台灣年輕人在鍵盤參政中的身分認同建構－以批踢踢上的政治言談為例

Abstract

近年來，社群網絡的蓬勃發展帶動了台灣年輕人在網路上參與政治的風氣(例如:討論政經社會相關時事)，並激發出他們日漸高漲的公民意識以及台灣認同。他們的聲音已在台灣社會中成為不容小覷的影響力，然而鮮少有文獻探討台灣年輕人在社群網絡上的政治言談內容並細究這些言談如何形成他們對抗當權的力量並進而對社會造成影響。另外，雖然年輕世代在世界各地的網路政治參與之趨勢與影響力已受到愈來愈多的研究關注，我們對於現代年輕人如何在網路上的政治言談中巧妙運用文字去建構他們在社會上不可忽視的影響力仍缺乏足夠的認識。因此，本研究旨在探討台灣年輕人在網路政治言談中討論台灣政治地位時建立身分認同及影響力所使用的語言策略，以期進一步了解他們如何在網路上發聲對抗及挑戰當權並建構自身在社會中的影響力。本研究另一目的則是希望藉由這樣的分析以及觀察他們所使用的語言來深入了解台灣年輕人在其網路政治言談中所建構出的身分認同。此研究的資料主要來自下載於台灣著名的批踢踢八卦板的政治言談文字檔。本研究收集台灣2016總統大選前為期一週的政治討論相關文章，共計收集了276篇文章(posts)及其討論串(comments)。為了能更加熟悉與了解八卦板上的互動模式與語言使用,筆者亦以參與觀察者(participant observer)的身分於研究期間對八卦板做每日定期的長期觀察。為適切詮釋和分析這些台灣年輕人的網路政治言談，此研究在批判論述分析法(Critical Discourse Analysis)的分析架構下使用定位理論(Positioning theory)來研究分析收得的語料。此研究結果指出今日台灣年輕人的政治及國家認同建構與台灣和中國近十年來逐步形成的糾纏關係密不可分。藉由多種語言策略及機制(例如:指名策略、論證策略、框架策略、先設、貼標籤、譬喻或暗示等等)，台灣年輕人建構出正向的自我呈現將自身定位成較理性、有良好教養、見多識廣及勇敢守護台灣主權的年輕世代台灣人。而親中的國民黨及其支持者則被定位成自私的、較不理性的、被洗腦且不斷將台灣主權推往中國的老一輩台灣人。另外，經由更進一步將「台灣人」的類別切分為「真心愛護台灣」及「任由自己受中國影響」兩類，此研究結果亦顯示台灣年輕人在建構國家認同的過程中對台灣意識的定義重新另作詮釋。在語言使用方面，本研究結果亦發現在表達台灣意識時，台灣年輕人在中文以外亦使用多種語言，包含最常被使用到的台語，以及英文、日文外來語及注音符號。在區分台灣與中國時，台灣年輕人亦刻意在指稱中國的字詞中使用簡體字(即「中国」)來表達他們的台灣意識是與中國切割的台灣主權意識。本研究結果應可增進我們對於現代年輕人如何在網路政治參與中建構自身身分認同以及影響力的認識。在年輕人於世界各地政治運動及選舉活動中逐漸扮演起重要角色的今日，尤其是當網路成為今日年輕人在政治動員上的主要平台的同時，本研究結果亦指出如果希望對今日年輕人在國家、區域甚至全球政治上的立場及聲音有更進一步的認識，我們應該嘗試深入了解及研究他們在網路上的政治言談內容。

Recent years have seen the increasing civic awareness and awakening of Taiwanese identity among the Taiwanese youth as the introduction of social media encourages their political participation and thus increases their social impact, yet studies on their identity construction through online political discourse can scarcely be found. Moreover, while there have been increasing attention paid to the recent worldwide phenomenon of youth’s online political engagement, relatively less has taken a discourse analytic approach to examine the ways the youth use language to construct identity and power in voicing their political views. This study explores how Taiwanese youths discursively construct power and identities concerning Taiwan’s political status in online political discourse. By examining their identity construction mediated through their political discussion, this study aims to understand how they counter and challenge the power of the authorities through their online political participation, as well as what languages they use to construct identities in the multilingual Taiwanese society. Data were collected from the text-based downloads of political discussion on the PTT Gossiping board, the most influential and popular online forum among the youth in Taiwan. The data were 276 posts with the accompanying comments posted within a week prior to the 2016 presidential election in Taiwan, when topics concerning the election and politics were heatedly discussed on this board. My ten-year experiences as a regular user of the research site also provided me a better understanding of and familiarity with the culture of this board and the youth’s interactions on this online forum. This familiarity as an insider also facilitated my interpretation and contextualization of their online exchanges. This study drew on the positioning theory within the broader framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how the youth constructed their political discourse on PTT with reference to the presentation of us versus them as the means of countering power and dominance. The results of this study indicates that Taiwanese youth’s political and national identities today are closely tied to the interrelated generational and national identities in the context of Taiwan’s evolving entangled relationship with China. Through the discursive strategies of nomination, predication, argumentation, framing, and generalization and an assortment of linguistic devices such as labeling, presuppositions, and implicatures, the youth constructed a positive us-presentation by positioning themselves as the more rational, educated, informed, and brave citizens guarding the sovereignty of Taiwan. In contrast, the pro-China KMT and its supporters were positioned as the selfish, irrational, and brainwashed older generations who push Taiwan to China. In their sub-division of Taiwanese through membership categorization device into those with a “true Taiwanese heart” and those who allowed themselves to be influenced by China, the youth had redefined Taiwanese identities through the process of this national identity construction. The results also revealed that Taiwanese youths employed various languages such as Hoklo, English, Japanese loan words, or even Zhuyin symbols when expressing their Taiwanese identity. They also used simplified script for the words “China” to further distance themselves from China when constructing their national identities. These findings should contribute to a better understanding of how the youth today constructed identities and power while participating in online political engagement. The findings of this study suggest that detailed analysis of their online political discourse is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of today’s youth’s voices and stances regarding national, regional, and global politics.