IADA: The dialogic dimension of the digital

The nature of dialogue has changed significantly in a digitally interconnected society.  As a result, the question What is dialogue? is more relevant than ever. Different disciplines have approached it from various vantage points, including linguistics, philosophy, ethics, communication, cultural anthropology, cognitive psychology, sociology, argumentation, pragmatics, and logic, among others. The sequence of action and reaction (Weigand 2010) has taken on new implications in the digital medium. We maintain dialogue as a central concept for this conference and aim to identify and discuss its new dimensions as they emerge in the digital medium.

The internet language has become complex, multimodal, worldwide and culturally connected, and has transcended verbal manifestations. The tools used in digital communication – social media platforms, messaging apps, video conferencing tools – may influence the way people communicate, promoting brevity in the form of quick reactions (likes) and immediacy given the rapid pace of online interactions. The digital offers the medium for multimodal encounters and the users – digital natives and digital immigrants (Prensky 2001) – must adapt to this complexity. Emojis, GIFs, photographs, cartoons, movies, music, voices, and colours can all be used as actions and reactions, while text is not always the first option for users. Although the form of communication has changed, the process of meaning construction develops alongside similar modes as in face-to-face dialogue: the bona fide (the serious mode) and the non-bona fide (the humorous or the figurative mode). Both transactional and social communicative purposes are present in the digital medium, but the complexity of social and professional interactions has increased tremendously. The task of decoding meanings and functions of digital messages proves to be more difficult due to “context dispersion”, i.e., the inability to control the communicative context in terms of number of participants, relationships between interlocutors, or the type of envisaged response. Reactions (likes, set phrases, wishes, and customised responses/messages) may be posted on the same platform/page in response to the communicative action. Messages from one platform/page can be copied, paraphrased, quoted, and commented on in other platforms/pages. In such instances, we can talk about “inter-reactions”.

We invite submissions (case studies and analyses) that explore the dialogic dimension of the digital. Topics that are more specific include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Linguistics of the Digital – revealing the linguistic shifts and innovations in the digital realm
• The Multimodal Dimension of Online Dialogues – exploring the fusion of diverse modes of communication
• Distinguishing User Typology from a Dialogic Perspective – analysing various user roles
• Genres and Narrative Forms in Digital Dialogues – investigating the emergence of new genres and narrative structures
• Political and Social Engagement in the Digital Medium – understanding the role of digital dialogue in shaping political and social discourses
• Organisational Communication in the Digital Medium – examining the implications of digital dialogue on organisational communication
• Teaching and Learning through Dialogic Education Technology – evaluating the potential of dialogic educational technologies in the digital learning landscape

We invite scholars, researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts from the fields of dialogue studies, pragmatics, discourse analysis, media studies, sociolinguistics, humour studies, education to contribute their insights and research findings to this conference on the transformative power of dialogue in the online environment.