A Critical Stylistic Analysis of the Representation and Reception of Veganism on Twitter

Using tools of Critical Stylistics, this research explores the ideological representation of the subcultural practice of veganism on Twitter. 50 tweets with the keyword #veganism were collected to form the dataset of this research. A multi-modal approach was taken to inform the stylistic analysis using the tools of naming analysis, opposition and equivalence. The analysis focussed on different modal features of Twitter namely, usernames, tweets, hashtags and visuals. The analysis revealed that vegan users of Twitter use their account to campaign for veganism and therefore use different discursive strategies to further their vegan ideology. While anti-vegan users did use Twitter to highlight their opposing view of veganism and distanced it from mainstream society, there were not as many anti-vegan users of the tweets in the dataset. The analysis also highlighted that in cases where users chose not to use their name as their username, the usernames were ideologically rich and had a rhetorical or political purpose. Lastly, the analysis revealed that social media is a platform for members of subcultural practices and groups to present their identity.