Adblock detected! The rhetoric of unblock ads
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29107/rr2019.3.3Abstract
Our times are characterized by a rapid evolution of means and ways of communication. Thanks to the Internet, the genres of persuasive functional texts are constantly appearing (and disappearing). These include messages encouraging to unblock advertisements. The message sender aims at convincing the Internet user to uninstall the adblocker (the name comes from the most popular AdBlock software), resign, or at least to add the given website to the so-called white list because the service earns money thanks to the displayed ads. In this article I analyze a text corpus of 50 examples, mainly in Polish, using a research apparatus of rhetoric. On this basis, I discuss genre characteristics and distinctive argumentation strategies, which - as the analysis shows - can be arranged in a system defined by two axes: potential losses or profits and agency, which can be in the domain of either the sender or the recipient. As a result, I present typical patterns of contemporary messages encouraging to unblock advertisements on the Internet.
References
„Ad Blocking Experiments”. 2017. https://labs.ft.com/2017/02/ad-blocking-experiments (23.03.2019).
Bray, Nancy. 2018. „How Do Online News Genres Take Up Knowledge Claims From a Scientific Research Article on Climate Change?”. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088318804822.
Budzyńska-Daca, Agnieszka, i Ewa Modrzejewska (red.). 2018. Retoryka negocjacji. Scenariusze. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Poltext.
Cebrat, Grzegorz Antoni. 2018. „File Not Found: Error 404 as an Example of a Spontaneous Web Genre”. Półrocznik Językoznawczy Tertium 3 (1): 78–89. https://doi.org/10.7592/Tertium2018.3.1.Cebrat.
Finley, Klint. 2017. „Ad-Blocking Just Might Save the Ad Industry”. Wired, https://www.wired.com/2017/04/ad-blocking-just-might-save-ad-industry (23.03.2019).
Freedman, Aviva, i Peter Medway (red.). 2005. Genre and the New Rhetoric. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
„Geist Editor” Parsons, Zack. 2016. „Something Awful – We See You Are Running Ad Block, Motherfucker”. somethingawful.com. http://www.somethingawful.com/news/adblocker-nag--screens (23.03.2019).
IAB Polska. 2016. „Zjawisko blokowania reklam. Studium problemu”. https://www.iab.org.pl/wp--content/uploads/2016/08IABPolska_Adblocking_Raport_20160830.pdf (23.03.2019).
IKO. 2019. „Już 76 proc. Polaków unika reklam w internecie”. Press.pl. https://www.press.pl/tresc/56815,mindshare_-juz-76-proc_-polakow-unika-reklam-w-internecie (23.03.2019).
Jamieson, Kathleen M Hall. 1977. „Ograniczenia gatunkowe a sytuacja retoryki”, Pamiętnik Literacki 68 (1):. 211-219.
Korolko, Mirosław. 1998. Sztuka retoryki. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.
Marcjanik, Małgorzata. 2009. Mówimy uprzejmie. Poradnik językowego savoir-vivre’u. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Miller, Carolyn R., Amy J. Devitt i Victoria J. Gallagher. 2018. „Genre: Permanence and Change”. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 48 (3): 269–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2018.1454194.
Nielsen, Anne Ellerup i Inger Askehave. 2005. „Digital genres: A challenge to traditional genre theory”. Information Technology and People 18 (2): 120–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840510601504.
„Polscy wydawcy zachęcają użytkowników do nieblokowania reklam. «Ceną za darmowe treści są reklamy»”. 2017. Wirtualnemedia.pl. https://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/blokowanie-reklam-w-internecie-akcja-edukacyjna (23.03.2019).
Popielarczyk, Tomasz. 2016. „Anti-Adblock Killer czyli Adblock, który blokuje tych, którzy blokują Adblocka”. AntyWeb. https://antyweb.pl/anti-adblock-killer-czyli-adblock-ktory-blokuje-tych-ktorzy-blokuja-adblocka (23.03.2019).
Swales, J. 1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge Applied Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Szymanek, Krzysztof. 2001. Sztuka argumentacji. Słownik terminologiczny. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. The content of the license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY licensed articles (postprint versions) may be shared by authors with anyone, on any platform or via any communication channel provided they are attributed to Res Rhetorica as the original publisher.
