Money talks: Discourse patterns and financial information seeking on Reddit

This article examines how financial literacy is constructed and communicated in peer-to-peer online communities, with attention to the linguistic and rhetorical strategies that characterize informal financial advice-giving. Through a corpus linguistics analysis of r/personalfinance, one of Reddit’s largest and most active financial communities, we analyze a collection of threads using AntConc to conduct keyword, collocation, and concordance examination. The findings reveal Reddit financial threads are an informal learning environment with distinct rhetorical conventions that inform how financial knowledge is produced and shared among non-expert audiences. The article concludes by discussing implications for library and information science, particularly regarding financial literacy programming, information literacy instruction, and the role of academic librarians in supporting patrons who turn to peer online communities as primary sources of financial guidance.