Managing rapport through persuasion : A multi-level analysis of COVID-19 in Chinese celebrity Weibo posts

This study analyses COVID-19 persuasive communication in the context of Chinese Weibo. Although COVID-19 has been investigated by linguistics scholars, little attention has been paid to how communication can help persuade and comfort people during the pandemic. Considering the exponentially augmented impact of digital platforms and their obvious public utility in the handling of future pandemics, it is worth studying the social media persuasive communication about COVID-19. Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, is an immensely popular platform where celebrity “influencers” shape views of the pandemic. From perspectives of relational acts and rapport management, this analysis of Chinese celebrity Weibo posts identifies persuasion at the lexical, syntactic and discursive levels to elucidate how celebrities reassure the public and manage relationships with their audience during the pandemic. The findings reveal that the celebrities use interactional metadiscourse lexicons, syntactic rhetorical devices and discursive framing strategies to maximise persuasion. This study broadens data sets of COVID-19 communications pertaining to the Chinese social media context, offers novel insights into rationales and frameworks of persuasion, and sheds light on the research of rapport management in celebrity discourse. Ultimately, it suggests that creating positive social media communication is an important goal during the pandemic.