A interface como prática discursiva em redes sociotécnicas: um estudo no YouTube

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate the constitution of semantic web interfaces (SCOLARI, 2004; JOHNSON, [1997] 2001; SAAD CORREA; BERTOCCHI, 2012, BERNERS-LEE et al, 2001) as a discoursive practice formed by chains or groups of enunciates, to which correspond a subject position, a kind of social transit and limits on other communication units. The research takes place at YouTube, one of the most popular websites in the whole world, with about 1 billion users (YOUTUBE, 2015). To meet the goals of this research, we conduct a theoretical debate followed by an empirical exploration, intended to confirm our main hypothesis: interface is a discoursive practice made by trails which make possible to notice the presence of human and nonhuman actors (LATOUR, 2012) engaged in associative moves. Those moves might be related to socialization, conversation and self-presentation activities which composes a network. The theoretical discussion comprises the notions of discoursive practice (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001; FOUCAULT, [1971] 2008, [1969] 2010; BAKHTIN, [1979] 2006), actor, agency and network (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001; FOUCAULT, [1971] 2008, [1969] 2010; BAKHTIN, [1979] 2006). The methodological design aims to make researches in semantic web feasible, taking into consideration that the most part of relevant data comes from monitored practices, as those performed after login ou registered access to a platform or application. Due to that, we collected data from a personal account used by the research author on YouTube. Collected data comes from the author activity on his account in October 2015. In this period, 86 video pages were visited, the most part containing Sport and Music videos. Ten videos were selected in order to do a more accurate analysis of aspects concerned to discoursive practices such as production, circulation and consumption, identification of human and nonhuman actors and their activity. The results allow to infer that interface is not a neutral entity. Interface presents itself as an agent delegate capable of organize the user experience, granting permission to that user to produce some kinds of discourses. That delegation power is partially automatized and based on monitoring practices, vigilance and data collection. Such processes translate themselves in enunciates from which the platform circumscribes the possibilities of access to contents of a webpage and also the opportunities to interaction between actors. Interface is composed by enunciates which establish relations between themselves. We identified four types of relations: interidiscoursive relations founded on human agency; interdiscoursive relations founded on nonhuman agency, interlocutive relations and metadiscoursive relations. The peculiarities of discoursive practices production, circulation and consumption, in semantic web, claim adequate theoretical and methodological support, especially to account for the evidences of a symmetry between humans and nonhumans, expressed in our research locus.