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Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 32:1 (2022) ► pp.54–79

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Navigating the complex social ecology of screen-based activity in video-mediated interaction

ORCiD logo with link | Hacettepe University
ORCiD logo with link | University of Neuchâtel
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 31 August 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20023.bal
Abstract
Task-oriented video-mediated interaction takes place within a complex digital-social ecology which presents, to participants, a practical problem of social coordination: How to navigate, in mutually accountable ways, between interacting with the remote co-participants and scrutinizing one’s own screen –which suspends interaction–, for instance when searching for information on a search engine. Using conversation analysis for the examination of screen-recorded dyadic interactions, this study identifies a range of practices participants draw on to alert co-participants to incipient suspensions of talk. By accounting for such suspensions as being task-related through verbal alerts, typically in the form let me/let’s X, participants successfully ‘buy time’, which allows them to fully concentrate on their screen activity and thereby ensure the progression of task accomplishment. We discuss how these findings contribute to our understanding of the complex ecologies of technology-mediated interactions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Progressivity and video-mediated interaction
  • 3.Data and procedure
  • 4.Analyses
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • References
References (52)
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