Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group Chats

This study focuses on analyzing face attacks in the conflict discourse of cross-linguistic online chats on the instant message application <i>WeChat</i> among a group of international students at a prestigious university in China. Drawing on the previous impoliteness theory of Leech and...

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Main Authors: Fan Cao, Vanessa Ruiling Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-09-01
Series:Journalism and Media
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5172/5/3/82
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author Fan Cao
Vanessa Ruiling Yu
author_facet Fan Cao
Vanessa Ruiling Yu
author_sort Fan Cao
collection DOAJ
description This study focuses on analyzing face attacks in the conflict discourse of cross-linguistic online chats on the instant message application <i>WeChat</i> among a group of international students at a prestigious university in China. Drawing on the previous impoliteness theory of Leech and Culpeper, this article selectively combines these two theories and proposes that in face-attack studies, especially with respect to online discourses, impolite multimodal discourse should be considered and subsumed in the theoretical framework. It is found that a wide array of face attacks in conflict discourse manifest themselves both in verbal discourse as well as in multimodal counterparts. The present study might shed light on online impoliteness research that is beyond monolingual and single-mode contexts.
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spelling doaj-art-73e1b94af89b44a9bc0158e439a8c91d2025-08-20T01:55:34ZengMDPI AGJournalism and Media2673-51722024-09-01531297131510.3390/journalmedia5030082Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group ChatsFan Cao0Vanessa Ruiling Yu1Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, ChinaDepartment of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, ChinaThis study focuses on analyzing face attacks in the conflict discourse of cross-linguistic online chats on the instant message application <i>WeChat</i> among a group of international students at a prestigious university in China. Drawing on the previous impoliteness theory of Leech and Culpeper, this article selectively combines these two theories and proposes that in face-attack studies, especially with respect to online discourses, impolite multimodal discourse should be considered and subsumed in the theoretical framework. It is found that a wide array of face attacks in conflict discourse manifest themselves both in verbal discourse as well as in multimodal counterparts. The present study might shed light on online impoliteness research that is beyond monolingual and single-mode contexts.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5172/5/3/82impolitenessface attackInternet communicationconflict discoursemultimodality
spellingShingle Fan Cao
Vanessa Ruiling Yu
Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group Chats
Journalism and Media
impoliteness
face attack
Internet communication
conflict discourse
multimodality
title Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group Chats
title_full Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group Chats
title_fullStr Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group Chats
title_full_unstemmed Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group Chats
title_short Face Attack Online: Unpacking Conflicts in Multimodal Group Chats
title_sort face attack online unpacking conflicts in multimodal group chats
topic impoliteness
face attack
Internet communication
conflict discourse
multimodality
url https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5172/5/3/82
work_keys_str_mv AT fancao faceattackonlineunpackingconflictsinmultimodalgroupchats
AT vanessaruilingyu faceattackonlineunpackingconflictsinmultimodalgroupchats