Cross-cultural aspects of pragmatics: Instagram and the official promotion of destinations
Social media serve as a prominent social marketing tool for companies engaged in online product advertising and aiming for swift and effective customer engagement. They are characterized by high interactivity, leveraging visual, textual, and linguistic elements strategically to attract and involve potential customers, fostering feedback and bolstering the company’s market visibility and knowledge (see Manca 2016, Bianchi 2017a, 2017b, Manca 2021, Bianchi and Manca 2023).
This study delves into the language employed for advertising countries and destinations through Instagram posts. The analysis centres on the official Instagram page of the Italian National Agency for Tourism (ENIT), italia.it, comparing it with English posts from the official Instagram pages of Great Britain’s tourist board, Love GREAT Britain, the USA’s Visit the USA, and the Australian australia.com. The focus lies on scrutinizing interactive and interactional strategies (Hyland 2005) used by these entities to promote their respective countries.
Beyond outlining the prominent metadiscursive features found on Instagram pages, this study aims to investigate whether interaction forms and writer positioning are impacted by cultural factors. Consequently, it seeks to establish that these variations are attributed to the producer rather than being dependent on the selected medium.
References
Bianchi, F. (2017a). The social tricks of advertising. Discourse strategies of English-speaking tour operators on Facebook. Iperstoria, 10, 3-32.
Bianchi, F. (2017b). Strategie discorsive del mercato turistico del lusso in Facebook. Lingue e Linguaggi, 20, 239-271.
Bianchi F. and Manca E. (2023). Wine promotion on Facebook. A linguistic comparison of posts by producers from English-speaking countries. In Bondi M. and Cacchiani S. (eds), Positioning, point of view and ideology in the digital transformation, Lingue e Linguaggi, Special Issue, 247-269.
Manca, E. (2016). Official Tourist Websites and the Cultural Communication Grammar model: analysing language, visuals, and cultural features, Cultus 9 (1), 2-22.
Manca E. (2021). Australian and US wineries on Facebook: Analyzing interactive and interactional resources. In D’Angelo L. and Consonni S. (eds.) New Explorations in Digital Metadiscourse, CERLIS Series, 10, 115-142.