Conversation Analysis (CA) is used in investigating the openings and closings of the Malaysian vloggers. However, this study does not incorporate a full CA approach but adapts it because there the focus is on monologues. Such a situation entails that there no dialogic elements such as turn-taking or overlap in the monologues of the vloggers. CA fundamentally helps in examining the overall structure of the opening and closing sequences. It allows the researcher to discover and analyze recurring patterns in the monologues of the vloggers. For example, by scrutinizing the monologic turns and utterances of the vloggers, certain interactive patterns that are connected with the social expectations of the Malaysian society can be ascertained in the openings and closings.
Furthermore, CA enables the researcher to discover how vloggers shape their speech according to the context of vlogs. Essentially, it shows how their utterances are relatable to the need of appealing to the viewers in vlogging. Transcribing, one of the crucial elements of CA, is also used where the monologues of the vloggers are transcribed for analysis.
There are two stages of analysis in the present study. In the first stage, the opening and closing sequences of the Malaysian vloggers are transcribed. The working definition of the openings and closings is derived from the sequences outlined by Frobenius (2011) and Coronel-Molina (1998) and also from the cultural norms of a typical conversation among Malaysians based on the researcher’s own experience as a member of that particular culture.
In terms of openings, it is predicted that the vloggers may include some type of polite talk before proceeding with the actual topic of the vlog, since politeness is valued in Malaysia.
Such talk is essentially considered part of the opening sequence as well. Discourse markers like “okay” and “well” that appear right before the introduction of the topic mark the end of an opening and it is at this point that the transcription for the opening sequence would stop.
There are also other opening strategies such as cuts and small talk that signal a transition from the opening sequence to the main content of the vlog.
On the other hand, there are specific verbal cues in the English language that one employs to point out that he or she would like to end the conversation (Coronel-Molina, 1998, p. 53).
These verbal cues are also known as preclosings and they include words like “so” and
“okay”, as suggested as Schegloff and Sacks (1973). The researcher seeks out such cues and transcribes the closings from that point forward to the actual end of the monologues.
Once the sequences are transcribed, the opening and closing strategies are calculated in terms of frequency. The appearance of these strategies in each vlog is counted as one occurrence, regardless if a strategy occurs multiple times. For example, even if a vlogger uses multiple linguistic markers in his opening sequence, the researcher considers it as only one occurrence. This step is taken to ensure that the frequency of the opening and closing strategies matches the number of the vlogs used for the study (N=30). Nevertheless,
examples that contain multiple opening and closing strategies are shown and elaborated in the analysis. The different order or sequence combination in which these strategies occur is also revealed. The first stage determines to what extent the data fits the theories of Frobenius (2011) and Coronel-Molina (1998).
In addition, the non-verbal behaviour of the vloggers, particularly their pauses, hand gestures and facial expressions, are scrutinized and rationalized. The examination of such elements sheds light on how the vloggers use them to manage the task of producing a monologue. It also portrays the ways in which they attempt to attract the interest of their viewers. Appropriate examples of the openings and closings are also given to facilitate explanations. The findings in this first stage answer the first and second research question.
Meanwhile, the second stage of the analysis looks at the ways in which the viewers perceive the importance of the opening and closing sequences in vlogs. Online interviews that consist of two questions are conducted to gather the data. In the first question, the viewers are required to respond to this notion based on a five-point Likert scale—“Opening sequences (e.g. hi, hello guys, hi everyone) and closing sequences (e.g. bye, thanks for watching) play an important role in vlogs.” Apart from stating the extent of their agreement or disagreement of the importance of openings and closings, they are also required to give justifications for their responses.
Content analysis is used to study the results that the online interviews bring forth. Hsieh and Shannon (2005, p. 1278) defined content analysis as “a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns.” This method is employed to find out
the extent of the viewers’ agreement or disagreement regarding the proposed notion as well as the justifications of their agreement or disagreement. Essentially, content analysis allows the researcher to extract the lexical items from the viewers’ justifications that reflect their agreement or disagreement of the proposed notion. The patterns that emerge from the inspection of the lexical items are then classified accordingly. The findings of the online interviews ultimately provide an answer to the third research question.