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May 2012

Digital ethnography of linguistic multitasking in World of Warcraft

Lauren Collister, a Ph.D. candidate in sociolinguistics at the University of Pittsburgh, describes how digital ethnography deepened her understanding of multimodal communication within a team of World of Warcraft game players. Players use text, voice-over-IP talk, and face-to-face talk to accomplish distinct functions.

Sophmoric application of readability tests

NPR’s Morning Edition and the Sunlight Foundation suggest that congressional speech-making is becoming less sophisticated. The presentation appears to validate conventional wisdom that American politics has taken an anti-intellectual turn of late, but the story shows flawed methods coupled with confirmation bias.

Steve Harvey’s white voice

Black Comedian Steve Harvey compares white and black communication styles. He imitates a white man’s voice at 2:35-4:13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICsHscXzXw0 (2:35-4:13) [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICsHscXzXw0[/youtube]

Holllywood Injun English in MacGuyver

See 8:27-9:38 in this episode of MacGuyver for a Hollywood portrayal of Injun English http://www.cbs.com/classics/macgyver/video/?pid=oBrc4c2saVHcDEu5v_LJhILTs6IMa4mX&vs=&play=true (8:27-9:38)

Mock Asian in Margaret Cho and Long Duk Dong

Examples of Mock Asian Margaret Cho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAmcPS6xoZA&feature=related (8:32-end) [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAmcPS6xoZA&feature=related[/youtube] Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong) on NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88591800

Gendered interactional styles in Friends

This clip from the TV show Friends demonstrates a media representation of male and female interactional styles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGoC8FTLKSI&feature=related [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGoC8FTLKSI&feature=related[/youtube]