Pub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100915
Otto Segersven, Ilkka Arminen
Large Language Models demonstrate considerable fluency in human discourse. Despite their potentially transformative impact, their limits and capabilities are yet to be discovered. To mitigate potential harm and harness their potential for the benefit of society, it is important to understand their capabilities in human–machine interaction. To address this challenge, we present results from a pilot study involving rock climbers and ChatGPT-4. In our Task-Specific Turing Test, expert group members ask any question they believe will distinguish between the machine and a fellow member. The paper employs a perspective which focuses on expert discourses of social groups and their linguistic competence in expressing and demonstrating their expertise. Results show that ChatGPT is successful in passing as a rock climber in several areas of discourse but (still) falls short in one area. Experiential knowledge – in particular, embodiment – proved a revealing distinction between human and machine. We conclude by emphasizing that the language skills displayed by LLMs ultimately stems from human-AI ensembles.
{"title":"Can a machine talk the talk though not climb the rock? A Turing Test on rock climbing","authors":"Otto Segersven, Ilkka Arminen","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100915","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100915","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Large Language Models demonstrate considerable fluency in human discourse. Despite their potentially transformative impact, their limits and capabilities are yet to be discovered. To mitigate potential harm and harness their potential for the benefit of society, it is important to understand their capabilities in human–machine interaction. To address this challenge, we present results from a pilot study involving rock climbers and ChatGPT-4. In our Task-Specific Turing Test, expert group members ask any question they believe will distinguish between the machine and a fellow member. The paper employs a perspective which focuses on expert discourses of social groups and their linguistic competence in expressing and demonstrating their expertise. Results show that ChatGPT is successful in passing as a rock climber in several areas of discourse but (still) falls short in one area. Experiential knowledge – in particular, embodiment – proved a revealing distinction between human and machine. We conclude by emphasizing that the language skills displayed by LLMs ultimately stems from human-AI ensembles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 100915"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-22DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100920
María-José Luzón , Sofía Albero-Posac
Recognizing the key role of knowledge dissemination in socio-economic progress, The Conversation is a news website intended to promote the public understanding of science. When using this platform to disseminate their own findings, scholars need to recontextualize their published research to make it suitable for a wide audience. However, despite the potential of this website for improving science literacy, there is little research on the strategies used to render scientific knowledge comprehensible for the general audience. This article studies the recontextualization strategies that researchers utilize to facilitate understanding when reporting their own research in The Conversation. For this purpose, we analyze a dataset consisting of 50 Environment articles. Adopting a multimodal perspective, we propose an analytical framework that can account for the various semiotic resources employed to aid comprehensibility. We analyze the frequency, function and formal features of the following elements that facilitate understanding: (i) verbal in-text elaboration (exemplification, reformulation, definition, analogy and explicitation); (ii) visuals; and (iii) hyperlinks to supplementary information. The results show that the technological features of The Conversation (e.g., hyperlinking, multimodal embedding) shape how researchers adapt and reframe their discourse, enabling a distinctive form of knowledge dissemination. Through this analysis, we aim to shed light on the multimodal recontextualization strategies that facilitate effective knowledge dissemination in science news websites.
