. Castells’ ‘Network Society’ 12 2. The Internet and the World Wide Web 13 3. Social Media 14 B. LANGUAGE & THE INTERNET 20 1. The Multilingual Web 20 2. Measuring language presence online 22 3. Minority languages online 24 C. THE IRISH LANGUAGE 27 1. The Irish language 27 2. The ‘Gaeltacht’ 29 3. The Irish language outside the Gaeltacht 31 4. Irish and the Media 33 D. THE AIMS OF THIS RESEARCH PROJECT 35 II LITERATURE REVIEW 36 A. ONLINE COMMUNITIES 36 1. The Online Community Debate 36 2. Towards a Workable Definition 40 B. SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS 45 1. Social Networks 45 2. Social Network Analysis 47 3. SNA in the Work of Susan Herring et al. 53 C. COMPUTER-MEDIATED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 58 1. Computer-mediated Communication 58 2. Describing Web Genres 60 3. Herring’s Approach to Computer-mediated Discourse Analysis 61 4. Linguistic Analysis in the Work of Lynn Cherny 63 6 III RESEARCH QUESTIONS 67 IV METHODOLOGY 71 V THE IRISH LANGUAGE ONLINE 106 A. IRISH LANGUAGE USE ONLINE COMPARED TO OTHER MINORITY LANGUAGES 106 B. POPULAR IRISH WEB GENRES IN IRISH 118 VI THE IRISH LANGUAGE IN SOCIAL MEDIA 145 A. GROUP MEMBERSHIP & ACTIVITY 145 B. VISUALISING EACH NETWORK 162 C. LANGUAGE & REGISTER 175 1. Syntactic & Morphological Variation 179 2. Abbreviations & Acronyms 189 3. Play with Modality 193 4. Language Routines 200 5. Code Switching 208 6. Dialect in the ILB 219 D. ONLINE IRISH LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES 223 VII DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS 234 A. KEY FINDINGS FROM THIS STUDY 234 B. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT FOR IRISH LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES ONLINE 236 C. IN CONCLUSION 240 VIII A NOTE ON RESEARCH ETHICS 242 BIBLIOGRAPHY 243 7 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1. Example of a social network visualisation. 52 Fig. 2. Example of the Finnish language network on LiveJournal. 56 Fig. 3. Map of tweets across Europe. 116 Fig. 4. Origins of Irish language websites. 121 Fig. 5. Faoi Cheilt blog. 123 Fig. 6. Beo! magazine website. 123 Fig. 7. Daltaí discussion forum 124 Fig. 8. Gaeilge-A listserv. 125 Fig. 9. Gaelport Twitter account. 125 Fig. 10. TG4 Facebook page. 126 Fig. 11. ‘An Ghaeilge’ Irish language Wikipedia ‘Talk’ page. 127 Fig. 12. ILB blog start dates. 148 Fig. 13. Number of blog posts in the ILB. 151 Fig. 14. Number of blog comments in the ILB. 152 Fig. 15. Map of primary locations of Irish language Twitter users. 154 Fig. 16. ILT Twitter account start dates. 155 Fig. 17. Percentage Irish language tweets in the ILT. 157 Fig. 18. Irish language tweets per month in the ILT. 158 Fig. 19. ILT member joining dates. 160 Fig. 20. Number of posts in GA. 161 Fig. 21. Number of comments in GA. 161 Fig. 22. Social network visualisation of the ILB according to number of ties. 163 Fig. 23. Social network visualisation of the ILB according to language use. 165 Fig. 24. Social network visualisation of the ILB according to start dates. 166 Fig. 25. Social network visualisation of the ILT according to number of ties. 168 Fig. 26. Social network visualisation of the ILT according to language use. 169 Fig. 27. Social network visualisation of the ILT according to number of tweets. 170 Fig. 28. Social network visualisation of the ILT according to start dates. 172 Fig. 29. Social network visualisation of GA according to number of ties. 173 Fig. 30. Social network visualisation of GA according to start dates. 174 Fig. 31. Core members of the ILB. 177 8 Fig. 32. Core members of the ILT. 178 Fig. 33. Core members of GA. 178 Fig. 34. Social network visualisation of dialect in the ILB. 222 Fig. 35. Instances of abbreviations in the ILB. 224 Fig. 36. Social network visualisation of topics in the ILB. 226 Fig. 37. ILT accounts with the highest number of followers. 230 9 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. UNESCO grades of response to new domains and media. 27 Table 2. Herring’s Medium and Situation factors. 60 Table 3. Five levels of CMDA. 65 Table 4. Section of an edgelist for members of the blogosphere. 91 Table 5. Kelly-Holmes’ language categories in Twitter 95 Table 6. Irish language corpus from each group. 98 Table 7. Dialect coding scheme adapted from Wagner (1958). 100 Table 8. Dialect coding terms confirmed by Hickey (2011). 101 Table 9. Minority language populations across a number of sources. 106 Table 10. Internet penetration and potential number of speakers online. 110 Table 11. Availability of major web services/interfaces in minority languages. 111 Table 12. Search results for each language (July 2012). 113 Table 13. Minority language Wikipedia and Wiktionary use. 114 Table 14. Wikipedia users in September 2012. 115 Table 15. Minority language users on Twitter and blogs. 116 Table 16. Web inventory according to Irish language content.
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