Digital media users and Facebook hashtags' misinterpretations
ISSN: 1468-4527
Article publication date: 27 July 2020
Issue publication date: 23 October 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines reasons of pragmatic functions' misinterpretation of three types of Facebook hashtags: long, short and multiple mixed hashtags.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus group interviews of 15 English language learners, who are also active users of Facebook and hashtags, are conducted. Thematic analysis is performed through the software Nvivo for arriving at reliable findings.
Findings
The findings show that unknown vocabulary in contents and lowercasing in long and short hashtags are major factors that cause misinterpretation. Also, the symbol of underscore and appropriate usage of upper and lowercasing of alphabets should be adopted in hashtag writing for the improvement in communication and successful conveyance of the intended meaning.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the online hashtag writing style by finding reasons for the misinterpretations of different types of hashtags. Hashtags have been developed for adequate communication (Livingstone, 2012), but in Pakistan, hashtags are practiced as a “fashionable” trend and thus result in misinterpretation and inadequate communication among readers even of the same background (Tariq and Sarfraz, 2018). Moreover, this study focuses on the trend of hashtagging that is common among university students and particularly second-language learners because they are active users of Facebook and adopt the latest trends quickly.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was conducted at the Punjab University College of Information Technology, a Pakistani university commonly known as Punjab University (New Campus, Lahore, Pakistan). The authors would like to thank assistant professor Ms. Tayyaba Tariq and participants of English language class for their contribution to this project.
Citation
Tariq, U., Sarfraz, S. and Abbas, A. (2020), "Digital media users and Facebook hashtags' misinterpretations", Online Information Review, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 1183-1198. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-08-2019-0262
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited