Negotiating legitimacy: Interdiscursive hybridity and multimodal adaptation in corporate apology letters across polymedia environments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58221/mosp.v119i3.41017Keywords:
corporate apology letters, critical genre analysis, interdiscursivity, multimodality, polymedia, legitimacyAbstract
Corporate apologies constitute critical legitimacy-repair rituals in contemporary crisis communication. Current research predominantly examines monomodal textual features or born-digital formats, neglecting how traditional apology letters adapt across polymedia landscapes. Two key limitations persist: (1) insufficient attention to interdiscursive negotiations between legal, PR, and marketing discourses within crisis management teams, and (2) inadequate exploration of multimodal transformations when apology letters migrate across channels. This study addresses these gaps through Critical Genre Analysis of 53 corporate apology letters (2009-2024) disseminated via email, newspapers, websites, and social media. Integrating interdiscursive and multimodal frameworks, we examine how rhetorical moves negotiate competing professional objectives while adapting to channel affordances. Three discoveries emerge: First, legal hedging strategies manifest in Moves 8-9 through selective cause omission and indirect responsibility admission. Second, emotional intensification commodifies contrition into relational capital, contrasting with East Asian deference patterns. Third, channel-driven “participatory control” emerges: websites embed regulatory documentation within relational prompts, while social media hijacks interactivity for narrative control. The findings reveal corporate apologies as neoliberal legitimacy interfaces, transforming ethical accountability into linguistically engineered spectacles.
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