Making sense of danmu: Coherence in massive anonymous chats on Bilibili.com
Although coherence has been widely studied in computer mediated communication (CMC) insufficient attention has been paid to emergent multimodal forms. This study analyzes a popular commentary system on Chinese and Japanese video sharing sites known as danmu or danmaku where anonymous comments are superimposed on and scroll across the video frame. Through content and multimodal discourse analysis, we unpack danmu mediated communication analyzing the newest interface (on Bilibili.com) the comments, the interpersonal interactions and the unusual use of the second person pronoun. Results show that despite the technological constraints (hidden authorship, unmarked sending date and lack of options to structure comments) users construct order in interactions through repetition, danmu specific expressions and multimodal references, while using playful language to make fun. This study provides an up to date analysis on an increasingly popular CMC medium beyond well studied social networking sites, and broadens the understanding of coherence in contemporary CMC.