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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 15:3 (2024) ► pp.471–494

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Blame-avoiding strategies for a digital scandal

A critical discourse analysis of Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional hearings

ORCiD logo with link | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
 | Sun Yat-sen University
Published online: 30 May 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21063.liu
Abstract
The burgeoning digital economy has also aroused wide public concerns over its improper use of personal data for economic and political profits. This study focuses on the milestone Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and examines how Mark Zuckerberg succeeded in avoiding public blame during two US Congressional hearings. An integrated analytic framework has been established by combining blame theory and critical discourse analysis to examine blame-avoiding strategies used by Mark Zuckerberg during the two Congressional hearings. The findings have revealed not only the topics but also the specific strategies and the linguistic means and realizations for these strategies. It is expected that this study can generate significant implications on blame-avoiding strategies by digital corporations for their inherently flawed business models.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies on blaming and blame-avoiding discourses
  • 3.Towards an integrated analytic framework
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Findings
    • 5.1Analysis of macro-strategies
    • 5.2Analysis of micro-strategies
      • 5.2.1Facebook
      • 5.2.2“Cambridge analytica”
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
References (52)
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