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A Linguistic Analysis of Snapchat’s Founding Narrative

Leili Qu

Abstract


Fast-evolving technologies surely accelerate the pace of social networking sites’ absorption into every facet of our lives.SNS, by defi nition, enable users to create their own online personas, equipped with photographs and photos that they may use to connect with other users. SNS have thus become ever more pivotal in promoting social communication and developing interpersonal relationships. Snapchat is a social networking platform founded in 2011 and it has become a craze upon its inception. Given that little study has been conducted to investigate the relationship between Snapchat’s identity construction and its prevalence, in this paper, the founding story posted on Snapchat’s website is marshalled as data source and further analysed through narrative approach and metaphor analysis with a view to uncovering the identity Snapchat seeks to create and how it is communicated to the public through the carefully crafted founding story. It is hoped that this paper can off er some insights into how corporations employ language to present the desired identities toward the public.

Keywords


Snapchat; Founding story; Narrative approach; Metaphor analysis; MIP

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18686/ahe.v7i5.7351

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