著者

酒井 信一郎

出版者

日本マス・コミュニケーション学会

雑誌

マス・コミュニケーション研究 (ISSN:13411306)

巻号頁・発行日

no.77, pp.243-259, 2010-07-31

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This paper discussed with the intertextual nature of discourse, and how the connection of various media texts is formulated by the participants. Contrary to prior media effect research, both cultural studies and cultural reception research produced valuable framework by bringing audience into the picture of mass communication and suggesting their active manner on media texts. However, because these studies methodologically separate the text and its audience in research, we have yet to address the study of the reading of media text. My approach, on the other hand, is an ethnomethodological one that focuses on member competence and understanding when reading media texts. A weblog article was analyzed according to Sacks' notion of membership categorization in addition to contemporary arguments in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. The weblog article was composed of several media texts, all dispersed in time, location, and occasion: an excerpt from a PSA video on texting and driving, a quote from the director of the division of traffic safety, and an article by a weblogger about the video, followed by readers' comments. It was found that categorization was used in relation to each other and were coordinated, thus creating coherence between the media texts. For example, when the author of the weblog article used the membership category "parents" for describing one of the actors in the video, it was then cited by the director of traffic safety in his quote, then, further used by commentators of the weblog, not only verbatim but also in relation to (1) activities bound to that category, and (2) other categories, such as "infant", a co-incumbent of the same "family". To conclude, it is this network of categorization that gives coherence to a network of media texts.