From abstracts to video-abstracts: academic argumentation in genre hybridization

This paper deals with the influence of the advent of digital media technologies on academic discourse. Specifically, it addresses the changes in the argumentative realizations of two academic genres belonging to the same genre colony, written abstracts (WAB) and video abstracts (VAB), in management journals. The study proposes an analysis of the rhetorical strategies used by authors to express their authorial selves and to create a relationship with the readers. Specifically, the study addresses the role and changes in metadiscourse, focusing on stance (hedges, boosters, self-mentions, attitude markers) and engagement markers (reader pronouns, directives, questions, shared knowledge, asides) as means for writers to guide readers and display an appropriate professional persona. These elements are an important aspect of persuasive writing and may be employed differently due to the genre hybridization caused by the multimodal shift of the textual realization. Results of the analysis will show that metadiscursive items are far more present in VABs than in WABs, thus highlighting a greater interactivity in the construction of the academic argument as regards both the presence of the author and the search for scholarly solidarity communality with the parent discourse community.