{"title":"Disseminating research results in The Conversation: An analysis of comprehensibility strategies","authors":"María-José Luzón , Sofía Albero-Posac","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100920","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100920","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recognizing the key role of knowledge dissemination in socio-economic progress, <em>The Conversation</em> <!-->is a news website intended to promote the public understanding of science. When using this platform to disseminate their own findings, scholars need to recontextualize their published research to make it suitable for a wide audience. However, despite the potential of this website for improving science literacy, there is little research on the strategies used to render scientific knowledge comprehensible for the general audience. This article studies the recontextualization strategies that researchers utilize to facilitate understanding when reporting their own research in <em>The Conversation</em>. For this purpose, we analyze a dataset consisting of 50 Environment articles. Adopting a multimodal perspective, we propose an analytical framework that can account for the various semiotic resources employed to aid comprehensibility. We analyze the frequency, function and formal features of the following elements that facilitate understanding: (i) verbal in-text elaboration (exemplification, reformulation, definition, analogy and explicitation); (ii) visuals; and (iii) hyperlinks to supplementary information. The results show that the technological features of <em>The Conversation</em> (e.g., hyperlinking, multimodal embedding) shape how researchers adapt and reframe their discourse, enabling a distinctive form of knowledge dissemination. Through this analysis, we aim to shed light on the multimodal recontextualization strategies that facilitate effective knowledge dissemination in science news websites.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 100920"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144679613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-17DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100916
Boyd H. Davis , Margaret Maclagan , Meredith Troutman-Jordan
To increase the opportunity to educate caregivers for persons with dementia, particularly the nearly 40% of migrant healthcare workers emigrating to the US, we have chosen an adaptation of graphic medicine as a means of presenting these workers with conversations about dementia care in two formats of ‘mini-comics’: photo-based and cartoon. Graphic medicine, a part of narrative medicine, uses or creates comics to explore medical issues which have often been experienced by their authors. Each full set of caregiver guides comprises twenty short, mediated dialogues between caregivers about frequently occurring issues in early and mid-stage dementia communications. These are sets of vignettes involving actions, activities and artifacts that suggest a range of relationships. This study first provides a brief background to current and increasingly popular graphic medicine practices and their implementation into digital discourses and then examines in more detail our efforts to develop materials for multilingual direct care workers in the US, including current assessments of their impact in helping family and professional caregivers to communicate with their care recipients, the people living with dementia.
{"title":"Issues in developing multilingual graphics-based digital caregiver guides for dementia care","authors":"Boyd H. Davis , Margaret Maclagan , Meredith Troutman-Jordan","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100916","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100916","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To increase the opportunity to educate caregivers for persons with dementia, particularly the nearly 40% of migrant healthcare workers emigrating to the US, we have chosen an adaptation of graphic medicine as a means of presenting these workers with conversations about dementia care in two formats of ‘mini-comics’: photo-based and cartoon. Graphic medicine, a part of narrative medicine, uses or creates comics to explore medical issues which have often been experienced by their authors. Each full set of caregiver guides comprises twenty short, mediated dialogues between caregivers about frequently occurring issues in early and mid-stage dementia communications. These are sets of vignettes involving actions, activities and artifacts that suggest a range of relationships. This study first provides a brief background to current and increasingly popular graphic medicine practices and their implementation into digital discourses and then examines in more detail our efforts to develop materials for multilingual direct care workers in the US, including current assessments of their impact in helping family and professional caregivers to communicate with their care recipients, the people living with dementia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100916"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144655658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-17DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100909
Didem Leblebici , May Rostom
This study offers a novel perspective on translanguaging and multimodality by investigating practices and discourses of a largely unexplored phenomenon of voice assistants in the multifaceted Arab-speaking world. In early 2022, Alexa was launched in “the Khaleeji/Gulf dialect”, targeting Saudi Arabian and the United Arab Emirates markets, leading numerous translocal YouTubers to produce videos engaging with the device. Applying the analytical frameworks of multimodal discourse analysis and translanguaging theory, this paper examines an ‘unboxing’ video, created by an Egyptian YouTuber, and its comment section where Arabic speakers from different Asian and African countries engage in metalinguistic discussions, and position themselves towards Alexa’s voice that indexes a specific regional variety of Arabic. They mobilize multimodal and translingual semiotic resources to negotiate the tensions of national, regional, pan-regional and global labels of language and identity. The paper offers critical insights into discourses about Arabic and AI, as mediated on YouTube. We observe a partial reordering of sociolinguistic hierarchies and the emergence of language ideologies tied to global market logics. Voice assistants, as capitalist products, together with their built-in language ideologies, have implications for language perception and sociolinguistic economies.
