Features Of English Informational Posts As A Form Of Instagram Folklore

Abstract

Problem Statement. The article reveals the problem of studying linguistic and stylistic features of informational Instagram posts as the form of English network folklore. Having studied the works on network folklore of Russian and foreign scholars, such as T.A. Hohryakova, A.V. Kolistratova, E.A. Yukhmina, N.V. Obvintseva, M.V. Zagidullina, O.V. Alekseeva, Zh.Denysyuk, N. Chandler, Trevor J. Blank, F. Oinas & S. Soudakoff, N. Pogrebnyak and others, the authors suggest a detailed classification of informational posts and analyse them in terms of their linguistic and stylistic features. The communicative aim of informational posts is to provide the required information for Instagram subscribers. These posts provide useful information at various levels: from academic knowledge to daily life hacks. In the authors’ classification informational posts are represented by two main structural subtypes: educational and event posts. Educational posts are further subdivided into teaching posts, life hack posts and art posts. Event posts are represented by personal and public posts. Each of these subtypes has its own peculiarities not only in terms of content, but also in terms of their linguistic features and stylistic colouring. Results. There are determined linguistic and stylistic features of informational posts and there is presented a classification of informational posts. Conclusions. Having analysed the informational posts from functional, structural and semantic points of view, the authors came to the conclusion that informational posts have their own peculiar characteristics, but at the same time follow general rules of the posts formation accepted on Instagram.

Keywords: Instagram postsnetwork folklorecommunicationinformational postsfunctionsfunctional and structural analysis

Introduction

Nowadays the speed of information exchange is increasing and the means of its transference are changing. New devices providing virtual communication are being developed or already existing ones are being upgraded constantly. Due to the large amount of incoming information its processing has become a challenging task. Therefore, it leads to the increasing demand for the information visualization. The latter often replaces or supports the textual form of representation allowing users to receive more information in a shorter time with less effort. This explains the emergence of such social network as Instagram which stands out among other networks by its newer formats of the information presentation and vaster communication opportunities. Our research is based on the informational posts from Instagram which is one of the most fast developing modern interaction platforms. Instagram-communication is carried out at an incredible speed. Any Instagram user needs just a few seconds to scroll the content of his page, to become aware of the latest events in the lives of his friends and subscribers, to have a look at a number of interesting photos, video materials, to read posts, to give comments or to express an opinion on a particular issue. Instagram communication has no boundaries. Any person has an opportunity to create an Instagram account and become its user. The participants of the communication act might live in different countries, but exchange photos, videos, life-messages, share comments in the blink of an eye. Accordingly, new approaches to the presentation of the text material and its visualization are being created and new patterns of the speech behaviour are being formed.

Analysing Instagram posts from the perspective of their communicative aim and formation mechanisms three key types of posts such as advertising, informational and interactive have been distinguished functioning in the network folklore (Figure 01 ) (Yukhmina & Obvintseva, 2019). The profound linguistic analysis has shown that the most commonly spread and branched type of posts is informational. Informational posts are subdivided into two subtypes: educational and event posts which have certain functional, formal and linguo-stylistic peculiarities. Therefore, the study of their distinctive features is becoming an important task of modern linguistics which determines the relevance of this study.

Problem Statement

Instagram posts, following the principles of visualization, are usually accompanied by a photo or video content. At a lexical level, the post may either consist of a single concise word or comprise several sentences in the mini-text. The genre and stylistic diversity of posts is determined by the goals pursued by users. Posts may differ significantly from each other by the language used. In some cases, the author of a post uses a lot of slang, various special signs, and in others he employs extremely correct, stylistically neutral or even scientific words. So the problem stated in this study is to discover distinguishing features of the informational posts and analyse them in terms of their linguistic and stylistic peculiarities. These features can be helpful in a further classification of the informational posts and their detailed description

Research Questions

This study addresses the following questions: What linguistic and stylistic features do the informational posts have? What linguistic techniques are used by the authors of the informational posts to create the required communicative aim? What are the distinguishing features of this type of posts?

Purpose of the Study

Instagram posts are fascinating, exciting and creative. The scientific novelty of this study lies within the fact that informational posts are investigated from the point of view of linguo-structural and linguo-semantic approaches for the first time. The purpose of our study is to investigate Instagram informational posts, as well as their systematization and classification. For this purpose, the following tasks were set: to consider styles and types of informational posts; to conduct their linguistic and structural analyses; to identify the categories of informational Instagram posts and the criteria for their classification.

Research Methods

In this study the authors refer to the works on network folklore of the Russian and foreign scientists such as Alekseeva (2018), Chandler (2015), Hohryakova (2017), Blank (2009), Oinas and Soudakoff (2019), Yukhmina and Obvintseva (2019) Pogrebnyak (2019), Zagidullina (2016a,b) Denysyuk (2017), Bespalova (2017) and others.

