The Japanese Society for Digital Communication Studies is a research group focusing on language and interaction in digital media.
We are pleased to announce a special online guest lecture to be held at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, 15 November 2025.
*EST: Eastern Standard Time (GMT-05:00)

Speaker: Susan C. Herring (Professor, Indiana University Bloomington)
Title: Recent Trends in Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis

We look forward to your participation, and would appreciate it if you share this announcement with colleagues or anyone who may be interested.

**** EVENT DETAILS ****

Date and time (EST / JST):
[EST] 8 p.m. Saturday, November 15, 2025
[JST] 10 a.m. Sunday, November 16, 2025

*EST: Eastern Standard Time (GMT-05:00)
*JST: Japan Standard Time (GMT+09:00)

Timetable (EST):
8:00 p.m. - 8:05 p.m. Opening address
8:05 p.m. - 8:20 p.m. Moderator's remarks and lecturer introduction
8:20 p.m. - 9:20 p.m. Lecture
9:20 p.m. - 9:35 p.m. Break time
9:35 p.m. - 10:10 p.m. Q&A session
*If there are many questions from the audience, the Q&A session may be extended until 10:30 p.m.

**** PURPOSE ****

Digital communication (DC) or computer-mediated communication (CMC) is an interdisciplinary field that examines online interaction both theoretically and empirically, aiming to reveal contemporary language practices. With the spread of digital media such as social networking services, messaging applications, and various streaming services, this field has been gaining popularity in recent years all over the world. However, language and cultural barriers continue to hinder scholars’ ability to access and build on each other’s work.

As such, we are pleased to welcome Professor Susan C. Herring (Indiana University Bloomington), a leading authority on computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA), who will give a lecture on state-of-the-art developments in DC research. She will present her major research contributions and discuss current trends in this field (e.g. emoji use, corpus analysis, and AI applications), drawing on insights from the past decade.

We will also welcome Professor Kazuko Miyake (Toyo University), a pioneer in this field in Japan. She will serve as the moderator and facilitate the discussion during the event. We hope this event will foster academic exchange between Japanese and Western research communities.

**** LECTURE INFORMATION ****

Speaker:
Professor Susan C. Herring (Indiana University Bloomington)

Title:
Recent Trends in Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis

Abstract:

Computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) is a subfield within the broader interdisciplinary study of computer-mediated communication (CMC), distinguished by its focus on language and language use. In 2015, I co-authored an overview of the field (Herring & Androutsopoulos, 2015), which updated an earlier synthesis (Herring, 2001). In this talk, I extend that update by identifying key trends and developments in CMDA over the past decade.

After briefly situating research on computer-mediated discourse (CMD) within its historical context, I introduce the CMDA methodological paradigm (Herring, 2004), which has been applied to a wide range of textual forms of CMD. I then highlight and discuss three major trends that have emerged in the past 10 years.
The first trend is the expansion of the CMDA paradigm to include multimodal CMD, exemplified by research on graphical elements such as emojis and stickers. The second is a growing convergence between manual, qualitative methods and automated, corpus-based approaches.

The third and most recent trend involves researchers’ responses to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI. This includes the analysis of AI-generated components in CMC—what some scholars refer to as AI-mediated communication (Hancock et al., 2020). Another emerging direction, which I am currently exploring, investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs) to conduct or support CMDA. Preliminary findings from this line of research will be presented.

In conclusion, I will offer predictions about the future of computer-mediated discourse and propose possible directions for the continued evolution of CMDA.

References:
Hancock, J. T., Naaman, M., & Levy, K. (2020). AI-mediated communication: Definition, research agenda, and ethical considerations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(1), 89-100.
Herring, S. C. (2001). Computer-mediated discourse. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 612-634). Blackwell Publishers.
Herring, S. C. (2004). Computer-mediated discourse analysis: An approach to researching online behavior. In S. A. Barab, R. Kling, & J. H. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 338-376). Cambridge University Press.
Herring, S. C., & Androutsopoulos, J. (2015). Computer-mediated discourse 2.0. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis, 2nd edition (pp. 127-151). John Wiley & Sons.

**** REGISTRATION AND FEE GUIDE ****

Attendance fee:
¥500 (JPY)
*¥500 (JPY): around $3 to $4 (USD)
*We welcome additional donations of ¥500 per unit to help cover the lecturer’s honorarium, support the streaming environment, and fund future lectures.

Registration URL:
Please apply using either the Japanese form or the English form, but NOT BOTH.
(a) English application form (with Event Details):
https://jsdcs-sgl2025-en.peatix.com/view
(b) Japanese application form (with Event Details):
https://jsdcs-sgl2025-ja.peatix.com/view

How to register:
(1) Please create a Peatix account.
https://peatix.com/signup
*You can create an account using your email address and a password, or sign up with your Google or Apple account if you have one.
*To change the language on Peatix from Japanese to English, click "日本語" at the bottom of the page and select "English" from the options.
(2) Open the event page ( https://jsdcs-sgl2025-en.peatix.com/view ) and click "Get Ticket", or go directly to the ticket purchase page ( https://peatix.com/sales/event/4545180/tickets ).
Ticket Options:
(a) Entry Ticket: ¥500
(b) Entry Ticket with Donation: ¥1,000
(c) Additional Donation: ¥500 per unit
(3) Select the number of tickets and choose your payment method.
*Payment can be made by credit card or PayPal.
(4) Fill out the form.
(5) Enter your payment information.

We recommend registering by the day before the event, although last-minute registrations are expected to be accepted.

**** ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ****

A poster can be downloaded here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aM_JyBvL13KFoZQYLgVQ2zcH8jGV_G2k/view?usp=drive_link

Contact details:
Email address: [email protected]
Official website (Japanese version only for now): https://sites.google.com/view/cmc-circle

This announcement was submitted by Yuka Yamazaki on behalf of the Japanese Society for Digital Communication Studies.

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
Pragmatics
Text/Corpus Linguistics