A Multimodal Genre Analysis Of Corporate Tweets:a Cross-cultural Comparison Between Chinese And American Companies

There has been a pressing need for Chinese companies to communicate with global stakeholders on international social media platforms.In the era of the Internet,social media,with the advantages of immediacy,affordability and accessibility,has become one of the most important communication channels for companies of all sizes in all industries and sectors across the globe.However,a majority of Chinese companies devoted inadequate efforts to international social media platforms.More seriously,the international public opinions faced by Chinese companies have become more complex and unfavourable since 2018.In the current environment,it is crucial for Chinese companies to promote their corporate images and communicate with global stakeholders.In academia,researchers have probed into the communicative and discursive practices of global companies and brands on diverse social media platforms.For Chinese companies and brands,researchers mainly investigated their communicative and discursive practices on Chinese social media platforms;whereas only a few studies focus on the communicative and discursive practices of Chinese companies and brands on international social media platforms.Theoretically,genre analysis and multimodal discourse analysis have seldom been applied in corporate social media discourse studies.Genre analysis,due to its concentration on professional discourses,genres and practices,has been playing crucial roles in corporate discourse studies.Also,a great number of pictures are posted by companies every day on social media,but scarcely understood and researched academically.Furthermore,few research has investigated Chinese companies versus American companies on international social media platforms.To fill the gaps in research objects and theoretical framework,the present study will conduct a multimodal genre analysis of corporate social media discourse,and make a cross-cultural comparison between Huawei and Cisco on Twitter.The research framework adopts four levels of analysis,i.e.communicative purposes,linguistic features,visual features,and affordances.The present study aims to answer the following research questions.RQ 1.Which communicative purposes can be found in the corporate tweets of Huawei and Cisco? What are the similarities and differences between the two companies?RQ 2.What are the linguistic features of the the corporate tweets of Huawei and Cisco? What are the similarities and differences between the two companies?RQ 3.What are the visual features of the the corporate tweets of Huawei and Cisco? What are the similarities and differences between the two companies?RQ4.What are the affordances applied in the the corporate tweets of Huawei and Cisco? What are the similarities and differences between the two companies?The findings are summarized and could be explained as follows.(1)Communicative purposes: In original tweets,both companies tweeted most to promote corporate practices,whereas Huawei reported more industry news,and Cisco held more online activities.Most of Huawei’s replies explained corporate practices to the followers,while most of Cisco’s replies provided customer service.The similarities in the communicative purposes of the corporate tweets of Huawei and Cisco were mainly due to the characteristics of ICT industry and Fortune-listed companies,while the differences in the communicative purposes of the corporate tweets of Huawei and Cisco mainly resulted from their different corporate cultures.(2)Linguistic features: Both companies utilized positive evaluative adjectives to build caring corporate images,and imply the ability and authority of the companies;adopted informal style to express gratitude,engage the followers,and solicit actions from followers;used plural first-person pronouns to represent the companies exclusively to construct a collective identity,and inclusively incorporate the stakeholders and the followers,so as to establish a closer relationship between them and the companies;and utilized positive emotive adjectives to instill confidence into stakeholders so as to attract more consumption,partnerships,and investment.Huawei shared similar linguistic features with Cisco since Huawei’s Twitter accounts were daily operated by an American digital marketing company.(3)Visual features: Conceptual pictures were more frequently used than narrative ones by both Huawei and Cisco,since new technologies often emerge in the ICT industry.Symbolic and actional pictures were the most prevalent in the corporate tweets of Huawei and Cisco,representing the concepts of new technologies and the activities conducted by the companies respectively.Reactional and classificational process types were found only in the pictures of Huawei.Reactional processes depicted the eye contact and bodily contact between the participants,as Huawei emphasized collaboration and relationship building,possibly impacted by the high context,long-term and collectivistic cultural orientations.Classificational processes were related to the tweets about the industry research findings by Huawei.Verbal process types were more prevalent in the pictures of Huawei than in those of Cisco,as Huawei highlighted the opinions of corporate leaders and technical experts,probably influenced by the high power distance cultural orientation.Analytical process types were more frequently used in the pictures of Cisco than in those of Huawei,as Cisco frequently elaborated on the complex concepts of new technologies,presumably due to the higher uncertainty avoidance cultural orientation and the analytical thinking mode.Management members appeared more frequently in the pictures of Huawei than in the those of Cisco,probably influenced by the high power distance cultural orientation.Employees appeared more frequently in the pictures of Cisco,while Huawei showed its employees more in videos than in pictures.Moreover,there were a wider range of ordinary people shown in the pictures of Cisco than in those of Huawei,presumably due to the lower power distance in Cisco and the American society.The fact that the number of non-contextual pictures slightly exceeded the number of contextual ones in both companies could be explained based on the characteristics of the ICT industry,which is task-oriented,direct and explicit in communication.(4)Affordances: Both companies inserted emojis and emoticons to symbolize and emphasize some specific aspects,or to make the tweets and replies emotionally appealing to followers;attached GIFs and videos to show multimedia information;added URLs and hyperlinks to provide further information;cited and created hashtags to engage followers with the topics to the interest of specific communities;and mentioned other users to directly address or reference others,thus facilitating interaction management.Huawei shared similar affordance applications with Cisco since Huawei’s Twitter accounts were daily operated by an American company.Finally,academic,practical,and pedagogical implications are provided for researchers,practitioners,and teachers respectively.