Abstract/Summary

This chapter outlines some of the challenges discourse analysts face when analyzing social media. It considers what it is that makes social media discourse different from other kinds of discourse, and how these differences affect the ways discourse analysts approach it, focusing on three traditional dimensions of discourse: 1) the textual (and intertextual) dimension, 2) the dimension of social interaction and participation, and 3) the dimension of power and ideology. It ends by describing some aspects of social media discourse that discourse analysts are just beginning to explore and suggests some ways forward.