Authentic Femvertising? Unveiling the ambivalent construction of multimodal authentic brand femvertising by social media influencers
(2021) SKOM12 20211Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- Consumer empowerment and social media influencers – approached separately by scholars until now, this study brings together two of the most pressing contexts brands must navigate. As novel advertising appeal, brand femvertising communicates female empowerment and increasingly does so in collaboration with social media influencers (SMIs). To succeed however, SMI communication and femvertising call for authenticity, which today is recognised to be strategi- cally constructed. As research until now has turned a blind eye on the visual construction of ‘authentic femvertising’ by SMIs, this thesis explores the phenomenon from a social semiotic perspective on communication to grasp its link to construction of reality. By adding Critical Theory... (More)
- Consumer empowerment and social media influencers – approached separately by scholars until now, this study brings together two of the most pressing contexts brands must navigate. As novel advertising appeal, brand femvertising communicates female empowerment and increasingly does so in collaboration with social media influencers (SMIs). To succeed however, SMI communication and femvertising call for authenticity, which today is recognised to be strategi- cally constructed. As research until now has turned a blind eye on the visual construction of ‘authentic femvertising’ by SMIs, this thesis explores the phenomenon from a social semiotic perspective on communication to grasp its link to construction of reality. By adding Critical Theory as additional research perspective, the strategic creation of ‘authentic femvertising’ was problematised regarding their ideological potential. Using qualitative multimodal analysis, five international femvertising campaigns published by SMIs on Instagram sponsored by brands were examined. The analysis demonstrated that SMIs strategically orchestrate ‘authentic femvertising’ by making use of an intricate web of available multimodal resources. This suggests that neither female empowerment nor authenticity simply exist. Rather, they are expression of strategic configuration. Unveiling that communicated ‘authentic femvertising’ was constructed by including various ideologies, the power of semiotic resources in naturalising certain belief systems became clear, which attests their potential in the reinforcement of existing unjust social structures. These results suggest that semiotic resources are powerful tools that construct reality by strategic use and framing to communicate certain (ideological) meanings. This thesis thus contributes with broadened knowledge on the strategic construction of multimodal brand communication via SMIs. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9051518
- author
- Primbs, Antonia LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Social Media Influencer, Femvertising, Critical Theory, Authenticity, Ideology, Social Semiotics
- language
- English
- id
- 9051518
- date added to LUP
- 2021-07-01 10:18:34
- date last changed
- 2021-07-01 10:18:34
@misc{9051518,
abstract = {{Consumer empowerment and social media influencers – approached separately by scholars until now, this study brings together two of the most pressing contexts brands must navigate. As novel advertising appeal, brand femvertising communicates female empowerment and increasingly does so in collaboration with social media influencers (SMIs). To succeed however, SMI communication and femvertising call for authenticity, which today is recognised to be strategi- cally constructed. As research until now has turned a blind eye on the visual construction of ‘authentic femvertising’ by SMIs, this thesis explores the phenomenon from a social semiotic perspective on communication to grasp its link to construction of reality. By adding Critical Theory as additional research perspective, the strategic creation of ‘authentic femvertising’ was problematised regarding their ideological potential. Using qualitative multimodal analysis, five international femvertising campaigns published by SMIs on Instagram sponsored by brands were examined. The analysis demonstrated that SMIs strategically orchestrate ‘authentic femvertising’ by making use of an intricate web of available multimodal resources. This suggests that neither female empowerment nor authenticity simply exist. Rather, they are expression of strategic configuration. Unveiling that communicated ‘authentic femvertising’ was constructed by including various ideologies, the power of semiotic resources in naturalising certain belief systems became clear, which attests their potential in the reinforcement of existing unjust social structures. These results suggest that semiotic resources are powerful tools that construct reality by strategic use and framing to communicate certain (ideological) meanings. This thesis thus contributes with broadened knowledge on the strategic construction of multimodal brand communication via SMIs.}},
author = {{Primbs, Antonia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Authentic Femvertising? Unveiling the ambivalent construction of multimodal authentic brand femvertising by social media influencers}},
year = {{2021}},
}