{"title":"“Alexa learned Arabic”: A translanguaging and multimodal perspective on language and media ideologies","authors":"Didem Leblebici , May Rostom","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100909","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100909","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study offers a novel perspective on translanguaging and multimodality by investigating practices and discourses of a largely unexplored phenomenon of voice assistants in the multifaceted Arab-speaking world. In early 2022, Alexa was launched in “the Khaleeji/Gulf dialect”, targeting Saudi Arabian and the United Arab Emirates markets, leading numerous translocal YouTubers to produce videos engaging with the device. Applying the analytical frameworks of multimodal discourse analysis and translanguaging theory, this paper examines an ‘unboxing’ video, created by an Egyptian YouTuber, and its comment section where Arabic speakers from different Asian and African countries engage in metalinguistic discussions, and position themselves towards Alexa’s voice that indexes a specific regional variety of Arabic. They mobilize multimodal and translingual semiotic resources to negotiate the tensions of national, regional, pan-regional and global labels of language and identity. The paper offers critical insights into discourses about Arabic and AI, as mediated on YouTube. We observe a partial reordering of sociolinguistic hierarchies and the emergence of language ideologies tied to global market logics. Voice assistants, as capitalist products, together with their built-in language ideologies, have implications for language perception and sociolinguistic economies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100909"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144655696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100918
Jan Engberg, Carmen Daniela Maier
This article proposes an approach to exploring science slam performances, a genre in which scientific knowledge is digitally recontextualized to gratify both knowledge and entertainment needs of audiences, with a focus upon the role of humour.
Drawing on theoretical perspectives including knowledge communication, multimodality, genre and ludic learning, nine science slam performances (6 in English, 3 in German) from YouTube from different organisational and national contexts are examined to determine their generic configuration.
The multi-phased multimodal analysis captures the flexible modal configuration and density of the generic moves. The focus is on the meaning-making relations between several semiotic modes that shape how knowledge is ludically recontextualized across the generic moves by the performing science slammers, how the intertextual and interdiscursive references are embedded in the generic moves, and how audiences are continuously engaged. Considering the ludic characteristic as defining for science slam performances, the roles of humour in relation to these aspects are identified to address the knowledge about humour demonstrated by the science slams’ practitioners.
This article takes research on recontextualized scientific communication one step further by proposing and demonstrating an approach that can both explain this multimodal genre systematically and provide insights for researchers working with genres of scientific knowledge communication with similar intentions and communicative (sub-)functions.
{"title":"Understanding multimodal science slam performances: How expert knowledge is built and transferred through digital ludic recontextualization","authors":"Jan Engberg, Carmen Daniela Maier","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100918","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100918","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article proposes an approach to exploring science slam performances, a genre in which scientific knowledge is digitally recontextualized to gratify both knowledge and entertainment needs of audiences, with a focus upon the role of humour.</div><div>Drawing on theoretical perspectives including knowledge communication, multimodality, genre and ludic learning, nine science slam performances (6 in English, 3 in German) from YouTube from different organisational and national contexts are examined to determine their generic configuration.</div><div>The multi-phased multimodal analysis captures the flexible modal configuration and density of the generic moves. The focus is on the meaning-making relations between several semiotic modes that shape how knowledge is ludically recontextualized across the generic moves by the performing science slammers, how the intertextual and interdiscursive references are embedded in the generic moves, and how audiences are continuously engaged. Considering the ludic characteristic as defining for science slam performances, the roles of humour in relation to these aspects are identified to address the knowledge about humour demonstrated by the science slams’ practitioners.</div><div>This article takes research on recontextualized scientific communication one step further by proposing and demonstrating an approach that can both explain this multimodal genre systematically and provide insights for researchers working with genres of scientific knowledge communication with similar intentions and communicative (sub-)functions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100918"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144632757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-12DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100917
Caroline Tagg, Göran Eriksson, Camilla Vásquez
{"title":"Introduction: discourse at the intersection of digital design and user agency","authors":"Caroline Tagg, Göran Eriksson, Camilla Vásquez","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100917","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100917","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100917"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144605907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-10DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100912
Kate Barber
Hyperlinks in blog posts play an important role in supporting and legitimising the claims made by bloggers, particularly on sites associated with polarisation, extremism and echo chambers. Links containing discursive elements and which are embedded as part of the text – known as anchor text – have, as yet, remained underexplored as a discourse strategy in epistemic positioning and studies on legitimisation. This paper draws on Hart’s (2011) work on subjectification and objectification categories of epistemic positioning to examine how anchor text hyperlinks in a corpus of blog posts, written by bloggers associated with the Alternative Right (Alt-Right) and Men’s Rights Activists, are used to substantiate claims related to sexual violence against women. The results of the study show a lack of transparency in the claims supported through anchor text, which I argue, can be considered a quasi-objectification category of epistemic legitimisation in the hypertexts in the dataset. The study employs a cognitive linguistic approach to examine evidentiality in the anchor text and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the ways assertions are legitimised in polarising texts online.
