From a cluster of interconnected HTML pages to online service platforms, websites are constantly changing in form and function. These transformations have led, on the one hand, to human and social sciences renewing or inventing analytical methodologies; and on the other hand, to a reconsideration of the practices of non-specialists and digital professionals.
The Web factory is equally included on the agenda of communication training, according to an alternative approach that is complementary to the one that has been implemented for computer scientists.
From these two perspectives and drawing upon several case studies, Analyzing Websites presents epistemological and methodological contributions from researchers in Information and Communication Sciences exploring websites as sociotechnical, semi-discursive and communicational devices. This study covers website design as well as their integration into the digital strategies of organizations in the public, associative and private sectors.
Table of Contents
Foreword xiii
Sébastien ROUQUETTE
Introduction xvii
Luc MASSOU, Patrick MPONDO-DICKA and Nathalie PINÈDE
Part 1 Websites as a Socio-technical Device 1
Chapter 1 Observing the Web through the Lens of Websites 3
Camille ALLOING
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 The website as a space and an architecture 5
1.3 The pioneer Web (before 2000) 7
1.4 The citation Web (from 2000 to 2005) 12
1.5 The Web known as Web 2.0 (from 2005 to 2010) 15
1.6 The social Web (from 2010 to 2015) 19
1.7 An affective and artificial Web (2015 to the present) 23
1.8 Conclusion 24
1.9 References 26
Chapter 2 Is the Web a Semiodiscursive Object? 29
Christine BARATS and Julia BONACCORSI
2.1 Introduction 29
2.2 How to do relevant data sets with Web data? The making of a complex object of research 31
2.2.1 Sociotechnical devices and the construction of the object 31
2.2.2 From the research question to the data sets: knowledge and documentation of the device 34
2.2.3 Notional tools for semiodiscursive approaches 38
2.3 Standing the test of time: surveys and methods 42
2.3.1 Tangled temporalities 42
2.3.2 Defining the right way to select and collect data sets 44
2.3.3 From the notion of corpus to the notion of digital corpus 46
2.4 Violence against data: issues of interpretation 49
2.4.1 Formatting of issues by research instrumentation 49
2.4.2 Limits and challenges of interpretation: taking the illusion of immediacy and standardization of meaning into account 51
2.5 Conclusion 52
2.6 References 53
Chapter 3 Expertise from Websites: Pedagogical Perspectives in Information and Communication 57
Luc MASSOU
3.1 Introduction 57
3.2 What is the role of website expertise in information and communication? 58
3.2.1 Example of a 3-year educational program 59
3.2.2 From analysis to website expertise 62
3.3 What are the benefits of semio-rhetorical, critical and socio-technical approaches for the learner? 65
3.3.1 An "external" expertise to put results into perspective 66
3.3.2 Several points in common with our scientific analyses 67
3.4 Conclusion 70
3.5 Appendices 72
3.6 References 76
Part 2 The Website as a Semiodiscursive Device 81
Chapter 4 Semiotics of Digital Design: From Ethos to Ethics 83
Nicole PIGNIER
4.1 Introduction 83
4.2 Semiotics of webdesign: from 2004 to 2021 85
4.2.1 A realistic or hyper-realistic form of multimodal writing 85
4.2.2 A mythical or symbolic multimodal writing 87
4.2.3 A readable and redundant multimodal writing 88
4.2.4 A reality-removing and subversive multimodal writing 90
4.2.5 The semiotic functions of Web interfaces 91
4.3 Beyond its ethos, the ethical aim of digital design 92
4.3.1 Divergences between ethos and ethics 93
4.3.2 Websites in a tense relationship with other players in digital design 94
4.4 Interrogating the semiotic interrelations between the strata of digital design 95
4.4.1 The notions of prefiguration, configuration and figuration 95
4.4.2 Semiotic interrelationships between the strata 97
4.4.3 Digital design: from ethos to ethics 98
4.5 Conclusion 101
4.6 References 103
Chapter 5 Social Semiotic Approach of Press Websites: Genesis of a Method 105
Alexandra SAEMMER and Nolwenn TRÉHONDART
5.1 Introduction 105
5.2 Epistemological and methodological issues 107
5.2.1 Genesis of a method 107
5.2.2 Foundational concepts 109
5.2.3 Semiotic tools introduced in the field 110
5.3 The first field: a critical decoding of interfaces 112
5.3.1 Experimental protocol 112
5.3.2 Spontaneous opinions and impressions from viewing BFM TV's website 113
5.3.3 Identification of editorial units and first interpretations 114
5.3.4 Debating and choosing hypotheses 117
5.4 Second field: toward a social semiotic approach of websites 118
5.5 Interpretative hypotheses and interpretative filters 120
5.5.1 "BFM, the information supermarket", from the lens of an anti-capitalist viewpoint and professional habits 120
