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A CMC-based Study of Conflict Managements: A Cross-cultural Study of English and Persian Social Network Users

كارشناسي ارشد

آموزش زبان انگليسي

دانشگاه پيام نور مركز نجف آباد

1397

97/12/10

مريم فرنيا

مسعود سعيدي

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) , Conflict Management , Discourse Analysis , Online Polylogues

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) represents a dynamic field in fostering online relationship, while reducing the harmful aspects of online conflicts in massive polylogues as well. This cross-cultural study aims at examining how conflicts in online polylogues are managed. To this end, 20 LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) related English and Persian Instagram posts were selected from July to October 2018. From the 20 posts, about 2071 Persian comments and 1323 English comments, which were related to LGBT topics, were selected. The data were analyzed in light of Dobs and Blitvich’s (2014) model of unfolding and managing conflict in massive on-line polylogues. The findings revealed that in responding to a face/identity threat, the offensively/ defensively strategy was the predominant strategy in both corpora. Moreover, using Do not Oppose and Do not Respond strategies were more frequent in Persian corpus, though the strategy Compromise was used more in English corpus. The Stand-Off strategy was absent in two corpora, which shows the unwillingness of Persian and English social network users to switch to another activity when encountering conflicts. This cross-cultural study will be beneficial for EFL learners who are willing to know how to deal with online conflicts among cultures and getting acquainted with other cultures. Furthermore, it can be effective in discourse and translation areas in order to help translators and teachers to deal better with cultural differences, since they must be familiar with differences among cultures in order to transmit the concepts better.

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