{"title":"(Don’t) click here: Hyperlinks as a quasi-objectification strategy in epistemic legitimisation in extremists’ blog posts on sexual violence","authors":"Kate Barber","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100912","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100912","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hyperlinks in blog posts play an important role in supporting and legitimising the claims made by bloggers, particularly on sites associated with polarisation, extremism and echo chambers. Links containing discursive elements and which are embedded as part of the text – known as anchor text – have, as yet, remained underexplored as a discourse strategy in epistemic positioning and studies on legitimisation. This paper draws on Hart’s (2011) work on subjectification and objectification categories of epistemic positioning to examine how anchor text hyperlinks in a corpus of blog posts, written by bloggers associated with the Alternative Right (Alt-Right) and Men’s Rights Activists, are used to substantiate claims related to sexual violence against women. The results of the study show a lack of transparency in the claims supported through anchor text, which I argue, can be considered a quasi-objectification category of epistemic legitimisation in the hypertexts in the dataset. The study employs a cognitive linguistic approach to examine evidentiality in the anchor text and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the ways assertions are legitimised in polarising texts online.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100912"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144588045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-06DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100914
Krystyna Warchał
As the digital environment has become the primary conduit for broad audiences to learn about scientific and technological developments, it is crucial to examine how new knowledge is transformed to be accessible, engaging, and relevant for the public, and to what extent this recontextualised content remains anchored in the original published findings. This case study investigates the online uptake of results from the third clinical trial for an experimental Alzheimer’s drug (Van Dyck et al., 2023; online November 29, 2022), focusing on how knowledge claims (KCs) are modified when communicated to diverse audiences. The analysis is based on a set of digital texts retrieved through an internet query and published within four weeks of the original announcement. Findings reveal selective transfer of KCs, a tendency to amplify desirable claims, and a pronounced shift in the salience of recontextualised content, reflecting audience expectations and media priorities. The study also highlights limited traceability of information intended for broad audiences and considers the implications of these transformations for public understanding of the findings and informed decision-making in health and therapy.
{"title":"Facts, hopes, and fears: Recontextualising experimental drug results for diverse audiences","authors":"Krystyna Warchał","doi":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100914","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100914","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As the digital environment has become the primary conduit for broad audiences to learn about scientific and technological developments, it is crucial to examine how new knowledge is transformed to be accessible, engaging, and relevant for the public, and to what extent this recontextualised content remains anchored in the original published findings. This case study investigates the online uptake of results from the third clinical trial for an experimental Alzheimer’s drug (<span><span>Van Dyck et al., 2023</span></span>; online November 29, 2022), focusing on how knowledge claims (KCs) are modified when communicated to diverse audiences. The analysis is based on a set of digital texts retrieved through an internet query and published within four weeks of the original announcement. Findings reveal selective transfer of KCs, a tendency to amplify desirable claims, and a pronounced shift in the salience of recontextualised content, reflecting audience expectations and media priorities. The study also highlights limited traceability of information intended for broad audiences and considers the implications of these transformations for public understanding of the findings and informed decision-making in health and therapy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46649,"journal":{"name":"Discourse Context & Media","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100914"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144570140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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