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Part of
Storytelling in the Digital World
Edited by Anna De Fina and Sabina M. Perrino
[Benjamins Current Topics 104] 2019
► pp. 27–52

Online retellings and the viral transformation of a Twitter breakup story

The retelling and sharing of stories is not a new phenomenon. Many narrative analysts have devoted research to these processes. But the culture of participation (Jenkins 2006) in the digital world has brought sharing to a completely new level by allowing users not only to broadcast their opinions and evaluations of a story but also to reappropriate it and recontextualize it in infinite recursions. We focus on such process of transformation of a narrative in different media and social media outlets through the analysis of the viral spread of a story posted by an individual Twitter user in 2015. Specifically, we illustrate how participation frameworks change from one retelling to another and how the original story becomes "nested" into a new meta-story centered on the twitter user as a character and on the viral spread of the story.

Keywords: digital media, stories, narrative, Twitter, social media, storytelling, audience, retelling, viral, participation
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical-methodological framework
  • Retellings and resemiotization
  • Data and sources
  • Analysis
    • Thematic focus
    • Use of semiotic resources
    • Participation frameworks
    • Authorial roles
    • Audience participation
  • Analysis of comments
  • Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.104.03def
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