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Article published In:
Internet Pragmatics
Vol. 3:1 (2020) ► pp.64–94

Thinking out of the box

Production of direct metaphor in a social media context

| University of Amsterdam | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
| Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
| Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
| Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | University of Amsterdam

Metaphor production is a creative process of thinking out of the box, which can be of great communicative value to language users. In this study, we explored how metaphor production can be stimulated by different types of cues in an internet environment. Participants (N = 318) were invited to co-create a metaphorical campaign slogan in a social media setting with randomly selected sets of real campaign slogans. We measured how linguistic (metaphor markers) and social media cues (likes) prompt direct metaphor. Results show that the metaphor marker ‘so’ stimulated metaphor production. Likes for previously posted metaphorical slogans did not affect the creation of a metaphor. We found a correlation between the actual and self-perceived creativity of the co-created slogans. Besides, the co-created metaphors both echoed and deviated from previously posted campaign slogans, leading to different degrees of creativity. Co-creation in a social media setting seems a fruitful environment for metaphor production.

Keywords: social media, co-creation, metaphor, creativity, Facebook, Twitter, campaign slogan
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphor and co-creation
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Case
    • 3.2Design
    • 3.3Materials
    • 3.4Instrumentation
      • 3.4.1Metaphor production
      • 3.4.2Self-perceived creativity
      • 3.4.3Evaluation of the co-creation process
    • 3.5Procedure
    • 3.6Participants
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Metaphor markers and likes for previous metaphorical slogans
    • 4.2Actual versus perceived creativity
    • 4.3Echoing or deviating from campaign slogans
      • 4.3.1Copying campaign slogans
      • 4.3.2Remixing campaign slogans
      • 4.3.3New slogans and personal events
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 23 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00049.hee
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