Amazon produktuen gomendioei buruzko diziplina aritzeko azterketa (2010-2019) merkataritza elektronikoko komunikazioan, handitutako zantzuzkotasunerantz

Abstract

From a multidisciplinary perspective, this thesis analyses online reviews as a genre and proposes an innovative theoretical development to Communication. It is highlighted the role of interfaces and mediations in content production, circulation and reception. An augmented indexicality is argued to respond to the singularities of the Internet. The objective is to introduce an innovative methodological and theoretical perspective on online text research, specifically, in discourses regarding the purchase of products. A multidisciplinary methodology construct is built with contributions from Computer Science, Neuromarketing and Cognitive Neurosciences, in addition to traditional methodologies of the Social Sciences. A multidisciplinary analysis is performed through three phases which correspond to the discourse analysis of Eliseo Verón’s Theory of Social Discourses (1987). Therefore, the conditions of production of the online reviews as discourses are reconstructed; the online reviews are analysed with a sociosemiotic analysis of a corpus of 700 Amazon.com 2010-2014 reviews, Sentiment Analysis, N-grams analysis, a contrast with the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and an exploration of reviews on Youtube; studies on the conditions of reception of online reviews are performed in the Basque Country and Navarre (a 474 participants survey and a focus group); and 19 in-depth interviews are conducted to experts from the fields of Communication, Semiotics, Computer Science and Neuromarketing. Online reviews filter and reference product messages, and define a shared space in the Internet networking system. The reviews are predominantly indexes, and they mediate between the individual and social level, and influence purchase decisions. They are social markers which are incorporated and reproduced by users and consumers. These social markers allow individuals to be part of the Internet community in a post-truth context, in which hierarchical systems and figures of authority are compromised.