Cover not available
Part of
Approaches to Internet Pragmatics: Theory and practice
Edited by Chaoqun Xie, Francisco Yus and Hartmut Haberland
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 318] 2021
► pp. 207–234

Chapter 7
Inviting a purchase

A multimodal analysis of staged authenticity in WeChat social selling

| Zhejiang International Studies University, China
| Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, China
The present study investigates the pragmatic strategies and effects of self-presentation performance in a social selling context either by way of status updates or through group chat in WeChat, a popular social networking platform in China. Drawing on Goffman’s (1959, 1974, 1981) outstanding research on self-presentation, frame, and footing, as well as Page’s (2010a, 2010b, 2012, 2018) exploration in digital narrative, this chapter analyzes data collected from WeChat Moments and WeChat chat logs to uncover their staged authenticity and the relative social value that it entails. The results of our analysis of both screen data and user data show that the meticulously intertwined and multimodally presented communicative acts of social selling on this particular social platform are the outcome of frame-shifting and frame-overlapping strategies on the one hand and highly crafted staged authenticity on the other.
Keywords: frames, footing, self-presentation, WeChat, status update, group chat, social selling, influencer, multimodal analysis, staged authenticity, pragmatic strategy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Research background
    • 2.1Social selling in WeChat
    • 2.2Theoretical perspective
      • 2.2.1Dramaturgical theory, frame and footing
      • 2.2.2Staged authenticity in digital narratives
  • 3.Data and methods
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1The narration in WeChat social selling
    • 4.2The influencers in WeChat social selling
      • 4.2.1Case study 1: The influencer in WeChat Moments
      • 4.2.2Case study 2: The influencer in WeChat group chat
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.318.07xie
References (84)
References
Abidin, Crystal, and Eric C. Thompson. 2012. “Buymylife.com: Cyber-Femininities and Commercial Intimacy in Blogshops.” Women’s Studies International Forum 35: 467–477. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Abrams, Meyer H. 1988. A Glossary of Literary Terms (5th edn.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.Google Scholar
Androutsopoulos, Jannis. 2008. “Potentials and Limitations of Discourse-Centred Online Enthnography.” Language@Internet 5, article 8. [URL] (accessed 14 November 2015).
. 2015a. “Networked Multilingualism: Some Language Practices on Facebook and Their Implications.” International Journal of Bilingualism 19(2): 185–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015b. “Negotiating Authenticities in Mediatized Times.” Discourse, Context & Media 8: 74–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Backaler, Joel. 2018. Digital Influence: Unleash the Power of Influencer Marketing to Accelerate Your Global Business. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, Michael, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2008. “Small Stories as a New Perspective in Narrative and Identity Analysis.” Text & Talk 28(3): 377–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bargh, John A., Katelyn Y. A. McKenna, and Grain M. Fitzsimons. 2002. “Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the ‘True Self’ on the Internet.” Journal of Social Issues 58(1): 33–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barnet, Sylvan. 1979. A Short Guide to Writing About Literature (4th edn.). Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.Google Scholar
boyd, danah m., and Nicole B. Ellison. 2007. “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1): 1–11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas. 2010. “Sociolinguistic Authenticities.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3): 417–431. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Danesi, Marcel. 2017. The Semiotics of Emoji: The Rise of Visual Language in the Age of the Internet. London: Bloomsbury. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davies, Bronwyn, and Rom Harré. 1990. “Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 20(1): 43–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dayter, Daria. 2014. “Self-Praise in Microblogging.” Journal of Pragmatics 61: 91–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2016. Discursive Self in Microblogging: Speech Acts, Stories and Self-Praise. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Fina, Anna, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2008. “Introduction: Narrative Analysis in the Shift from Texts to Practices.” Text &Talk 28: 275–281.Google Scholar
Dynel, Marta. 2011. “Revisiting Goffman’s Postulates on Participant Statuses in Verbal Interaction.” Language and Linguistics Compass 5(7): 454–465. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellison, Nicole, Rebecca Heino, and Jennifer Gibbs. 2006. “Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11: 415–441. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Vyvyan. 2017. The Emoji Code: The Linguistics Behind Smiley Faces and Scaredy Cats. New York: Picador.Google Scholar
Fetzer, Anita. 2004. Recontextualizing Context: Grammaticality Meets Appropriateness. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2017. “Context.” In The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Yan Huang, 259–276. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fetzer, Anita, and Elda Weizman (eds.). 2019. The Construction of ‘Ordinariness’ across Media Genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forceville, Charles. 2020. Visual and Multimodal Communication: Applying the Relevance Principle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar. 2015. “Setting the Linguistics Research Agenda for the E-Service Encounters Genre: Natively Digital Versus Digitized Perspectives.” In A Multidisciplinary Approach to Service Encounters, ed. by María de la O Hernández-López, and Lucía Fernández Amaya, 12–43. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar, Lucía Fernández-Amaya, and María de la O Hernández-López (eds.). 2019. Technology Mediated Service Encounters. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra. 1997. “Self-Presentation and Interactional Alignments in E-Mail Discourse: The Style and Code Switches of Greek Messages.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 7(2): 141–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giannoulis, Elena, and Lukas R. A. Wilde (eds.). 2020. Emoticons, Kaomoji, and Emoji: The Transformation of Communication in the Digital Age. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