The network folklore is studied by the researchers from different angles. Studying how internet folklore functions (Chandler, 2015) some linguists mention a number of peculiar characteristics of the Internet folklore that distinguish it from the traditional one (Zagidullina, 2016a). The first feature is its availability (Alekseeva, 2018). It means that any user can have access to the works of the network folklore anytime anywhere. The second feature is its entertaining character: network folklore is extremely simple and emotionally expressive (Zagidullina, 2016b). The third feature is its replicability. It means that any post of internet folklore can be easily reposted or retwitted, i.e. any user can copy and post it on his personal page or account. The fourth feature is the passivity of perception: the network folklore requires no intellectual or emotional effort for perception (Hohryakova, 2017). The fifth feature is its commercial nature. Most posts are aimed at advertising products or services and perform advertising function (Clark, 2018). The sixth feature of Internet folklore is its high mobility (Blank, 2009). Internet folklore responds quickly to various events (Oinas & Soundakoff, 2019). There appear new works of network folklore that reflect the attitude of the anonymous author to what is happening within a few hours. And immediately after the publication of the message or post online the internet community starts spreading it worldwide. So it turns into the expression of public opinion and creates new trends. One more feature is its precedent character. Instagram posts often contain precedent phenomena. They can be understood as culturally loaded signs, known to a significant part of the representatives of the national-cultural community (Pogrebnyak, 2019). They have reference to some historical or political events, well-known books or films. Another characteristic feature of internet folklore is the variability or plasticity of information. Each communicator has an opportunity to interpret the folklore texts creatively through the prism of his own experience and personal viewpoint (Bespalova, 2017).

Speaking about the factors influencing the formation of network folklore it is the technological and socio-cultural factors whose role is really significant in the creation of network texts as a part of media culture (Denysyuk; 2017).

So our study of online folklore is based on a random selection of informational posts in the English Social network Instagram (2020). Having analyzed the works of the mentioned authors we have conducted our own profound research applying both general methods of scientific research such as observation and description, and specific linguistic methods such as structural-semantic, functional and interpretative analyses.

Findings

Instagram texts function in the form of posts of different types and different registers. They all have a number of folklore characteristics as variability, collectivity of the authorship, traditionalism, oral form of existence, expressiveness (Mamonova & Yukhmina, 2018). In virtual communication there prevails conversational (informal) style specific features of which depend mostly on a spoken language. Kolistratova (2011) notes that the Internet environment is a cultural phenomenon and completely reflects tendencies of the social conscience dominating at a given period of time. Due to their interaction Instagram posts are spreading fast and are easy to remember. Sometimes a post authorship can be easily lost. In some respect Instagram posts are similar to the traditional folklore texts, as they reflect people’s consciousness along with their national characteristics. Instagram posts meet the needs of modern people for immediate communication and information processing. It is worth mentioning that the average age of 61% of Instagram users varies from 18 to 34 years, 31% of users are from 18 to 24 years old, 30% of users are from 25 to 34. The age of the users is rather an important feature. The majority of users are of the age from 18 to 34 (Instagram). By this age the development of the linguistic personality completes. It means that network texts reflect the formed linguistic ability of the communication participants.

The purpose of informational posts is to provide useful data on different topics for the Instagram subscribers. These posts give information at various levels: from academic knowledge to daily life hacks (Figure 01 ). Informational posts are represented by two main structural subtypes: educational posts and event-posts. Teaching, life-hack and art posts constitute the subtype of educational posts (Yukhmina & Obvintseva, 2019).

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Conclusion

So each type of posts performs its own function in the modern Instagram folklore. The language of posts is characterized by simplicity, ease of perception and narration, profound expressiveness, colourfulness and sometimes subjectivity. The conversational style of presentation prevails in the majority of posts, but still it depends on the authorship. The accounts of large companies do not create posts that can be attributed to folklore, since they tend more to a written formal speech rather than to a conversational one. These are academic descriptions with a sustained business style and a specific author.

In conclusion it should be underlined that all subtypes of informational Instagram posts have one common function, which is an information transfer, while each subtype has its own specific functions and its own linguistic and stylistic means of representation. Not all Instagram informational posts can be attributed to folklore texts, however, folklore features can be distinguished in almost each subtype. The classification of informational posts and description of their linguistic and stylistic features allows us to present another form of computer-mediated communication more structurally and visually.

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our special thanks to Nina Zhirenkina, the post-graduate student of Physical and Technological Institute of Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin for giving us an opportunity to fulfil our investigation with the support of the RFBR grant, project number 19-33-90292.

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