Effectiveness of linguistic features for attracting audience: A study of coworking space websites’ headlines

Main Article Content



(1) * Maulidina Marlita Firdausi   
Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang
Indonesia

(2)  Nurenzia Yannuar   
Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang
Indonesia

(3)  Yazid Basthomi   
Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang
Indonesia

(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

The emergence of coworking spaces have disrupted conventional working lifestyle and built a new trend: shared office space which highlights community-based services. Our paper looks at how this new business promotes their service through advertising language in online media. Advertising language in previous studies have mainly focused on slogans found in printed advertisements (Pratiwi et al., 2019; Dubovičienė & Skorupa, 2014; Niken et al., 2013; Suryasa, 2016), but we focus on headlines in internet advertisements, particularly websites. The headlines were analyzed using linguistic feature theories in four levels: phonological, lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels. The analysis discusses the linguistic features used in the coworking spaces’ home page, the use of the linguistic features in the content, and the effectiveness in attracting readers. Data collected for the study include 59 websites from a coworking space reservation platform, Coworker, and interviews with people involved in the industry. Results of the study show that headlines in coworking space websites prominently use alliteration, noun phrases, and hyperbole. Unlike headlines of printed media, digital media has to comply with search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines so that search engines will index the website properly.


HIGHLIGHTS:


  • Linguistic features used in website headlines have several elements in common with headlines in different ad channels, like TVs and printed ads.

  • The main difference between headlines in a digital and printed advertisement is the use of search engine optimization (SEO) strategies in online channels.

  • People’s educational and professional backgrounds can influence how they interpret headlines on websites.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Firdausi, M. M., Yannuar, N., & Basthomi, Y. (2022). Effectiveness of linguistic features for attracting audience: A study of coworking space websites’ headlines. JEES (Journal of English Educators Society), 7(1), 84 - 92. https://doi.org/10.21070/jees.v7i1.1647
Section
Articles
Author Biographies

Maulidina Marlita Firdausi, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang

Maulidina Marlita Firdausi graduated from the English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang. She has been interested in websites, blogging, and content writing since high school. She currently works as a digital content writer for a hosting company headquartered in Lithuania. In her free time, Maulidina loves editing videos and going on adventures.

Nurenzia Yannuar, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang

Nurenzia Yannuar received her Doctoral degree from Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang. She has published research articles on the topics of sociolinguistics, World Englishes, linguistic landscapes, and youth languages.

Yazid Basthomi, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang

Yazid Basthomi is Professor of Applied Linguistics with the Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Currently, he is the convener of the graduate program (MA and PhD) in ELT. He received his Master's from Curtin University and Doctorate from Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. His research interests include genre analysis and interlanguage education. He has also been Coordinator of the Publication Division of the Association for the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN).

References

Anwar, S. T. (2015). Company slogans, morphological issues, and corporate communications. Corporate Communications, 20(3), 360–374. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-09-2013-0056

Arens, W. F., Weigold, M. F., & Arens, C. (2008). Contemporary advertising. Mcgraw-Hill.

Bisnis.com. (n.d.). Prospek Cerah, Jumlah Coworking Space Indonesia Naik 400 Persen - Bisnis Tempo.co. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://bisnis.tempo.co/read/1101327/prospek-cerah-jumlah-coworking-space-indonesia-naik-400-persen

Bouncken, R. B., & Reuschl, A. J. (2018). Coworking-spaces: how a phenomenon of the sharing economy builds a novel trend for the workplace and for entrepreneurship. In Review of Managerial Science (Vol. 12, Issue 1, pp. 317–334). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-016-0215-y

Buarki, H., & Alkhateeb, B. (2018). Use of hashtags to retrieve information on the web. Electronic Library, 36(2), 286–304. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-01-2017-0011

Capdevila, I. (2014). Knowledge Dynamics in Localized Communities: Coworking Spaces as Microclusters. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2414121

Chevalier, S. (2021, July 7). Online sources for product searches worldwide 2020 | Statista. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1034209/global-product-search-online-sources/

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design : choosing among five approaches. Sage Publications.

Cuddon, J. A. (John A., & Preston, Claire. (1998). A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. Blackwell.

Develotte, C., & Rechniewski, E. (2001). Discourse analysis of newspaper headlines : a methodological framework for research into national representations. The Web Journal of French Media Studies, 4(1), 1–12. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316282294_Discourse_analysis_of_newspaper_headlines_a_methodological_framework_for_research_into_national_representations

Dubovičienė, T., & Skorupa, P. (2014). The Analysis of some Stylistic Features of English Advertising Slogans. Žmogus Ir Žodis, 16(3), 61–75. https://doi.org/10.15823/zz.2014.013

Grey, D. D. (2008). Language in Use. Cambridge University.


Harper, M., & Cole, P. (2012). Member Checking: Can Benefits Be Gained Similar to Group Therapy? The Qualitative Report, 17, 1–8. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol17/iss2/1

Khan, S. (2014). Word Play in Destination Marketing: An Analysis of Country Tourism Slogans. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 27(1), 27–39.

Leech, G. N. (1972). English in advertising a linguistic study of advertising in Great Britain. Longman.

Mungkasa, O. (2020). Bekerja dari Rumah (Working From Home/WFH): Menuju Tatanan Baru Era Pandemi COVID 19. The Indonesian Journal of Development Planning, IV(2), 2020

Myers, G. (1994). Words in Ads.

Natkare, B. (2012). Linguistic Analysis of Contemporary Advertising. Indian Streams Research Journal, 1(XII), 1–4.

Niken, S., Made, P., & Yulia, F. (2013). An Analysis on the Language Style of the Utterances in Magnum Advertisements. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 16(1), 31–40.

Pratiwi, D. P. E., Sulatra, I. K., & Candra, K. D. P. (2019). Bali tourism advertisements: a linguistic analysis. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture, 43–53. https://doi.org/10.21744/ijllc.v5n1.582

Ramachandran, V. (2021). Four causes for ‘Zoom fatigue’ and their solutions | Stanford News. https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/

Skorupa, P., & Dubovičienė, T. (2015). Linguistic Characteristics of Commercial and Social Advertising Slogans. Coactivity: Philology, Educology, 23(2), 108–118. https://doi.org/10.3846/cpe.2015.275

Skračić, T., & Kosović, P. (2016). Linguistic Analysis of English Advertising Slogans in Yachting. Transactions on Maritime Science, 5(1), 40–47. https://doi.org/10.7225/toms.v05.n01.005

Surprenant, A. M., & Neath, I. (2009). Principles of memory. Psychology Press.

Suryasa, I. W. (2016). Figurative Language Found in Printed Advertisement. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.21744/ijllc.v2i1.8

Taylor, R. (1981). Understanding the elements of literature : its forms, techniques, and cultural conventions. St. Martin’s Press.

Vasiloaia, M. (2009). Linguistic Features of the Language of Advertising. www.eukanuba-eu.com/

Ward, K., Gott, M., & Hoare, K. (2015). Participants’ views of telephone interviews within a grounded theory study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(12), 2775–2785. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12748

Wells, W., Burnett, J., & Moriarty, S. (2006). Advertising: Principles and Practice. Prentice Hall.