Face in cyberspace : Facework, (im)politeness and conflict in English discussion groups

Abstract: The purpose of the current study is to explore the discourse strategies and linguistic resources employed by the participants in English electronic discussion fora when handling ‘face’ (public self-image) and conflict online.Two data sets were collected from the moderated Musiclassical mailing list and from the non-moderated alt.news-media newsgroup. The findings revealed three major categories of facework and conflict management: Confrontational, Cooperative and Evasive. Confrontational facework and impoliteness were particularly prominent in the non-moderated alt.news-media discussion threads. In the moderated Musiclassical discussions interpersonal conflict emerged gradually, counterbalanced by Cooperative and Evasive facework. Confrontational facework prevailed nonetheless in the third thread, despite the presence of moderators and list-specific norms of conduct. While conduct control did not fully inhibit confrontation in Musiclassical, its total absence in alt.news-media was clearly reflected in the amount and coarseness of uninhibited verbal aggression and rudeness. In both groups the focus of the conflicts shifted from the substantial issue to interpersonal conflict. Moreover, while the conflicts proper were terminated, the controversial issues remained unresolved in both fora. The prolific shifting of facework types across the threads bears witness to the dynamic character of online group interaction, where in want of paralinguistic cues, the participants need to balance verbally between competitive confrontation and supportive cooperation in pursuit of their communicative goals.The study proposes a new integrated typology of (im)politeness, facework and conflict management. It highlights aspects of facework in conflict not dealt with earlier, i.e. the output (im)politeness strategies and linguistic resources through which facework and conflict management are realised, the crucial interpretative role of the recipient(s) and third parties, as well as the dynamics of facework across messages and discussion threads. It contributes to our understanding of how and why online conflicts emerge, evolve and decrease and how they are managed in textual multiparty discussions.