Instagram: the space of the promoting communication

Abstract

The relevance of the social media study nowadays is connected with the fact that, having transformed into the media scene, the social media appeared to be aimed at the establishment and transmission of modern cultural values and the promotion of prestigious behavioral patterns. This article focuses on the analysis of the Instagram discourse as one of the most popular and fast developing social media. The paper is aimed at revealing the true intentions of Instabloggers. Taking the creolized nature of the media text into account the author of the article appeals to the method of linguostylistic analysis with linguosemiotic elements, which enables to examine the posts in terms of the semiotic languages used there. The messages studied were ones by users who have no connection with the media industry and do not place posts that serve commercial purposes. The conducted research has brought to light a close link between advertising, PR, and Instagram-communication. It shows that as media texts the posts carry the intention of promotion, the purpose of encouraging the audience to take certain action being their implicit yet dominant aim. Due to Instaposts having creolized nature, the aim is achieved with the help of visual components. This effect appears to be stipulated by Instagram being social media: photos perceived as trustworthy, the blogs become a kind of documentary chronicles, which make it possible both to promulgate a type of lifestyle and to attract new subscribers, the supporters of the lifestyle. Communicative tasks, which the authors of the blogs perform, demonstrate that their focus is on creating a self-image and on self-promotion. This allows to consider Instagram-communication as image communication and to classify it as the promoting communication.