“Mocking people for stupid opinions is not fun. Also it’s bad for business.” From using humour for webcare to polarization
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Today companies are encouraged to communicate with a sense of humour when interacting with stakeholders online, and they increasingly take sides on contested issues by engaging in corporate social advocacy. While both approaches to digital business discourse may have benefits, they may equally polarize. Using a corpus linguistic methodology, this study explores a 4.5-million-word corpus of tweets posted by and addressed to the budget airline Ryanair between October 2020 and March 2023, when the airline increasingly used aggressive humour and took a stance on socio-political issues in its posts. The findings show that the topics Ryanair engaged with, often in a humorous manner, resulted in dividing its client base, with some stakeholders appreciating their discursive approach and others deploring it. Rather than advocating a one-size-fits-all solution, this study therefore recommends adopting an individualized perspective when developing a digital discourse strategy that accounts for brand identity and the context of communication.
Source: Discourse Context & Media
Authors: Ursula Lutzky, Mhairi Rundell
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,770
OpenAlex ID: W4407778447