Patricia Bou Franch

44234_ DISCOURSE IN THE MEDIA

2. Social media discourses, genres and identities I – Week 2

 Service encounters on Facebook

STRATEGIES OF SOLIDARITY AND DEFERENCE IN COMMUNICATION

Activity 1 – Analyse the text of the status updates in the box below.
 Can you find any specific language patterns in the ten SUs?
Imperative, WORD PLAY, EXAGERATIONS, HYPEERBOLE,
 Underline instances of creativity and language play. What is their purpose?
SPOOK-TACULAR, BOO-DACIOUS, CAKE -O -LANTERN, YUMMY MUMMIES, HALLOWIN
GET ATTENTION, CHANGE TONE NOT BE BORING
 For each SU, decide if it is
o (i) directly selling a service/product [DS];
o (ii) indirectly selling a service/product [ID]; or
o (iii) not selling anything [NS]. In cases of NS, what is the SU doing?
 In what ways is the company targeting specific consumer segments from among its
networked audience? Audience design – In your opinion, who will be interested in
each post?
SU1. People interested in cooking
SU2. Families with children
SU3.
SU4. Fans of Carrie Underwood, people interested in music
SU5. Apple devices buyers
SU6: mothers that follow recipes online

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SU7. People against bulling and supports the cause

SU8: People interested in taking part in Halloween festival
SU9: people interested in cooking

 Identify DISCOURSE PATTERNS OF POLITENESS

TARGET – STATUS UPDATES

SU1. Start fright night off right with this spook-tacular Halloween beef stew with boo-dacious
mashed potato ghosts. Your guests will be howling for more! Get the recipe:
http://tgt.biz/u8ev
DIRECT SELLING
SU2. Halloween only comes once a year. Are you ready? Let trick-or-treating families know
about the sweetest Halloween houses in your neighborhood with Treatster.
INDIRECT SELLING

SU3. Step right up to The Candy Carnival—one of four 360° experiences inside the House on
Hallow Hill. Don’t forget to look for the raven! Come on in: http://tgt.biz/enterthehouse
NOT SELLING
SU4. More music from Carrie Underwood? Yes please! Check out her first ever performance of
the Target exclusive song “Little Girl Don’t Grow Up Too Fast” from the new album Storyteller
available 10/23. http://tgt.biz/zera
NOT SELLING
SU5. Apple Watch has arrived and we feel the excitement! Get yours now in stores or online.
Thump, thump. http://tgt.biz/4th7
DIRECT
SU6 Great Scott! Say hello our all-new 1.21 jigowatt light bulb. Happy30th, #BackToTheFuture!
tgt.biz/82sm
SELLING
SU7. Give your tummy what it really wants — Yummy Mummies! Get the recipe, then make
a#TargetRun for everything you need: http://tgt.biz/5nl2 SU7
INDIRECT
SU8.Take pride in what you stand for and who you'll stand by. Join us as we go purple in a
stance against bullying and celebrate who we were born to be on Spirit Day and all year long
NOT SELLING
SU9. From spooky decorations to pet costumes, here's where to find all things
Halloweenie: http://tgt.biz/d8my
SELLING
SU10. Pumpkin pie might get all the headlines, but this cake-o-lantern is as delicious as it is
adorable. http://tgt.biz/8qer
NOT SELLING

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STRATEGIES OF CONFLICT COMMUNICATION

PRACTICE: What impoliteness strategies can you identify in the following examples, adapted
from Bou-Franch & Garcés-Conejos Blitvich (2014)?

61. The guy who talks at 1:55 m is just retarded. He’s talking about weird stuff.

229. all gays and lesbians can go to hell

ACTIVITY 2.

Analyse the comments and replies to SU5, below.

 Read the posts and decide whether
o (i) they go along with the SU, i.e. are favourable to the company [PRO];
o (ii) they do not go along with the SU, i.e. are unfavourable to company [CON];
o (iii) or whether this aspect of the comment is unclear [UN]
 What resources are used in [PRO] company comments? Use the list of POLITENESS
STRATEGIES to analyze the mainly supportive sequence of comment 2 and replies 3-21.
 What resources are used in [CON] company comments? (Impoliteness patterns) Use the
list of IMPOLITENESS/patterns of CONFLICT to analyse the mainly conflictual sequence of
comment 22 and replies 23-39, which were also posted in response to the status update
promoting the Apple Watch
 Can you identify a beginning, middle and end in the second mainly conflictual sequence of
comments and replies?

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5.1.Target: Apple Watch has arrived and we feel the excitement! Get yours now in stores or
online. Thump, thump. http://tgt.biz/4th7 (1,8 million views, 289 comments, 4572 likes, 402 shared)

(March 2016, this publication had 289 comments)

2 SH I love my Apple Watch! ⌚💕

3Audrey B  So you? I'm getting one.
4Jennifer K L  Me too!

5Chasity J I  my  ⌚ too

6Justin S  I love mine as well

5.7Jane R  Me too!

5.8Joe A C My apple watch has everything, it even tells the date, WOW!

5.9Shema H Lmaooo ! Imposter watch !

