Language workers and the challenge of digitalisation: Gaining insight through the social media skill sharing of professional communication practitioners within the US military
The increasing digitalisation of communication has not gone unnoticed by the US military. The teaching of communication takes place at the Defense Information School (DINFOS), providing professional instruction to US military members, civilian personnel and allies from around the world. With the emergence of social media and the increasing significance of user-generated content, the teaching of communication, even more so than previously, prioritises the collaboration of academic researchers, practitioners and industry leaders in digitalised media for professional development. Viewing the collaboration as an example of transdisciplinary practice (McGregor, 2014), this paper seeks to gain insight into their thoughts on social media messaging and management for developing themes (Perrin & Kramsch, 2018) for research and practice, as well as for teaching language learners to be language workers (Koller, 2018) in a digitalised mediated world. The analysis of the social media workshop from 2017 is inspired by content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004). Through the analysis, the themes of “Community”, “Content” and “Conduct” are created based on a series of 23 lectures for practitioners by senior officers, academic researchers and persons from social media companies like Twitter and Instagram. The analysis shows, among other things, that the technological dimension of social media may constrain and enable language use in unpredictable ways. For research, practice and learning, the themes may function as a “shared language” for more effective language use towards the increasing digitalisation of communication. The paper concludes by reflecting on two concerns within transdisciplinarity, specifically transdisciplinary identity (Augsburg, 2014) and the link between process and impact (Hansson & Polk, 2018).
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The increasing digitalisation of communication and the significance of social media for connecting with others have not gone unnoticed by the US military and its allies. Yet it was not until 2006 that the US military started using social media for strategic purposes in the war in Afghanistan, and it was not until 2010 that US military service members were allowed to use it for themselves. When Facebook became a popular communications medium, the intention of the US military was to create its own version of Facebook. Today Facebook is the military’s social media platform, including Twitter, Instagram and even Snapchat, among others. The teaching of social media for public affairs takes place at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) under the US Department of Defense at Fort Meade, Maryland, providing professional instruction in strategic communication to US military members, civilian personnel within different federal agencies and allies from around the world.