Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper explores the relative unknown terrain of the communication style of social media communication. After explaining the move from mass communication to network communication in the age of digital mediated communication, the exploration is set against the background of a description of two of the outstanding features of network communication, namely interactivity and interconnectivity. The nature of especially interactivity is explored as the source of what is beginning to emerge as style markers of social media communication, namely: reactivity (including opinionated and provocative communication), ritualistic (rhetorical) communication, fragmentation, personalisation, intertextuality (including ambiguity, repetition, abundance and redundancy), and ideological and stereotyped communication. It is argued that interactivity and inter-connectivity determines the communication style of social media communication.