5.10Carina D B-K Me too

5.11 Shema H

5.12 Charles R. S Bought mine at the Apple Store....

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5.13 Shema H Yea I ordered mine online when it first came out. Lol.
5.14 Carl C Love my Apple Watch!!!!

5.15 Deneen M K Omg love mine too   purchased mine at the apple store and the serpentine
band 

5.16 Kayla M Any dislikes about the watch?

5.17 Shema H Only thing I can say is I wish the volume was tad loud for phone calls.... That's
all.

5.18 Uche M N Pls how much does it cost?

5.19 Target Hi Uche - Thanks for asking! Prices vary based on the type of watch you choose.
Check out pricing details here:http://www.target.com/.../apple-watch-ways.../-/N-4xw73...|
HEROCONTAINER|T:ShopByBrand. Happy shopping! - Pierrette

Apple Watch, ways to shop electronics, electronics : Target

5.20 Joe A C Isnt there a headphone jack for the watch if their isn't apple needs to step up there
game in the design department

5.21 Charles R. S Joe... It has Bluetooth and can connect to a Bluetooth headset. Also it works
as a speakerphone. If you were to wear a headset you would likely get it caught on everything

considering you are essentially connecting a wire from your ear to wrist

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5.22 Carime B I want to see more from target about replacing Leia on the Star Wars shirt....what did
putting Luke there do? 

http://www.themarysue.com/star-wars-shirt-replaces-leia.../

Target’s Star Wars Boys’ T-Shirt Replaces Leia With Luke For No Reason
THEMARYSUE.COM

5.23
Target Hi Carime - We've been listening & sharing your feedback and this shirt is being removed
from our merchandise.The feedback was shared with the buyer and manufacturer. Thanks for
posting! - Alan

5.24 Michael S R "Muh empowerment" - The Typical MarySue Consumer. I was also expecting
links to The Vox and Kotaku.

I thought the shirt was pretty funny. Who cares if the scene was altered. Do we burn down
Target for selling the digitally remastered versions of the Original 3? 

You internet keyboard warriors will find anything to be offended by.

5.25 Mel M Seriously? This shirt is funny! They could have used a different scene or made one
entirely, but who cares?

5.26 Julie A I guess I don't get the joke because I don't understand why the shirt was pulled or
even changed.

5.27 Angus V M Hey Target, you need to man up and stop giving in to the PC police! I'm so sick
of all this nit picking!!!!

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5.28 Edward R Target is the bowing to the easily offended era.

5.29 Cat T Stupid. I am a chick. I love Leia. Asking for this hilarious shirt to be removed is
incredibly stupid.

5.30 Jack M If you are gonna buy Star Wars stuff? I suggestToys''R''Us first. Same item
lightsaber, Kohl's and Target run pretty much the same pricewise, around $30. You know, the
kids bladebuilder electronic ones? Toys R Us has em for $15.99!!!!!

5.31 Kaozz V If you're going to buy anything, not just Stars Wars merchandise, don't shop at
Target until they stop giving in to retarded 3rd wave feminist crap.

5.32Cat T I want to buy one before they are removed or did they already go the way of the
dodo?

5.33 John E Hey what is it with that Jose guy at the Tyler Tx store? 
He seems to enact a well practiced and honed agenda to destroy the bottom line in Tyler. I know
he runs good talent off and does shoddy lazy work (nasty back stabbing false witnessing
"corporate survivor" activities/lowest common denominator actions). 
What is Corporate so scared about concerning Jose in the Tyler store? Is Jose so ethnic or so
alternative in lifestyle that he will be allowed to undermine the Management while feeling free
enough to leave moldy product on the shelves with impunity? A whole day spent with only one
end cap completed while non stop flirting with customers and coworkers continues unabated?
Seriously. what is Corporate so scared of?

Be Advised Corporate: Your being played. And it is costing you good people, by the dozens. If
you want the pics of mold I took today while shopping your welcome to them. Someone has to
say something. This guy is just bad news.

5.34 Jasen G Oh my god who cares?

5.35 Rachel E While I have nothing personal against the shirt, I do find the totally edited scene
to be quite bizarre. Really the only thing that is accurate is Vader and the backdrop. Just, why??

5.36 Peggye WM Jason, Star Wars purists and most women, who pay attention to affronts, in
this day and age, CARE.

5.37 Tianne M Seeing the original scene and the scene on the shirt that the link shows, looks
like it was changed because someone could take it the wrong way. My opinion. So I think they
would have lost either way. If you don't like something, don't buy. If I don't like it, you aren't going
to hurt my feelings wearing it. If I see you wearing something I don't like, like a shirt that may say
something stupid, just makes me think you are. I do care. I change my situation. Just not
everyone else's. Not everyone has the same view, sense of humor, likes/dislikes. 
Welcome to Costco

5.38 Kyle M So they created something new, for a shirt, and that's 'bad' because whiners
decided is was 'bad'.

5.39 Lew B The shirt is not commemorating a scene, it's using composite images to create a
comic strip. Target, do not remove this shirt from your store. Ignore the complainers and listen to
the customers who actually buy your products. We matter and they do not. Unless you buy a
seat at the table, you don't get dinner. Don't like the products? Don't shop there.