"Making the world more open and connected": Mark Zuckerberg and the discursive construction of Facebook and its users. (January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hoffmann, Anna Lauren; Proferes, Nicholas; Zimmer, Michael
• Is Part Of: New media & society. Volume 20:Number 1(2018)
• Page Start: 199
• Page End: 218
• Publication Date: 2018-01
• Subjects: Discourse -- Facebook -- identity -- Mark Zuckerberg -- social networking -- users; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Internet -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/1461444816660784
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-4448

Abstract

The dominance of online social networking sites (SNSs) sparks questions and concerns regarding information privacy, online identity, and the complexities of social life online. Since messages created by a technology's purveyors can play an influential role in our understanding of a technology, we argue that gaining a complete understanding of the role of social media in contemporary life must include qualitative exploration of how public figures discuss and frame these platforms. Accordingly, this article reports the results of a discourse analysis of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's public language, foregrounding the evolution of his discourse surrounding Facebook's self-definitions, the construction of user identity, and the relationship between Facebook and its users.