In:Structures in Discourse: Interaction, adaptability, and pragmatic functions
Edited by Martin Gill, Aino Malmivirta and Brita Wårvik
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 345] 2024
► pp. 156–175
Revisiting adaptability
Reviews of Airbnb’s online experiences
Published online: 7 August 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.345.08vas
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.345.08vas
Abstract
Recognized for their influence on consumer
decision-making, online consumer reviews have attracted the attention of
scholars from marketing, consumer studies and tourism, as well as discourse
studies. Taking Virtanen’s (2017)
study of Amazon book reviews as our point of departure, this study builds on
prior linguistic work describing the discourse focus of online reviews. We
examine reviews of a virtual tourism product, Airbnb’s Online Experiences
(AOE). Applying Virtanen’s tri-partite framework (Topic, Author, Audience)
to a set of 200 AOE reviews, this study explores how review writers frame
their evaluative comments. Building on this framework for analyzing the
discourse structure and discourse focus of online reviews, our findings
identify different patterns of adaptability in response to the communicative
demands of this novel reviewing context.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Person reference, rhetorical strategies and text organization
in online consumer reviews - 3.Reviews of Airbnb’s online experiences
- 4.Dataset
- 5.Coding procedures
- 6.Findings
- 7.Conclusions
Notes References
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