ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on issues related to the discourse contexts in which users find themselves online. When communicating via digital media, users may find themselves speaking to a wide and varied audience, with little control over who sees what, and when they may see it. Discourse contexts that would be separate offline, can collapse into one, and interlocutors must navigate these collapsed contexts if they are to communicate successfully. Furthermore, in online contexts, the audience for a message is often unknown and must be imagined. Users must tailor their messages for this imagined audience, and some of the pragmatic consequences of this are discussed in this chapter. Similarly, communication online may be affected by the fact that users can hide, obscure, or carefully stage-manage their identities online. Anonymity and the effects that this can have on communicative behaviours are discussed. The final section of the chapter provides an overview of some of the strategies that users employ to navigate and negotiate these complex digital contexts, and to control their privacy online.
