A series of student research projects “Online World and People: Society in the Times of the iMedia Revolution” within the framework of Sociolinguist’s Studio “Different But the Same” activities (led by a University Professor Svitlana Aleksenko as part of the Lingua-Hub initiative of the English Philology and Language Didactics Department) has taken place this November featuring a memorable and impressive for novices array of students’ queries (contributors – Groups 341.1, 342) into various facets of a “language-culture-society” interaction spanning from virtual communication and its part & parcel – video blogging through the British online newspaper interactive world through the English youth slang and its current realms of functioning to the symbolic relevance of the English song discourse as a mind-boggling epitome of the spirit and values of the English-speaking kin.
The meeting on the British online newspaper discourse showcased the students’ ability to analyze and interpret the skewed and judged media cyberspace miraculously navigating through, showing around and analyzing the intricacies of a newspaper webpage setting and stance.
The session elaborating on video blogging as a genre and modern definition of virtual communication allowed the contributors to trace an bewildering diversity of this current trend of online self-representation while perusing the whole gamut of its subgenres: lifestyle, video games and let’s plays, fitness, travel, cinema and political blogging. The presenters shone the spotlight on the nuances of the influencer culture, digital marketing, powerful narrative component and authentic personality as the key ingredients of the bubbling stew of subgenres of videoblogging.
Mini-research projects presented at the sessions, one exploring the social innovative potential of youth slang, the other – the symbolic significance and the system of values imbuing the English song discourse, unveiled the budding researchers’ interest in the elements beyond the language system itself.
Such student research projects contribute to a better students’ grasp and interactive handling of the pervasive yet evasive issues of multi-faceted sociocultural and sociolinguistic nuances’ concoction within a fabric of society.