Destination Online Travel Reviews an Argumentative and Textual Genre Perspective
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Destination Online Travel Reviews An argumentative and textual genre perspective A dissertation presented by Silvia De Ascaniis Supervised by Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni Submitted to the Faculty of Communication Sciences Università della Svizzera italiana for the degree of Ph.D. in Communication Sciences December 2012 Abstract Information and communication practices relating to tourism, as they occur in the frame of the so-called web 2.0, constitute a peculiar context where communicative interactions assume specific features. Prospective tourists face several challenges when making travel decisions because of the very nature of tourism products, which are intangible and perishable, and because of the extraordinary variety of available options. The outcome of decisions concerning tourism products, thus, can hardly be foreseen and cannot be substantially changed; it implies a high level of uncertainty and a certain risk. In the case of experiential goods, the most influential source of information is Word-of-mouth (WOM). Web 2.0 – or ‘read and write web’ – is giving new significance to WOM, which encompasses a variety of media forms and types of websites, providing consumers with a number of opportunities to voice their opinions. This content is known as User Generated Contents (UGC) and can equate to electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Consumers increasingly rely on eWOM to make a variety of decisions, thanks to their easiness of access and multiplicity of contributors. Online Travel Reviews (OTR) are the most accessible and prevalent form of eWOM in the field of eTourism. They represent people’s wish to share their travel experiences online, recommend a tourism product or complain about it. This dissertation adopts a communicative approach, to investigate how OTR contribute to and inform travel decision-making. To answer the question: “which kind of communicative event is an OTR?”, its communicative purpose, the strategies adopted to pursue the purpose, its textual structure, its content patterns and the contexts where it is produced (i.e. technological, cultural and individual context) were analyzed. A corpus of 138 OTR about destination Rome, collected from TripAdvisor, underwent a two stage analytical process. In the first stage, OTR were characterized as an emergent textual genre, which presents singular properties and differentiates itself from other travel genres and online genres. Congruity Theory has been adopted for the semantic-pragmatic analysis of the corpus. Congruity Theory is a theory of discourse relations, which combines rhetorical relations and speech acts in one single construct, namely the connective predicate (CP). CP are high level pragmatic predicates that characterize an utterance or the connection of two or more utterances in terms of the action that the author, with such utterance or connection of utterances, realizes towards the addressee. The CP governing an OTR was reconstructed, the pre-conditions as well as the entailments it brings about were pointed out, and dominant CP’s were distinguished from subordinate CP’s. The CP governing an OTR is one of advice, which the reviewer proposes to the reader to engage in a course of action – i.e. visit/not visit a destination - 2 because of the desirability of the outcome. This reasoning chain corresponds, indeed, to the argumentation scheme of practical reasoning (or pragmatic argumentation). In a second phase of the research, the argumentative texture of an OTR has been specifically considered. The standpoint is constituted by the travel advice, and the argument is the reviewer’s opinion about the destination. This argument works, in turn, as standpoint for a lower level argumentative move, where data are provided by the reviewer to support her opinion; data can be, for instance, descriptions of attractions or reports of travel events. Through analytical overviews, the configuration of standpoints and arguments of some texts was reconstructed in detail, in order to visualize typical argumentative strategies. Finally, the three most representative argument schemes, that are the inferential principles at play in the argumentative process, were pointed out. The research has a number of implications both at the theoretical as well as at the practical level. It represents, in fact, a contribution both to the field of genre studies and to the research on argumentation in context. Theoretical results, then, may be applied to improve marketing strategies and to develop automated strategies, both for filtering ‘good-quality’ OTR and for selecting relevant ones according to information needs and travel expectations. 