Across the Cyberwaves: Twitter Campaigns for Gaeilge

Abstract

Research increasingly shows how speakers and learners of minority languages exploit online spaces to forge communication networks and create and consume content in languages that are otherwise marginalized from central societal domains. While the connectivity afforded by internet technologies is imperative to computer-mediated communication, culturally authentic content and expressions of identity are central to meaning-making processes that may influence online participation (or not) in a particular language. We examine participation in two Twitter campaigns for the Irish language—both conceived to increase the visibility of Irish online but with drastically different outcomes. Using the Twitter interface to conduct a content analysis of tweets bearing the respective campaign hashtags, we reveal the discretionary approach to online engagement exhibited by minority-language users and explicate some of the social and communicative practices that contributed to the success of one campaign over the other, bolstered by a comprehensive campaign infrastructure and semantically enticing features.