Exploring Digital Communication

Caroline Tagg is lecturer in the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics, University of Birmingham. Her publications include The Language of Social Media: identity and community on the internet (edited with Philip Seargeant, 2014) and The Discourse of Text Messaging (2012).

“This book provides an insightful and wide-ranging examination of the nature of digital communication, and makes a cogent argument for why a focus on language can be particularly productive for understanding the impact that internet-based communications technologies are having on society.” Philip Seargeant, The Open University, UK"This book is a welcome contribution to the growing literature on language use and digital practices. Focusing on compelling examples taken from diverse forms of digital media, Tagg engages with important social issues ranging from privacy, to isolation, to the increasingly blurred boundaries between online and offline communication. Comprehensive in scope, erudite, and accessible in style, this book will certainly be of interest to scholars and students of communication and language studies." Camilla Vásquez, University of South Florida, USA"The innovative approach devised by the series editors will make this series very attractive to students, teacher educators, and even to a general readership, wanting to explore and understand the field of applied linguistics. The volumes in this series take as their starting point the everyday professional problems and issues that applied linguists seek to illuminate. The volumes are authoritatively written, using an engaging 'back-to'front' structure that moves from practical interests to the conceptual bases and theories that underpin applications of practice.' Anne Burns, Aston University, UK

• Exploring Digital CommunicationCaroline TaggIntroduction: why focus on language in exploring digital communication? Section A: Problems and PracticesI. Digital language and literacy 1) Is digital communication detrimental to grammar and spelling? 2) Has the internet changed how we read? 3) Is the web devaluing what it means to be an author? 4) Does the internet further the global dominance of English? II. Social issues and social media 5) From anonymity to self promotion: are we ever ourselves on social media? 6) What are the implications of social media for privacy? 7) Is social media making us less social? 8) What can be done about trolls and online bullying? Section B: InterventionsI. Digital language and literacy9) Why text messaging may be good for literacy10) Exploring digital literacies 11) Using the web as a space for writing 12) Using more than one language online II. Social issues and social media 13) Performing identity online 14) Audience design on social media15) Constructing virtual communities 16) The linguistics of online aggression Section C: TheoryI. Digital language and literacy17) Multiliteracies18) Translanguaging via a superdiverse internet 19) Heteroglossia II. Social issues and social media 20) Identities in interaction 21) Sociolinguistic communities