5.5.2 The "sexist, right-wing BFM", through the prism of a feminist and intersectional perspective 122
5.5.3 "BFM as a counter-power", through the lens of a complicit or critical adherence to the state media 124
5.6 Conclusion 125
5.7 Appendices 127
5.8 References 128
Chapter 6 Analyzing the Mobilization Against the LPR on Twitter: Theoretical Issues and Methodological Challenges 131
Justine SIMON
6.1 Introduction 131
6.2 Multidimensional approach to digital social networks 134
6.2.1 Shedding light on the notion of hypertextualized discourse 134
6.2.2 Shared images and participatory culture 134
6.2.3 Interdiscursivity, narrativity and argumentativity 138
6.3 Ethical questions and methodological challenges 140
6.3.1 Ethical concerns 140
6.3.2 Methodological challenges 143
6.4 Presentation of the six sub-corpora 147
6.4.1 Sub-corpus 1: the narrating Twitter user 148
6.4.2 Sub-corpus 2: the narrator-character Twitter user 149
6.4.3 Sub-corpus 3: calls to action 152
6.4.4 Sub-corpus 4: sharing visual gags and interactive mini-stories 152
6.4.5 Sub-corpus 5: sharing of inter-iconic images and double narratives 154
6.4.6 Sub-corpus 6: oppositions of discourse/counter-discourse 157
6.5 Outlook and analytical perspectives 158
6.6 Conclusion 159
6.7 References 161
Chapter 7 Metaphor and Analysis of Websites: Transformations of a Media Object 167
Pergia GKOUSKOU
7.1 Introduction 167
7.2 Uses of metaphors for analyzing websites and digital communications 168
7.2.1 The "website" object: between documents, media and devices 168
7.2.2 The place of metaphor in the analysis of the "website" object 172
7.2.3 Metaphor and intermediality 173
7.2.4 Metaphors, remediatization and strategies of digital communications 175
7.3 Websites that visualize open data: making sense using the metaphor as inquiry 178
7.3.1 Hypermedia maps in data visualization 179
7.3.2 The metaphor of the mosaic in data visualization 182
7.3.3 Metaphor as a framework for action: involvement of the Internet user and a sense of transparency 183
7.4 Conclusion 186
7.5 References 187
Part 3 The Website as a Communication Device 191
Chapter 8 Thematic Analysis of Hyperlinks: A Taxonomic Approach 193
Nathalie PINÈDE
8.1 Introduction 193
8.2 Analytical framework for an info-communicational reading of websites 194
8.3 The interest of a taxonomic reading grid for websites 199
8.4 Presentation of the methodological approach 202
8.4.1 Corpus of university websites 203
8.4.2 A semiodiscursive and taxonomic analysis of web pages 204
8.5 Primary results 206
8.5.1 Analysis of the main menus of the home pages 206
8.5.2 Generic approach to the HLU corpus 210
8.5.3 Informational profiles from the taxonomy of the HLUs 213
8.5.4 A closer look at a class: "User profiles" 219
8.6 Conclusion 221
8.7 Appendices 223
8.8 References 227
Chapter 9 The Documediality of Cross-border Organizations 231
Marie-Hélène HERMAND
9.1 Introduction 231
9.2 Theoretical and methodological anchoring in semiotics applied to the media 233
9.3 First step: create a reading of three cross-border organizational models through the lens of documentality 235
9.3.1 Within the European Union (EU): the documentality of the Euroregions-fluids 235
9.3.2 On the borders of the EU: the documentality of the Euroregion buffers 237
9.3.3 In Southern Africa: the documentality of ecoregions 238
9.4 Step two: build a corpus of websites from the three cross-border organizational models considered 239
9.4.1 The website of the Tyrol Alto Adige Trentino Euroregion 239
9.4.2 The website of the Danube-Cris-Mures-Tisa Euroregion 240
9.4.3 The website of Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area 243
9.5 Stage three: identify the memory processes to unravel the skein of cross-border narratives presented to audiences 244
9.5.1 Call for a shared memory: anchoring within a territory-symbol 244
9.5.2 Call for a shared history: anchoring within a legitimate quest 248
9.5.3 The call for a shared heritage: an anchoring in shared living 250
9.6 Step four: qualitatively comparing the results 255
9.7 Conclusion 259
9.8 References 261
Chapter 10 "Tell Us Your Data", Between Euphemization, Standardization, and Digital Poetics 265
Camille RONDOT
10.1 Introduction 265
10.2 Epistemological and methodological issues 268
10.2.1 Performance, notoriety and visibility: a disruptive discourse 268
10.2.2 Empowered skills: a discourse on the method as a foundational basis 272
10.2.3 From social data to consumer knowledge: information rhetoric 275
10.3 A poetics of the visible and the audible 276
10.3.1 Revealing the visible and making ordinary conversations speak 276
10.3.2 Revealing what is visible through surveillance: between euphemized discourse and the desire to create a panopticon 279
10.4 Conclusion 283
10.5 References 285
List of Authors 287
Index 289
