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Article published In: Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 8:1 (2020) ► pp.88–117

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Managing conflict originated by feminism

A case study from WhatsApp interaction among Spanish family members

 | Pablo de Olavide University, Spain
Published online: 17 December 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00032.fer
Abstract
The aim of this study is to analyze how conflict begins, unfolds and ends in a WhatsApp interaction within a Spanish family on 2018’s International Women’s Day. The analytical framework proposed by Bou-Franch, Patricia, and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich. 2014. “Conflict Management in Massive Polylogues: A Case Study from YouTube.” Journal of Pragmatics 731: 19–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar is applied to a conversation that began at 10:37 am on March 8 and ended at 1:47 am on March 9. Multimodal analysis is used to consider not only participants’ linguistic strategies for expressing their opinions about feminism, but also the function of multimedia elements and emojis. The results show that conflict is constructed across multiple turns when some participants’ pro-feminist views are seen negatively by others. Thus, feminism emerges as a source of conflict among the family members. Another important issue drawn from the findings is the key role played by multimodal elements which have different functions related to how conflict is created and unfolds, such as being the origin of conflict itself, showing disapproval with others’ opinions, intensifying opinions to show emotion or trying to reduce face-threat.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Digital discourse and WhatsApp interaction
    • 2.2Conflict talk
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Procedure
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Beginning
    • 4.2Middle
      • 4.2.1Do not respond
      • 4.2.2Respond
        • 4.2.2.1Oppose: Counter attack with defensive/offensive strategies
        • 4.2.2.2Oppose: Compromise
        • 4.2.2.3Do not oppose
    • 4.3End
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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Cited by (7)

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Maíz-Arévalo, Carmen
2024. Sharing is caring: An ethnographic approach to Spanish WhatsApp groups. Journal of Pragmatics 226 ► pp. 78 ff. DOI logo
Pérez-Sabater, Carmen & Ginette Maguelouk-Moffo
2024. Bonjour la famille!. Internet Pragmatics 7:2 ► pp. 298 ff. DOI logo
Cruz-Moya, Olga & Alfonso Sánchez-Moya
2021. Humour in multimodal times. Internet Pragmatics 4:1 ► pp. 52 ff. DOI logo
Fernández-Amaya, Lucía
2021. Online disagreement in WhatsApp groups: A comparative study of Spanish family members and work colleagues. Discourse & Communication 15:5 ► pp. 542 ff. DOI logo
Fernández-Amaya, Lucía
2025. Conflict talk in Spanish digital interactions. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 13:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Pérez-Sabater, Carmen
2021. Moments of sharing, language style and resources for solidarity on social media: A comparative analysis. Journal of Pragmatics 180 ► pp. 266 ff. DOI logo
Pérez-Sabater, Carmen
2022. Mixing Catalan, English and Spanish on WhatsApp. Spanish in Context 19:2 ► pp. 289 ff. DOI logo

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