Reciprocity and epistemicity on screen-based interactions

Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore the interplay between (im)politeness reciprocity and knowledge exchange (Ke) in screen-based interactions. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, the learners’ reactions to a discussion prompt in a Massive Open Online Course were analyzed. The results show the influence of the Principle of Epistemic Reciprocity in the negotiation of epistemic agency in a situation of epistemic dispute. Our findings also suggest that the production of new propositional content plays a major role in speech acts of knowledge exchange while contributing to guaranteeing some degree of social acceptance in virtual communities.