What is Participatory website

This chapter discusses a phenomenon frequently observed in online discussions: “hard-to-discuss” topics. Using Bakhtin’s concepts of monologue and dialogue along with his idea of the subject as shaping variable in discourse, the author offers a close discourse analysis highlighting the intertextual dynamics involved in the discussions under scrutiny. The latter are taken from a well established German-American discussion board and center on Moore’s film Bowling for Columbine. Bringing a rhetorical perspective to the debate, which seeks a connection between actual discussions and ongoing debates on the (inter)cultural level, this chapter offers insights affecting both theory and practice of participatory online communication: Conceptually, it complicates the position of the participant in online contexts by showing the limits of the much-vaunted concept of interactivity. On a practical level, it informs the work of all those involved in the creation, administration and moderation of online discussion venues.