Interview with Jessica S. Robles and Bingjuan Xiong: How quotation marks do mockery in online politicized discourse

Jessica S. Robles and Bingjuan Xiong tell us about their recent Journal of Language and Politics article, 'How quotation marks do mockery in online politicized discourse' and where they each plan to take their research next.

One of the key takeaways from this research is that quotation marks, the seemingly trivial and easily neglectable linguistic device, can be utilized by online commenters to engage (or rather, not seriously engage) in ordinary politics in disputative online discourse.

Why did you decide to write this piece?

Bing and I both had an interest in linguistic dimensions of language use, especially in relation to quoting, or reported speech. I’d been interested in reported speech since my MA at the University of Essex, when I analysed how people use quotative “like” in ordinary conversation. Bing also wrote about reported speech in Chinese and U.S. media discourses of trade disputes in her MA thesis. Since then, we have always noticed quotations and quotatives and have often looked for opportunities to revisit this phenomenon.

While Bing was already writing about politics and citizenship in China online, I was just starting to get into ordinary politics and identity construction in online spaces. Despite the different foci in our analyses of political discourse in our doctoral work (i.e., Bing’s interest in the construction of citizenry identity and resistance in China’s digital society and mine in interactional conflict and identity politics), we both are fascinated by how people participate in ordinary politics through various discursive practices in the online environment, especially in response to viral sociopolitical events.

We decided to bring our data collections together to see what commonalities and differences might exist across our data sets, which included different political events, different online platforms, and different languages. Despite these differences, we identified some regularities across our data, suggesting some common ways in which people exploit linguistic and technological affordances to do political identity-work online.

What are the key takeaways?

One of the key takeaways from this research is that quotation marks, the seemingly trivial and easily neglectable linguistic device, can be utilized by online commenters to engage (or rather, not seriously engage) in ordinary politics in disputative online discourse. We analyzed two corpora of online responses to viral video-recorded sociopolitical events on English-language platforms (YouTube, Twitter) and Chinese-language platforms (Youku). Using discourse analytic methods, we examined how quotation marks are used in political disagreements in comment responding to the posted videos and saw that they are used systematically to enhance skeptical, derisive stances toward others’ political opinions and to portray others as unreasonable and ridiculous. This pattern of mockery suggests that online political discourse involves a significant dimension of “unserious” engagement in which the purpose is to denigrate others and perform one’s moral superiority.

Where do you plan to go next in your research?

Jessica:

I have been pursuing the topic of mental health as it is constructed in social interaction--and I have especially been intrigued by the political and politicized dimensions of mental health, particularly where moral judgements and hierarchies are at play. So I have not left politics and language behind by any means. And I am looking forward to any opportunities where quotation or reported speech emerge again.

Bing:

I have undertaken a project on anti-vaccination advocacy communication in New Zealand’s online spaces. Specifically, I am focusing on one activist group – Voice for Freedom – and examining how the group persuades its followers to embrace controversial viewpoints and contested facts, extending from vaccination to broader political issues such as local elections. This project places ordinary political engagement at its core while also exploring the affective dimension of advocacy communication in networked digital spaces. I have already observed some patterned ways of using reported speech and, more importantly, reported mental states in their communication, so in my future research I will explore affective reporting and self-quotations in digital activist discourses for influencing and mobilising the general public.