Commercialised dialogue and Web 2.0 interactivity : Characterising discourses in digital advertising environments
Kazeroun, Mohammad Hossein (2015) Commercialised dialogue and Web 2.0 interactivity : Characterising discourses in digital advertising environments. Doctoral thesis, Buckinghamshire New University.
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Abstract
This thesis aims to provide an original context for the emergent use of Web 2.0 technologies by brands and their communication agents (advertising, PR and marketing) as they engage consumers in (a branded form of) dialogue. This is achieved by exploring the content and style of brand-consumer communications in Web 2.0 platforms, by appraising advertising discourses in collaborative and interactive environment of Twitter. This study focuses in particular on the use of language and the role that other communicative modes play in Web 2.0-mediated interactions and the possible implications they might have on brand-consumer power relations. This thesis adopts a critical inter-disciplinary approach, and is designed to inform the emerging field of digital commercial communications. More specifically, by applying social and cultural theories of new media with the social Web, this study sets out to contribute to emerging literature and debates on the socio-economic implications of Web 2.0 communications in the context of advertising. Critical theories of advertising and new media have been utilised to shape a framework for analysing communications in collaborative and often interactive digital advertising settings. This, and a body of primary research through first-hand interviews, plus analysis of exemplar of Web 2.0-mediated brand-consumer communications, enables me to consider more broadly the ways in which capitalism has been repositioned within the new digital environment. To achieve this, this study has appropriated two research methods in it’s handling of primary evidence. The first part of analysis appraises eight semi-structured interviews I conducted with digital strategy makers and ‘brand ambassadors’ working within the contemporary international advertising industry, acting on behalf of multinational brands. The second part analyses the content of brand-consumer communications within Web 2.0 platforms, notably Twitter, through four different sectors spanning service, product and cause sectors. Cases are of Starbucks Coffee (fast moving consumer goods), Dell Computers (IT sector), Burberry (luxury fashion) and Yes Scotland (a political cause). The overarching aim is to assess product or service-driven digital advertising strategies that have most effectively exploited (or best lend themselves to) social Web platforms to leverage their ideology and generate social supports. The results of my analysis suggest that although Web 2.0-mediated communications between brands and consumers exhibit some characteristics of participatory culture, the actual nature of the conversational qualities and the types of interaction spans a much wider spectrum. Some discourses are in fact monologue, while others contain consumer-generated responsive dialogue and more proportionate mutual discourse. The latter ultimately contributes in co-creating and shaping discourses that reinforce and stabilise existing hierarchical relations between producers and consumers
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
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| Divisions: | ?? BucksNewUniversity ?? |
| Depositing User: | ULCC Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Oct 2015 10:58 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Dec 2017 19:17 |
| URI: | https://bnu.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/9375 |
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