Persuasive <i>dispositio</i> and Hybridity in Digital Science Crowdfunding: The Generic Structure of Project Videos

Since grant applications have become a highly demanding administrative procedure, scientists have recently turned to alternative funding sources, such as crowdfunding, to raise money for their experiments.One of the most significant digital genres embedded in online crowdfunding platforms is the science crowdfunding video (SCV), in which scientists have only a few minutes to promote their research projects.This genre has proved to produce a substantial persuasive effect on potential donors; however, no genre studies to date have examined the contents to be included and their arrangement.Relying primarily on Swales's move analysis model (1990, 2004), this study explores the rhetorical structure of this innovative digital genre.For this purpose, a sample of 50 SCVs was collected from Experiment.com, and their moves were identified and coded with the qualitative analysis software Atlas.ti 8.In addition, contextual inquiries were made by examining texts from Experiment.com and conducting three interviews with scientists involved in the production of SCVs.The analysis identified seven compulsory moves, persuasively arranged, through which scientists convey their communicative purposes.Moreover, the results demonstrate the hybrid nature of this genre, sharing discursive features with other promotional and scientific genres.