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12-14 September 2024, “Sergiu T. Chiriacescu” International Conference Centre

Between 12 and 14 September, the Faculty of Letters organises the Conference of the International Association for Dialogue Analysis (IADA, https://www.iada-web.org/), which focuses on the Dialogic Dimension of Dialogue.

The nature of dialogue has changed significantly in a digitally interconnected society. Therefore, the question What is dialogue? is more relevant than ever, and the sequence of action and reaction (Weigand 2010) has taken on new implications in the digital medium. We maintain dialogue as a central concept for this conference and aim to identify and discuss its new dimensions as they emerge in the digital medium.

The language of the internet has become complex, multimodal, worldwide and culturally connected, and has transcended verbal manifestations. The tools used in digital communication – social media platforms, messaging apps, video conferencing tools – may influence the way people communicate, promoting brevity in the form of quick reactions (likes). The digital offers the medium for multimodal encounters and users – digital natives and digital immigrants (Prensky 2001) – must adapt to the new reality. Emojis, GIFs, photographs, cartoons, movies, music, voices, and colours can all be used as actions and reactions, while text is not always the first option for users. Although the form of communication has changed, the process of meaning construction develops alongside similar modes as in face-to-face dialogue. Both transactional and social communicative purposes are present in the digital medium, but the complexity of social and professional interactions has increased tremendously. The task of decoding meanings and functions of digital messages proves to be more difficult due to “context dispersion”, i.e., the inability to control the communicative context in terms of the number of participants, relationships between interlocutors, or the type of envisaged response. Reactions may be posted on the same platform/page in response to the communicative action. Messages from one platform/page can be copied, paraphrased, quoted, and commented on in other platforms/pages. In such instances, one can talk about “inter-reactions”.

For further details, please access https://iada-brasov.unitbv.ro/