Discourse and ideology

This chapter focuses on the manifestation of ideology in social media interaction, both in explicit contestation and in implicit frameworks. Following a discussion of the key concepts of ideology and discourse, several exemplary studies are presented that show how ideology can be investigated in different ways and on different scales, from looking at blogs and forums, where ideologies are the explicit topics of research, to trolling on Twitter, where ideology is enacted in the way users respond to specific users and topics. Finally, we discuss key methodological issues and controversies in the study of ideology in social media.