34.1519, Calls: "I tell, therefore I am!" Narration(s) of Identity in Mediatised Everyday Culture.

Tue May 16 07:05:03 UTC 2023

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-1519. Tue May 16 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.1519, Calls: "I tell, therefore I am!" Narration(s) of Identity in Mediatised Everyday Culture.

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Date: 15-May-2023
From: Sascha Michel [s.michel at isk.rwth-aachen.de]
Subject: "I tell, therefore I am!" Narration(s) of Identity in Mediatised Everyday Culture.

Full Title: "I tell, therefore I am!" Narration(s) of Identity in
Mediatised Everyday Culture.

Date: 27-Sep-2023 - 30-Sep-2023
Location: Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany
Contact Person: Sascha Michel
Meeting Email: s.michel at isk.rwth-aachen.de

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics

Call Deadline: 30-May-2023

Meeting Description:

Storytelling can be seen as a media-cultural practice for (the
creation of) mediatised identities. “Digital storytelling” conveys
authenticity and suggests closeness and proves to be indispensable for
a "virtual bonding" of different user groups. However, storytelling in
mediatised contexts differs fundamentally from the classical concept
of narrative (cf. Labov/Waletzky 1967) since everyday
narratives/stories are often fragmentary and interactive or
cooperative. The consequence is that the narrative process is usually
delayed, i.e. asynchronous in time. Georgakopoulou (2006, 2007, 2016)
refers to such digital everyday narratives as "small stories", which
serve the constant maintenance and expansion of identities shaped by
media culture, for example in online social networks.

Longer-term serial storytelling, such as takes place in TV formats,
has also found its way into the social media world through Youtuber or
TikTok/Instagram activists. These posts, stories and clips receive
serial coherence via narrative identity stagings of 'personal
publishing' by influencers, but also by so-called 'sense influencers'.
Everyday narratives/stories become genre-oriented formats in the
fields of beauty, games, sports, travel, fitness, nutrition,
do-it-yourself, law, politics, science and education. These genres are
often framed or perspectivised with messages of sustainability and
diversity, entertainment or mobilisation and agitation. Own experience
is thus used narratively not only as a resource for entertainment, but
also in argumentations (cf. Schwarze 2019). Through the (strategic and
continuous) narration of 'own' experiences, authenticity-suggesting
performances of identity emerge. The recipients can participate in the
supposedly personal impressions, emotions and attitudes of the social
media activists. Their supposed openness makes them appear credible,
as they even seem to be willing to endure fierce contradiction and
even a shitstorm. Political as well as (supposedly) apolitical
narratives thus also allow certain argumentation topoi to be realised
in discursive contexts (cf. Girnth/Burggraf 2019). In this context,
the perspective on the less explicit messages of narratives, which are
conveyed through the presentation of preferred everyday practices, is
also interesting. Here persuasions come into play that are based on
new forms of stardom and parasocial relationships between social media
activists and recipients. Thus, new pop(ulary)cultural analytical
perspectives and descriptive models are necessary.

Recently, the described aspects of digital narrativization have also
been supplemented by AI applications such as chatbots or
algorithmically generated (moving) images. Thus, there is a new
practice of digital identity construction that is no longer based on
direct human authorship but on algorithmically generated personality
profiling and thus challenges media-mediated interaction to be
reconceptualised. AI-supported narrative practices in the context of
natural language processing, avatar creation and social media
communication have not yet been researched much, if at all.
Starting from this micro and meso perspective, the next step is to
focus on the macro level, which captures narrative processes that are
characteristic of mediatised "small life worlds" (cf. Shibutany 1955)
or "mediatised worlds" (cf. Hepp 2013).

Call for Papers:

A cultural studies approach places mediatised narrative as a
transdisciplinary phenomenon at the centre of interest. This can
include the following focal points and guiding questions:

- Conceptualisation: To what extent can a common cultural studies
definition of narration, narrative and storytelling in mediatised
contexts be made? To what extent does this complement traditional
narrative research and theory (cf. Genette 2010) and what new modes of
narration does the current social media world stimulate in comparison
to the past mass media world?

- What identities are created through narrative practices? How do they
contribute to the constitution of new narrator roles or identity
and/or status productions in the mediatised everyday culture?

- Which media-cultural patterns and practices of mediatised narration
can be described empirically? To what extent are these realised
multimodally?

- To what extent do media and dispositives shape narrative processes
and types (cf. Meier 2019; Michel 2022)?

- For what purposes are narratives used? What role do they play in the
mode of entertainment on the one hand and as discursive exemplars in
ar-gumentations on the other?

- Which narrative situations, forms and functions can be described in
the context of Natural Language Processing and AI-supported multimodal
identity constructions?

- To what extent do co-constituted narratives reflect social
ties/networks or are they involved in (temporary) network formation?

- To what extent are narratives characteristic of "small life worlds"
or "mediatised worlds"?  To what extent do such "worlds" in turn shape
narratives?

The full version of the CfP can be found under the following link:

https://kwg-ev.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CfP_Identitaetsnarration
-Medien_2023.pdf

Submission of paper proposals:

We are looking forward to receiving proposals (max. 500 words) from
different disciplines. Presentations (20 + 10 min.) can be given in
German or English. The section will be hybrid.

Proposals for papers can be sent to the following organisers until 30
May, 2023:

apl. Prof. Dr. Stefan Meier
Universität Koblenz
Institut für Kulturwissenschaft
Lehrbereich Medienwissenschaft
Universitätsstraße 1
56070 Koblenz
st.meier at uni-koblenz.de

Dr. Sascha Michel
RWTH Aachen
Institut für Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (ISK)
Eilfschornsteinstr. 15
52062 Aachen
s.michel at isk.rwth-aachen.de

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