Virtual Communities and Social Change: Intertextuality in Saudi English-language blogs
- DOI
- 10.2991/rais-18.2018.33How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- blogging, critical discourse analysis, social change, women’s empowerment
- Abstract
This paper examines the discourse on social change in women-related posts on Saudi English-language blogs. These posts negotiate many reforming measures proposed by the Saudi government to facilitate more women’s empowerment. An eclectic approach to intertextuality is adopted to explore the virtual community and the connections created on such platforms. The methodology adopted is based on Koller’s (2012) work on analyzing collective identities and draws primarily on Reisigl & Wodak’s (2009, 90) view of Intertextuality. It also examines more direct and explicit instances of the recontextualization of other texts or discourses through hyperlinked clauses on such blogs. The findings of the analysis reveal that the community at hand is quite closed, exhibiting an example of what has been identified in psychology as confirmation bias (Nickerson 1998, 175), which jeopardizes the potential of blogging for promoting change. A supporter/opponent struggle is vigorously expressed in these posts, to the point that it overlooks the bigger picture, i.e. women’s empowerment. Women who are expected to be at the centre of these topics are sidelined by such struggles.
- Copyright
- © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Shrouq Al Maghlouth PY - 2018/08 DA - 2018/08 TI - Virtual Communities and Social Change: Intertextuality in Saudi English-language blogs BT - Proceedings of the 10th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (RAIS 2018) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 192 EP - 196 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/rais-18.2018.33 DO - 10.2991/rais-18.2018.33 ID - AlMaghlouth2018/08 ER -