Keyword – affordance

Egres, Dorottya:

Argumentative affordances

Social media platforms have become important sites for public debate. Since opinion expression in the digital public sphere is often argumentative in nature, i.e. it involves the justification and contestation of standpoints, the technical characteristics of platforms shape, in addition to the forms of communication, the structure of arguments, the dynamics of argumentative interaction and the visibility of contributions. To address this issue, this paper introduces the concept of argumentative affordances and develops a four-dimensional typology encompassing the affordances of argument construction, connection, salience and participation. Further, it shows how these affordances operate at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels and how, when configured together, they jointly shape the opportunities and constraints of online argumentation. The proposed conceptual and analytical framework seeks to strengthen the dialogue between argumentation theory and research on digital media and platforms.

Keywords: affordance, argumentation, online debates, platform studies, social media