FUNCTIONAL POTENTIAL OF HASHTAGS

Authors

  • Давидюк Н.О.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32589/2311-0821.1.2017.120684

Keywords:

hashtags, hashtags’ functions, classification, social media discourse, searchability, discourse organizers, folksonomy tools

Abstract

The article explores functional potential of hashtags as technodiscoursive phenomena
which were introduced in social media network Twitter in order to organize its discourse and
to make it searchable, and whose capabilities influenced not only development of Internet discourse,
but also our perception of the world. The article focuses, in particular, on the evolution and
extension of hashtags’ functions and proposes functional classification of hashtags, detecting
the following functional roles and types of hashtags: topic markers of separate tweets / series
of tweets, organizers of narratives (of monological, dialogical or polylogical character) and specific
discussions, markers of rubrics (uniting tweets which have different topics, but accomplish the same
pragmatic purpose). Through these functions hashtags structure and organize Twitter-discourse,
accomplishing the function of folksonomy (social classification) tools and assuring “searchability”
of Twitter-discourse. The most popular hashtags enable users to observe the “history of society’s
worries and preoccupations” and the reaction of world community or citizens of certain country /
region to specific events / phenomena. Hashtags also assure quick diffusion of information at very
large scale (including information about violent events or other urgent matters); act as promotion
tools for brands and ideas, being at the same time instruments of market, competitors and clients’
preferences monitoring. One of the most important hashtags’ functions is a social one, given
the fact that hashtags conditioned the emergence and now assure functioning of socio-cultural
digital practices-rituals in Twitter. Another group is represented by hashtags that express
emotions / judgments / evaluation, exercising predicative & classificatory function; there are also hashtags-modalisators in Twitter which act, in fact, as explicit interpretative instructions
for the tweets they figure in. Hashtags-evaluative names form another group of hashtags which
are especially characteristic for political Twitter-discourse

References

Галямина Ю.Е. Лингвистический анализ хештегов Твиттера / Ю.Е. Галямина // Современный русский язык в интернете. – М. : Языки славянской культуры, 2014. – С. 13–23.

Иссерс О.C. Речевое воздействие: учебное пособие для студентов вузов, обучающихся

по направлению (специальности) “Связи с общественностью” / О.С. Иссерс. – М. : Флинта; Наука, 2009. – 223 c.

Щурина Ю.В. Комуникативно-игровой потенциал хэштегов / Ю.В. Щурина // Вестник

Череповецкого государственного университета. – 2015. – № 8 (69). – С. 100–104.

Boyd D. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship / D. Boyd, N. Ellison // Journal

of Computer-Mediated Communication. – 2007. – №13 (1). – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим

доступу: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

Bruns A. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond. From Production to Produsage / A. Bruns. – Bern : Peter Lang, 2008. – 187 p.

Bruns A. The use of Twitter hashtags in the formation of ad hoc publics / A. Bruns, J. Burgess //6th European Consortium for PoliticalResearch General Conference. – Reykjavik : University of Iceland, 2011. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/46515/

Carter S. Twitter Hashtags: Joint TranslationAnd Clustering / S. Carter, M. Tsagkias, W. Weerkamp // Web Science, 2011. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.682.2879&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Chomsky N. The secret of Noam: A Chomsky Interview / N. Chomsky. – Brightest Young Things

[website], 2011. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://brightestyoungthings.com/

articles/the-secret-of-noam-a-chomsky-interview.html

Halliday M.A.K. Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning /M.A.K. Halliday. – Baltimore : University Park Press, 1978. – 256 p.

KehoeA. Social Tagging: Anew perspective on textual ‘aboutness’Methodological and Historical

Dimensions of Corpus Linguistics / A. Kehoe, M. Gee // Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English, Vol. 6: Methodological and Historical Dimensions of Corpus Linguistics. – Helsinki, 2011. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/06/kehoe_gee/

Martin J.R. The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English / J.R. Martin, P.R.R White. –

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. – 278 p.

Mischaud E. Twitter: Expressions of the Whole Self / E. Mischaud. – London : Media@lse,

London School of Economics and Political Science, 2007. – 228 p.

Monroy-HernándezA. Shouting Fire in a Crowded Hashtag / A. Monroy-Hernández // Social Media Collective Research blog. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: https://socialmediacollective.org/2011/08/31/shouting-fire-in-a-crowded-hashtag/

Ozdikis O. Semantic expansion of tweet contents for enhanced event detection / O. Ozdikis,

P. Senkul, H. Oguztuzun // Twitter 2012 International conference on advances in Social networks analysis and mining, 2012. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/asonam/2012/4799/00/4799a020-abs.html.

Paveau M.-A. Genre de discours et technologie discursive. Tweet, twittécriture et twittérature /

M.-A. Paveau // Pratiques. – 2013. – №157–158. – P. 7–30.

Paveau M.-A. Réalité et discursivité. D’autres dimensions pour la théorie du discours /

M.-A. Paveau // Semen. – 2012. – №34. – P. 95–115.

Paveau M.-A. Technodiscursivités natives sur Twitter. Une écologie du discours numérique /

M.-A. Paveau // Culture, identity and digital writing, Epistémè 9, Revue internationale de sciences humaines et sociales appliquées. – Séoul : Université Korea, Center for Applied Cultural Studies, 2013. – P. 139–176.

Pélissier N. Twitter: Un monde en tout petit? / N. Pélissier, G. Gallezot // – Paris : Editions

L’Harmattan, 2013. – 260 p.

Yahiaoui L. Redocumentation des traces d'activité médiée informatiquement dans le cadre des

transactions communicationnelles / L. Yahiaoui, Y. Prié, Z. Boufaida. – Constantine : Université

Mentouri-Constantine, Laboratoire LIRE, 2007. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу:

liris.cnrs.fr/Documents/Liris-3446.pdf

Zappavigna M. Searchable talk: The linguistic functions of hashtags in tweets about Schapelle

Corby / M. Zappavigna // Global Media Journal. Australian Edition. – 2016. – №10. – [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: ttp://www.hca.westernsydney.edu.au/gmjau/?p=1762

[Електронний ресурс]. – http://storyful.com/stories/30818-anti-putin-hashtag-trends-worldwide-after-inspiration-from-viral-video

[Електронний ресурс]. – http://www.lesinrocks.com/2016/03/23/actualite/hashtag-stopislamdevenu-lun-plus-partage-monde-11814472/

[Електронний ресурс]. – http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/03/hashtags-considered-harmful

Published

2022-09-09

Issue

Section

Articles