Continue playing: examining language change in discourse about binge-watching on Twitter
Date
2021
Authors
Peterman, Katharyn Alison Marjorie, author
Humphrey, Michael, advisor
Champ, Joseph, committee member
Hughes, Kit, committee member
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Abstract
Utilizing data from Twitter, this study characterized the change in the use of the term binge and its variants from 2009-2019. While there is a significant amount of literature looking at either language change or digital media, this research considered the two as inextricable forces on each other. To examine this and the proposed research questions, a textual analysis was conducted of tweets containing the word binge. Overall, the findings suggest that the December 2013 press release published by Netflix deeming binge-watching as the "new normal" in media consumption, may have pushed binge-watching into the mainstream lexicon. Language use about binge-watching was typically positively connotated in contrast to the negative connotations associated with binge-eating and binge-drinking. The connotative change appears to align with a widening of the definition of "watch" to account for the normality of binge-watching. As the use of binge-watching spread throughout the United States, the pattern of the geographic diffusion of binge-watching did not follow traditional theories of the diffusion of language change. The difference in spread may derive from the corporate origins of the term. Lastly, Twitter enabled and reinforced the spread of binge-watching through the facilitation of the social aspect of binge-watching. The findings of this study provide rich ground for future study.
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Subject
connotation
semantic change
Twitter
Netflix
binge-watching
textual analysis