Identity construction in digital communication for public engagement in science

Pérez-Llantada, Carmen (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: This article explores identity construction in citizen science web texts. Keyness and concordance analyses show that these texts reflect, construct and negotiate identity construction in various ways to ultimately support citizen participation in scientific processes. Scientists primarily construct a professional identity through self-representation markers (‘we’ pronouns). They present themselves as credible professionals, aligned with the socially established values and ideologies of the scientific community. In addition, they appear to create a collective identity to promote empathy and to encourage and maintain citizen engagement in scientific processes. However, processes of indexicality and relationality – that is positioning and dialogism – reveal that the construction of a professional identity is consistently made more relevant than a collective expert-crowd identity, thus exposing overt power asymmetries. Even when dialogue between experts and nonexperts is encouraged, all the monologic and dialogic interactions established by the hypertext structure of the project sites reflect power imbalances.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1177/14614456241255267

Año: 2024

Publicado en: DISCOURSE STUDIES (2024), [18 pp.]
ISSN: 1461-4456

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EUR/ERASMUS +/2020-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000086749

Tipo y forma: Article (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Filología Inglesa (Dpto. Filolog.Inglesa y Alema.)