A Cross-Cultural Genre Analysis of Firm-Generated Advertisements on Twitter and Sina Weibo

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2022

A Cross-Cultural Genre Analysis of Firm-Generated Advertisements on Twitter and Sina Weibo

Xingsong Shi University of International Business and Economics ; Wenjing Wan Beijing Jiaotong University

Abstract

To investigate the generic features of firm-generated advertisements (FGAs) in cross-cultural contexts, this study analyzed 327 FGAs by Dell Technologies and the Lenovo Group on Twitter and Sina Weibo. Integrating affordances and multimodality into genre analysis, the study showed that the FGAs were characterized by (a) flexible move structure, (b) persuasive language, (c) visual illustration, and (d) hyperlinks, hashtagging (#), and mentioning (@) functions. The FGAs on Sina Weibo, compared with those on Twitter, tended to use more language play, emojis, and contextual product pictures and show more emphasis on the niche of products, incentives, and celebrity endorsement.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 2022-01-01
DOI: 10.1177/10506519211044186
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multimodality social media multilingual writers

Citation Context

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