Cover not available
Article published In:
Argumentative Discourse in Contemporary China: A pragma-dialectical perspective
Edited by Peng Wu and Xu Cihua
[Journal of Argumentation in Context 6:3] 2017
► pp. 344–358

Strategic maneuvering by persuasive definition in corporate crisis communication

The case of Taobao’s response to criticism

| Zhejiang Gongshang University

This paper aims to explore the use of persuasive definition in a corporate weblog by examining how a blogger attempts to define the company’s role in response to criticisms in the cyber space. Making use of a pragma-dialectical research framework, corporate weblog is characterized as an argumentative activity type in the commercial domain in which the legitimacy of persuasive definition is contextually constrained. The paper first analyzes the institutional preconditions that restrict all the argumentative moves in a corporate weblog, and then investigates how the corporate blogger of Taobao, the biggest online shopping website in China, responds to criticism by redefinition to evade the burden of proof.

Keywords: corporate weblog, persuasive definition, strategy, corporate image
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Corporate crisis communication via weblogs as a communicative activity type
    • 2.1Corporate crisis communication as argumentation
    • 2.2Persuasive definition
  • 3.A pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation in crisis management via corporate weblogs
  • 4.Taobao as innocent and SAIC as the accused
  • 5.The strategic maneuvering of redefinition in the discourse
    • Redefinition of “responsibility” for self-legitimacy
    • Redefinition of “support” for others-illegitimacy
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 4 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.17001.yan
References
Aberdein, A.
2000 Persuasive Definition. In Tindale, C. W., Hansen, H. V. and Sveda, E. (eds.). Argumentation at the Century’s Turn. OSSA (Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation) Proceedings.Google Scholar
Agerdal-Hjermind, A.
2014 “Organizational blogging: A case study of a corporate weblog from an employee perspective.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 19(1): 34–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baxter, G. L. and Connolly, T. M.
2013 “The ‘state of art’ of organizational blogging.” The Learning Organization 20(2): 104–117. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, J.
2007 The stance triangle. In Englebretson, R. (ed.). Stance-taking in Discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 139–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goodman, M., Romenti, S., Murtarelli, G. and Valentini, C.
2014 “Organisations’ conversations in social media: Applying dialogue strategies in times of crises.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 19(1): 10–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Macagno, F. and Walton, D.
2010 “What we hide in words: Emotive words and persuasive definitions.” Journal of Pragmatics 421: 1997–2013. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Onkila, T.
2009 Environmental Rhetoric in Finnish Business: Environmental Values and stakeholder relations in the corporate argumentation of acceptable environmental management. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
Palmieri, R.
2014 Corporate Argumentation in Takeover Bids. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Romenti, S. Murtarelli, and Valentini, C.
2014 “Organisations’ conversations in social media: applying dialogue strategies in times of crises.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 19(1): 10–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, C.
1944 Ethics and Language. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
van Eemeren, F.
2010 Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse: Extending the Pragma-dialectical Theory of Argumentation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Eemeren, F. and Grootendorst, R.
2004 A Systematic Theory of Argumentation: The Pragma-dialectical Approach. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
van Eemeren, F., Grootendorst, G. and Snoeck Henkemans, F.
2002 Argumentation: Analysis, Evaluation, Presentation. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Eemeren, F. and Snoeck Henkemans, A.
2017 Argumentation: Analysis and Evaluation (second edition). New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Walton, D.
2005 “Deceptive Arguments Containing Persuasive Language and Persuasive Definitions.” Argumentation 191: 159–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Cheng, Yang
2020. The social-mediated crisis communication research: Revisiting dialogue between organizations and publics in crises of China. Public Relations Review 46:1 ► pp. 101769 ff. DOI logo
Cheng, Yang & Chia-Jui Lee
2019. Online crisis communication in a post-truth Chinese society: Evidence from interdisciplinary literature. Public Relations Review 45:4 ► pp. 101826 ff. DOI logo
Yang, Na & Jiabei Hu
2023. Getting involved or acting in defence. Pragmatics and Society 14:3 ► pp. 410 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 august 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.