ABSTRACT
How do we decide on the best technology or device for a given task or conversational goal? What are the contexts and conditions under which certain technologies and technology use flourish? This chapter addresses these questions by considering the changes taking place across the technological landscape—with a particular focus on communication technologies—and discussing the ways in which they challenge our current understanding of discourse processes. It focuses on ideas of grounding and mutual knowledge, and on understanding how these play out in the multimodal, multi-device, and multi-audience environments that are part of our everyday communication. Successful communication—whether face-to-face or technologically mediated—relies upon jointly constructed meaning and a common ground of mutually acknowledged beliefs, goals, and perspectives. The chapter also focuses on identifying important trends in the technological sphere that affect discourse processes, centering on four important developments: the rise in multimodality and mobility, mode choice and mode switching, social and network-based affordances, and new audience forms.
