French: Discourse Analysis of Social Media

On completion of the course, students will be able to:

• describe the importance of the digital context for language use and communication in social media
• with an analytical ability, apply and critically approach relevant concepts and theories for the analysis of discursive practices in Francophone social media
• carry out a scholarly analysis of an aspect of Francophone social media
• express themselves in good academic French in oral and written presentations
• discuss and problematise the role of social media as a forum for discussion and debate
• reflect on the importance of social media for people‘s identity construction.

The course deals with Francophone social media from a discourse analytical perspective. The course introduces concepts and theories from Francophone theorists in discourse analysis and provides practice in applying them to authentic examples from the French-speaking world. Different types of social media are studied, such as blogs, microblogs, forum discussions and comment fields. Technical aspects are also addressed in order to understand how the digital context (characteristics of the platforms, the design of the interfaces, the possibilities to hyperlink, etc.) affects the use of language and communication in social media. The analysis enables a problematisation of the role of social media as an arena for discussions and debates in the French-speaking world, as well as for people‘s identity construction.

• Written assignments
• Active participation in seminars
• Oral presentation

The grading scale used for the final course grade is U–VG.

Grades are reported as follows:

• French: Discourse Analysis in Social Media - 7.5 Credits | U–VG

The course is given in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg and overlaps the course French: Social Media in the French-Speaking World, 7.5 credits, which is taught at the University of Gothenburg.