Digital Pragmatics on YouTube: Self-presentation and Performance of Stylized Affect
Jan Chovanec, Professor of English Linguistics, Masaryk University
Abstract:
The talk addresses the discursive construction of authenticity in reaction videos produced by micro-celebrities on their YouTube video-channels. Adopting a digital pragmatic perspective, the talk concentrates on the key multimodal features of self-presentation and the construction of identity in this innovative genre of communication in order to track how users perform affect for their followers. The YouTubers' identity construction is analysed in terms of their apparent 'authenticity', and interpreted in the context of a contrasting underlying aim – their self-promotion stemming from the 'attention economy' that has come to define many of the forms of the current monetised identity performances in digital contexts. In this talk, the strategic performance of digitised emotions is interpreted as a form of 'synthetic affect', i.e. a simulated form of interaction with the anonymous, mass audiences. As indicated by viewers' comments, the YouTubers' performances of emotions, particularly where they include features of hyperstylization, can be perceived negatively as inauthentic, with the result that the viewers can actually disaffiliate from such content producers.
Speaker Biography:
Jan Chovanec in Professor of English linguistics at Masaryk University in Brno, the Czech Republic, specializing in discourse analysis and socio-pragmatics. He has done research on the discursive processes of identity construction as well as humour in diverse media contexts. His current research deals with authenticity and identity stylisation. He is the author of Pragmatics of Tense and Time in News (John Benjamins, 2014), The Discourse of Online Sportscasting (John Benjamins, 2018) and co-editor of a number of publications, including The Dynamics of Interactional Humour (John Benjamins, 2018, with Villy Tsakona), Analyzing Digital Discourses: Between Convergence and Controversy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, with Marjut Johansson and Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen) and most recently Experiencing Digital Discourses: Multimodality, Engagement, Activisim (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025, with Camilla Vásquez). He is currently co-editor-in-chief of Discourse, Context & Media (with Carmen Lee) and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Journal of Pragmatics; Internet Pragmatics and The European Journal of Humour Research.
當前語言科技在電腦輔助發音訓練與口說能力評量之應用
Berlin Chen (陳柏琳), Professor of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU)
Abstract:
近年來人工智慧(Artificial Intelligence, AI)的研究熱潮席捲全球，許多基於此研究熱潮下發展的深度學習(Deep Learning)與大型語言模型(Large Language Model, LLM)技術在各種多媒體處理與應用領域造成革命性的突破，也讓語音辨識(Automatic Speech Recognition, ASR)和自然語言處理(Natural Language Processing, NLP)相關的研究和應用有長足的進展。此次演講將簡介新穎的深度學習技術在語音辨識和自然語言處理相關任務上的應用現狀與趨勢。同時，此次演講也將說明如何使用語音辨識和自然語言處理等語言科技來發展電腦輔助語言學習(Computer-Assisted Language Learning, CALL)，尤其是電腦輔助發音訓練(Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training, CAPT)與口說能力評量(Speaking Proficiency Assessment, SPA)。
Speaker Biography:
Berlin Chen (陳柏琳) is a Professor of the Computer Science and Information Engineering Department at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), Taipei, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. degree in computer science and information engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU) in June 2001, and then joined NTNU as an Assistant Professor in August 2002. He became a Professor in February 2010. Prof. Chen's research interests generally lie in the areas of speech recognition and natural language processing, multimedia information retrieval, computer-assisted language learning, and artificial intelligence.