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- Title
The communication of death services: Critical Discourse Analysis applied to Servilusa websites.
- Authors
Caldeira Pais, Pedro; Pereira Neto, Pedro
- Abstract
This article focuses on a case study of Servilusa's websites -- the largest funeral company in Portugal --, through the application of Critical Discourse Analysis to its texts and images. The analysis results are divided into three global parts. Firstly, discursive trends used on the sites are identified, verifying, among other things, a high degree of corporatization, an innovative posture - taking into account a funeral industry tending to be conservative -, the attempt to produce meaning and symbolism in the advertising of its services, and a limited power of choice for the users of the sites due to the absence of a price list. A second part is dedicated to concrete discursive strategies on the part of the company, verifying the differentiation by social strata that it produces in the presentation of various services, encompassed in a communication for the upper classes; and the generational differentiation in the service of advance payment of the funeral itself, in which the discourse, addressed to the elderly, encourages the latter to be held accountable for the release of other family members from burdens and concerns after their death. The last part is dedicated to the communication and representation of death, with a tendency towards a speech about death that is indirect and strongly euphemistic and subtle, both in the text and in the images.
- Subjects
PORTUGAL; CRITICAL discourse analysis; FUNERALS; WEBSITES; UPPER class; FUNERAL industry; DIFFERENTIATION (Sociology)
- Publication
Observatorio (OBS*), 2022, Vol 16, Issue 4, p160
- ISSN
1646-5954
- Publication type
Article