Members of our group participated in the 2nd Metadiscourse Across Genres Conference (MAG2019) (27-29 June 2019, Bergamo, Italy).
Interactional metadiscourse in online popular science videos (María José Luzón Marco)
Abstract
Researchers are facing an increasing demand to make their work visible and accessible to the public and to make this public aware of the value and relevance of their research. Online popular science videos are useful tools to reach a wide audience and increase public interest in science. They offer researchers the opportunity to combine various semiotic resources to present science in ways that the general public can understand and engage with. In this study, I analyse how scientists interact with the public in 15 online videos produced by research groups at a Spanish University in collaboration with the Unit of Scientific Culture and Innovation (UCC+i) of such University. The videos are intended to make the work of the groups more visible and to promote scientific, technological and innovation culture in society. I draw on Hyland’s (2005) model of metadiscourse to explore how interactional metadiscourse is used in these videos to engage the interested public. However, this model of interactional metadiscourse is expanded to include not only text but also other semiotic devices which enable the producers to signal their attitude towards the content and establish a relation with the viewer. The research is intended to explore how various semiotic resources are combined by the researchers producing the video to express commitment to and attitude towards propositional information, to attract the viewers’ attention and include them as participants in the discourse or to indicate the presence of the researchers.