Article published in:

Skype and domestic settings: Interpersonal video communication as a site of human sociality
Edited by Richard Harper, Rod Watson and Christian Licoppe
[Pragmatics 27:3] 2017
► pp. 387–418

Talking about things

Image-based topical talk and intimacy in video-mediated family communication

Moustafa Zouinar | Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, and Orange Labs Paris

Julia Velkovska | Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Orange Labs, Paris

This paper focuses on how conversation and a shared participation frame are maintained in video-mediated family conversations which ordinarily do not have a particular agenda. In order to examine this question, how conversations are maintained whilst being sometimes improvised, the paper analyses a particular interactional phenomenon, namely, the image-based topic management accomplished via two methods: showings and noticings. Through a detailed multimodal analysis of family video mediated conversations, it shows how these methods are used for introducing or changing topics and hence sustaining talk. Moreover, by describing the practical actions that involve technological and social dimensions, the paper highlights the link between interaction, personal relationships and technology. The analysis of showings and noticings, enabled by the technical features of the systems used by the participants, reveals how video-communication technology is mobilized by family members as a resource for maintaining intimacy in distant relationships.

Keywords: conversation analysis, technology use, video-mediated conversation, Skype, noticings, showings, topic management, image-based topic, ethnomethodology, relationship, participation frameworks

This article is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 16 October 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.27.3.04zou

Talking about things

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