Thematic Issue 39/1: Digital Discourse – Contemporary Challenges and Problems

2025-06-27

In recent decades, the expansion of digital ecosystems - especially with the advent of Web 2.0, social networks, and digital communication platforms - has posed new challenges to the field of language studies, demanding approaches that integrate the technological dimension intrinsic to linguistic productions. This context constitutes a scenario of technodiscursivity, a concept that emphasizes the hybrid nature of digital discourse as the result of the interplay between language and technology. Thus, the analysis of digital discourse, according to Marie-Anne Paveau (2021), takes into account the co-presence of linguistic and technical material, recognizing that elements such as hyperlinks, URLs, hashtags, and other technoparticles form a new discursive ecology that transcends traditional linguistic categories.

In this context, the role of hypertextuality and non-linearization stands out (Paveau, 2021), as structuring phenomena of native digital discourse that break away from traditional textual linearity. Hypertextuality, characterized by connectivity and the multiplicity of possible reading and writing paths, redefines the communicative act, transforming the reader into a writer-reader (écrilecteur) - an active subject and co-constructor of meaning in a dynamic process of simultaneous reading and writing. Non-linearization, in turn, manifests itself not only visually - through colors and underlining - but also syntagmatically, semiotically, and enunciatively, profoundly altering the traditional forms of discursive production and reception (Paveau, 2021).

In addition, within the scope of digital technologies, the emergence of discussions surrounding Large Language Model (LLM) artificial intelligence has fueled new areas of research. This is a moment marked by the proliferation of sophisticated computational systems, characteristic of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, Industry 4.0 (Mavrepisa et al., 2024), or the “Artificial Revolution” (Bartoletti, 2020). These automated systems have been used in the generation of various types of content, producing impressive results and articulating different political, ideological, and other discourses. Such circumstances bring to the forefront ethical, social, and communicational challenges, highlighting the need for critical analyses that take into account the impacts of discursive automation on misinformation and/or digital activism.

On the other hand, computer-mediated communication (Herring, 2004) and platform studies (D’Andrea, 2020; Burgess, 2021) - that is, the organization of discursive practices within environments governed by digital platforms - give rise to new forms of interaction and meaning circulation. In this context, content producers find themselves navigating the tension between coercion and agency - in terms of strategies and tactics (Manovich, 2009) - as they construct and negotiate meaning. Reflecting on these processes is essential to understanding the current dynamics of digital discourse, along with its challenges and possibilities.

In light of these aspects, this issue aims to gather research that problematizes the multiple dimensions of contemporary digital discourse, with a focus on the technolinguistic and discursive transformations emerging from digital technologies. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the goal is to bring together contributions from Textual Linguistics (TL), Digital Discourse Analysis (DDA), Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), Platform Studies, among others. This thematic issue invites authors to submit contributions that explore, among other topics, the following axes:

  • Technodiscursivity, drawing on categories from Digital Discourse Analysis (DDA) as phenomena for understanding writing-reading and native digital discourse.
  • Characteristics of computer-mediated communication and the challenges posed by digital platforms to the production and circulation of meaning.
  • Critical studies on digital platforms, including the role of algorithms and the policies of digital ecosystems in contemporary communicative practices.
  • The role of digital spaces in disinformation, argumentation, and multimodal phenomena across different discursive practices.
  • Digital technologies and argumentation, exploring different types of production and multisemiotic configurations.
  • Implications of artificial intelligences in content generation, such as misinformation texts or various modalities of argumentative discourse.

In general terms, this issue presents itself as an open space for researchers in language studies who investigate the textual and discursive transformations brought about by the convergence between language and digital technologies. We hope that the contributions gathered here will expand the theoretical and empirical debate on contemporary issues in digital discourse and foster essential reflections on the socio-communicational challenges of our time.

 

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Linha D’Água welcomes submissions in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish. To access the submission guidelines, please click on https://www.revistas.usp.br/linhadagua/about/submissions

 

Linha D'Água is indexed in: Web of Science - Clarivate (ESCI), MLA, MIAR, Latindex, REDIB, Linguistic Bibliography, DOAJ, among others.

 

Submission deadline: October 31, 2025.

Expected Publication: April 2026.

 

Guest Editors:

Eduardo Glück 
eduardogluck@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5032-9582
Linguistics Research Centre of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (CLUNL, Portugal)
Universidade do Vale do Taquari (Univates, Brazil)

 

Evandro de Melo Catelão
evandrocatelao@utfpr.edu.br
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3006-5051
Department of Language and Communication / Graduate Program in Language Studies, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR, Brazil)

 

Gabriel Isola-Lanzoni
isola.lanzoni@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2066-1298
Universidade de São Paulo (USP, Brazil)
Language Sciences Research Group of Universidade do Porto (GICIL/CLUP/U.PORTO)

 

 

References:

BARTOLETTI, Ivana. An artificial revolution: on power, politics and AI. Londres: The Indigo Press, 2020.

BURGESS, J. Platform Studies. In: CUNNINGHAM, S.; CRAIG, D. (org.). Creator Culture. [S. l.]: New York University Press, 2021. p. 21–38. Disponível em: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.18574/nyu/9781479890118.003.0005/html. Acesso em: 4 jun. 2025.

D'ANDRÉA, Carlos. Pesquisando plataformas online: conceitos e métodos. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2020 

HERRING, S. C. Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis: An Approach to Researching Online Behavior. In: BARAB, S.; KLING, R.; GRAY, J. H. (org.). Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. 1. ed. [S. l.]: Cambridge University Press, 2004. p. 338–376. Disponível em:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/CBO9780511805080A027/type/book_part. Acesso em: 4 jun. 2025.

MANOVICH, L. The Practice of Everyday (Media) Life: From Mass Consumption to Mass Cultural Production?. Critical Inquiry, v. 35, n. 2, p. 319–331, 2009. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1086/596645.

MAVREPISA, Philip; MAKRIDIS, Georgios; FATOUROS, Georgios; KOUKOS, Vasileios; SEPARDANI, Maria Margarita; KYRIAZIS, Dimosthenis. XAI for All: Can Large Language Models Simplify Explainable AI? arXiv:2401.13110v1 [cs.AI], 23 jan. 2024. Disponível em: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.13110. Acesso em: 05/03/2025.

PAVEAU, Marie-Anne. Análise do discurso digital: dicionário das formas e das práticas. COSTA, José Luiz; BARONAS, Roberto Leiser (Org.). 1 ed. Campinas: Pontes, 2021.