DIGITAL BUSINESS DISCOURSE
PART I: NEW TECHNOLOGIES: NEW MODES OF COMMUNICATION
Chapter 1
“Don't even get me started...”: Interactive metadiscourse in online consumer reviews
Online reviews enable consumers to access a lot of accounts with personal experiences referring to a
particular product, place, service and they may have a strong impact on consumer purchasing.
The statement “eWOM” which means Electronic-word-for-mouth refers to any positive or negative
statement made by a customer about a product/company which is available to a wide audience via internet.
Tripadvisor, for example, is one of the most popular website. Through the use of internet, online reviews can
be instantly reached by millions of customers.
Online reviews are a genre of computer mediated communication (CMC) and are also a form of social
media, but they differ from other social media because they are public and “information-focused”.
ADDRESSIVITY → Since the author of a review does not know his audience, with “addressivity” we refer
to the way writers take into account the possible responses and reactions of the audience about their texts.
The AIM of an author should be CONVERSATIONAL with his audience.
METHODS → The analysis made by Darrics, has been carried out by collecting 100 hotel reviews from
Tripadvisor, 100 about different products form Amazon, 100 about films from Netflix and so on, comparing
the highest and the worst reviews.
ANALYSIS → Darrics compared all reviews focusing on different aspects:
1. DISCOURSE MARKERS: are discourse feature associated with conversation and spoken
interaction. They are used to help the speaker to hold the floor, even if writers have more time to
plan a discourse rather than a speaker do.
For example, one common marker which can be found in online reviews is “you know/oh/well/).
•You know → may be used to start a discourse; to convey a sense of casualness;
•Well → in spoken interaction it is used to response to a question; while in written texts it is often
used at the beginning; helps to create a sense of dialogicality; may precede a rhetorical question
(WHAT CAN I SAY?) and so it is a marker of response.
The function of discourse markers is relational between participants in discourse, to mark
interactivity and to mark texts as “speech-like”.
2. SECOND-PERSON ADDRESS FORMS AND IMPERATIVES: person address forms have
also interactional function in written texts, as they involve readers by allowing them to respond.
In online reviews the second-person address is often used with imperatives:
•“wait” that's more” is used to catch the reader's attention, or to hold the floor, or to indicate that
there is more to say. By using this form in written texts, is like the writer is giving the reader the
opportunity to participate and continue to read.
•“don't even get me started” is used to catch the attention on a particular topic or to shift topics from
the preceding evaluation (.. it was disgusting. Don't even get me started on the so called breakfast
buffet.. horrible!).
•“let me tell you” has an interactional function, it connects the reader to the writer.
The function is to address readers directly.
3. QUESTIONS: the use of questions in a written text may create a dialogue between the
reader and the writer, making readers as active participants.
•“would we stay here again? Can you believe that?” in this question there are several different
voices. In fact, it is a heteroglossic text because there is the voice of the reader, which is indirectly
asking the question, the reviewer's husband voice, and the reviewer's it self. It simulate a
conversation addressing the reader more directly.
The function of questions is to simulate give-and-take of conversation and elicit some type of
evaluation of experience.