3 A mio marito Nicola, a mio figlio Francesco A mia madre e a mio padre Con amore, per il viaggio fatto insieme 4 Acknowledgements A wonderful journey, the most wonderful company! The story I am telling you is about a five-years journey, one which leaves vivid traces in one’s life. I am a kind of tourist who likes travelling without too much planning, who let herself to be amazed by unpredictable events and unexpected itinerary changes. I think that the travel company is essential to enjoy the journey. For this reason, in my review I will tell you more about the people I met during my trip and the experiences we shared together than about the places I visited. My best travel company was my husband, who accompanied me along bumpy paths, always supporting and encouraging. Even if from a distance, mum and dad, Tello, Stefania and Simone followed all my adventures, sometimes joining them, always rejoicing and suffering with me. My solid point of reference during the whole journey was prof. Lorenzo Cantoni, who constantly challenged me to do my best, gave directions but also gave the freedom to get lost and find my way again. When my journey started, we were a group of 5 guys, 2 girls and 3 boys, who hadn’t ever met before, but became good friends. Chrysi, who came from Greece, was a lively exotic person, very curious and open. Andreas was a German guy, but very different from the stereotype of the rigid and austere German; it was not a mystery that he had a Second Lif! Emanuele and Luca were Italians, and because of our (beautiful) common language, we were used to speculate, destroying and re-making the world, especially the academic world, in front of a dish of pasta and a glass of wine. We were best known as the Red-Ink company. Our journey was sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation, which I would like to thank. I am also grateful to Luca Botturi, for inviting me to join the group. We have been travelling together for three years, then each one of us decided to explore different paths. During the first three years of the journey, I was supported by a group of wonderful colleagues, headed by Stefano Tardini, who besides being a big fan of the Italian football team Juventus , was also a big fan of the Red-Ink company. I have great memories of the days I spent in the ‘flowered’ eLab developing eLearning courses with Goran, Christian, Marcone, Mauro and, even if for a short time, with Elisabetta and Mattia. The colleagues of NewMinE Lab are part of these memories: Isa, Sara, Anna, Francesca, Marta, Chiara, Paolo made me curious with their stories about Brazil, South Africa, Mozambique, Camerun, … There is a time in a long journey when you would like to turn and go back home; a time when you cannot see an end, you are tired and demotivated. For me that happened when I was about halfway, but at that point I met prof. Andrea Rocci, who indicated me a new path, which meant starting a new adventure. I decided to follow it, and the journey became even more surprising, step by step. Along the new path I was not alone, I joined a travel company, mostly made up of dynamic girls fond of travelling, who never renounce to a beer out after work. I am grateful to the webatelier.net ‘dream team’: Nadzeya, Giulio, Elena, Alessandro, Asta, Cristina, Aimara. However, my beers with them were not too many, because, for the second time, my travel plans changed unexpectedly. I met prof. Ulrike Gretzel (Ulli), who not only a valuable scientific interlocutor, but had the effect of a catalyst in my life journey! I was planning to leave Switzerland to visit her in Texas, but she moved to Australia and invited me to follow her. Australia was so far away but so attractive … Nicola and I decided to get married, and to leave together for Wollongong. After a while, Francesco, our son, joined us: he was an ‘inside’ travel companion, who made our experience unique. The Aussie company grew and grew: along the way we met Sara, Maria, Kylie, Nadia, Juanna, Malu, Heather, Aaron, Clifford, Michelle, Logi and his wife, Emil, Jamie, Stacie, Father Richard, and a number of ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’ who joined our family. After one year Down-under, we went back to Switzerland. There I found the ‘old’ company and joined a new one: the guys from the Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics, who have been a reliable support in the last hard part of the journey. Prof. Eddo Rigotti, Rudi, Chiara, Marta, Margherita helped me to reach the final destination. Sara Greco Morasso was my best interlocutor to share desires and concerns of a ‘migrant mother’. In the end, I want to thank my ‘walking sticks’, who supported me despite changes and uncertainties: Sarina, Paola, P. Marcelo, Andrè, Andrè-Luis, Stefy & the kids, Grazia, Maurizio, Matteo, nonna Agnese, nonna Maria and the whole group of Bergamo uncles, aunties and cousins. I wish everyone leaving for a journey to meet a wonderful company, as it happened to me! Silvia 6 Table of Content Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 5 Table of Content .......................................................................................................................... 7 List of abbreviations.................................................................................................................