. 1976. Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper and Row. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1979. “Footing.” Semiotica 25(1/2): 1–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1981. Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hogan, Bernie. 2010. “The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online.” Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society 30: 377–386. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, Sara H., and Timmy H. Tseng. 2017. “Playfulness in Mobile Instant Messaging: Examining the Influence of Emoticons and Text Messaging on Social Interaction.” Computers in Human Behavior 69: 405–414. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johansson, Catrin. 2007. “Goffman’s Sociology: An Inspiring Resource for Developing Public Relations Theory.” Public Relations Review 33(3): 275–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Joinson, Adam N. 2001. “Self-Disclosure in Computer-Mediated Communication: The Role of Self-Awareness and Visual Anonymity.” European Journal of Social Psychology 31: 177–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaye, Linda K., Helen J. Wall, and Stephanie A. Malone. 2016. “‘Turn that Frown Upside-down’: A Contextual Account of Emoticon Usage on Different Virtual Platforms.” Computers in Human Behavior 60: 463–467. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaye, Linda K., Stephanie A. Malone, and Helen Wall, J. 2017. “Emojis: Insights, Affordances, and Possibilities for Psychological Science.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 21(2): 66–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kecskes, Istvan. 2019. English as s Lingua Franca: The Pragmatic Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd edn.). Abingdon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lü, Dongqing. 2016. “微信朋友圈‘语境消解’的定性研究 [A Qualitative Study on ‘Context Collapse’ of WeChat Moments].” 编辑之友 [Editorial Friend] (8): 62–67.Google Scholar
MacCannell, Dean. 1973. “Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings.” American Journal of Sociology 79: 589–603. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manning, Peter K. 2008. “Goffman on Organizations.” Organization Studies 29(5): 677–699. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manning, Phillip. 1991. “Drama as Life: The Significance of Goffman’s Changing Use of the Theatrical Metaphor.” Sociological Theory 9(1): 70–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1992. Erving Goffman and Modern Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Marengo, Davide, Fabrizia Giannotta, and Michele Settanni. 2017. “Assessing Personality Using Emoji: An Exploratory Study.” Personality & Individual Differences 112: 74–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marwick, Alice E., and danah boyd. 2010. “I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately: Twitter Users, Context Collapse, and the Imagined Audience.” New Media & Society 13: 96–113.Google Scholar
Meuter, Matthew L., Amy L. Ostrom, Rober I. Roundtree, and Mary J. Bitner. 2000. “Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters.” Journal of Marketing 64: 50–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Misoch, Sabina. 2015. “Stranger on the Internet: Online Self-Disclosure and the Role of Visual Aonymity.” Computers in Human Behavior 48: 535–541. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Page, Ruth. 2010a. “Re-examining Narrativity: Small Stories in Status Updates.” Text & Talk 30(4): 423–444. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(ed.) 2010b. New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2012. Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2018. Narrative Online: Shared Stories in Social Media. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Qualman, Erik. 2013. Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business (2nd edn.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Raffel, Stanley. 2013. “The Everyday Life of the Self: Reworking Early Goffman.” Journal of Classical Sociology 13(1): 163–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Riordan, Monica A. 2017. “The Communicative Role of Non-Face Emojis: Affect and Disambiguation.” Computers in Human Behavior 76: 75–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rühlemann, Christoph, and Stefan Gries. 2015. “Turn Order and Turn Distribution in Multi-Party Storytelling.” Journal of Pragmatics 87: 171–191. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1984. “On Doing ‘Being Ordinary.’” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson, and John C. Heritage, 413–429. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sandel, Todd L., Chuyue Ou, Dorji Wangchuk, Bei Ju, and Miguel Duque. 2019. “Unpacking and Describing Interaction on Chinese WeChat: A Methodological Approach.” Journal of Pragmatics 143: 228–241. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scheff, Thomas J. 2005. “The Structure of Context: Deciphering ‘Frame Analysis.’” Sociological Theory 23(4): 368–385. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1996. “Narrative as Self-Portrait: Sociolinguistic Constructions of Identity.” Language in Society 25(2): 167–203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwämmlein, Eva, and Katrin Wodzicki. 2012. “What to Tell about Me? Self-Presentation in Online Communities.” Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 17(4): 387–407. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seargeant, Philip. 2019. The Emoji Revolution: How Technology is Shaping the Future of Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sievers, Katja, Katrin Wodzicki, Ingo Abrede, Michael Keckeisen, and Ulrike Cress. 2015. “Self-Presentation in Professional Networks: More Than Just Window Dressing.” Computer in Human Behavior 50: 25–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stern, Barbara B., and Katherine Gallagher. 1991. “Advertising Form, Content, and Values: Lyric, Ballad, and Epic.” Current Issues & Research in Advertising 13(1): 79–103. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stevens, Ben. 2020. “Livestream and Social Selling: How China’s Retailers Adapted to Coronavirus.” Charged Retail Tech News, 9 April. [URL] (accessed 8 June 2020).
