Abstract: |
The primary goal is to explore principle ways of analyzing and
characterizing the various forms of communicative user
interaction using Foucault’s discourse theory. First, the
communicative situation of Wikipedia is addressed and a list of
possible forms of communication is compiled. Second, the current
research on the linguistic features of Wikis, especially Wikipedia,
is reviewed. Third, some key issues of Foucault’s theory are
explored: the notion of ‘discourse’, the discursive formation, and
the methods of archaeology and genealogy, respectively. Finally,
first steps towards a qualitative discourse analysis of the English
Wikipedia are elaborated. The paper argues, that Wikipedia can
be understood as a discursive formation that regulates and
structures the production of statements. Most of the discursive
regularities named by Foucault are established in the collaborative
writing processes of Wikipedia, too. Moreover, the editing
processes can be described in Foucault’s terms as discursive
knowledge production. |