Sunakawa, Chiho. 2020. “Familial Bonding: The Establishment of Co-Presence in Webcam-Mediated Interactions.” In Bonding through Context: Language and Interactional Alignment in Japanese Situated Discourse, ed. by Risako Ide, and Kaori Hata, 145–170. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tannen, Deborah. 2009. “Framing and Face: The Relevance of the Presentation of Self to Linguistic Discourse Analysis.” Social Psychology Quarterly 72(4): 300–305. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tidwell, Lisa Collins, and Joseph B. Walther. 2002. “Computer-Mediated Communication Effects on Disclosure, Impressions, and Interpersonal Evaluations: Getting to Know One Another a Bit at a Time.” Human Communication Research 28(3): 317–348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toma, Catalina, and Cassandra L. Carlson. 2015. “How Do Facebook Users Believe They Come across in their Profiles? A Meta-Perception Approach to Investigating Facebook Self-Presentation.” Communication Research Reports 32(1): 93–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toma, Catalina L., Jeffery T. Hancock, and Nicole B. Ellison. 2008. “Separating Fact from Fiction: An Examination of Deceptive Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles.” Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin 34(8): 1023–1036. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Dijck, José. 2013. “‘You Have One Identity’: Performing the Self on Facebook and Linkedln.” Media, Culture & Society 35(2): 199–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo. 2001. “What is Authenticity?” Discourse Studies 3(4): 392–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2004. “Ten Reasons Why Linguists Should Pay Attention Visual Communication.” In Discourse and Technology: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, ed. by Philip LeVine, and Ron Scollon, 7–19. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Wall, Helen J., Linda K. Kaye, and Stephanie A. Malone. 2016. “An Exploration of Psychological Factors on Emoticon Usage and Implications for Judgment Accuracy.” Computers in Human Behavior 62: 70–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walther, Joseph B. 1996. “Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyper-Personal Interaction.” Communication Research 23: 3–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007. “Selective Self-Presentation in Computer-Mediated Communication: Hyperpersonal Dimensions of Technology, Language, and Cognition.” Computers in Human Behavior 23(5): 2538–2557. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walther, Joseph B., Celeste L. Slovacek, and Lisa C. Tidwell. 2001. “Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Photographic Images in Long-Term and Short-Term Computer-Mediated Communication.” Communication Research 28: 105–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wolf, Alecia. 2000. “Emotional Expression Online: Gender Differences in Emoticon Use.” CyberPsychology & Behavior 3(5): 827–833. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xie, Chaoqun, and Ying Tong. 2019. “Constructing ‘Ordinariness’: An Analysis of Jack Ma’s Narrative Identities on Sina Weibo.” In The Construction of ‘Ordinariness’ across Media Genres, ed. by Anita Fetzer, and Elda Weizman, 179–205. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xie, Chaoqun, and Francisco Yus. 2017. “An Internet Dialogue on Internet Pragmatics.” 外国语言文学 [Foreign Language and Literature Studies] 34(2): 75–92.Google Scholar
. 2018. “Introducing Internet Pragmatics.” Internet Pragmatics 1(1): 1–12. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yus, Francisco. 2017. “Social Media.” In The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Anne Barron, Yueguo Gu, and Gerard Steen, 550–562. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar