Metacommunication and Multimodality Strategies in English and Spanish Medinfluencers on Instagram

Abstract

Introduction: Social media has become a means of communication that citizens frequently turn to not only for entertainment but also to obtain updated information on a specific topic. Medfluencers, individuals dedicated to disseminating health and wellness-related topics, often appear on worldwide social platforms. Methodology: In order to discern the discourse, both written and spoken, used by these individuals in both Spanish and English language, a total of 200 posts from Instagram have been analyzed, comprising 100 posts in Spanish and 100 posts in English. Results: The results indicate that there are differences between the two languages, as the Spanish language tends to be more detailed, while in English, there is a preference for being more direct and less exhaustive in the information provided to the audience. Discussion: Studies like the ones presented here, as well as their findings, are not intended to be a mere data describing exercise of a specific type of discourse. Instead, the purpose here is to be valuable for the pedagogy of specific fields of knowledge, such as translation, interpreting, linguistics, text editing, or communication. Conclusions: Some of the main conclusions drawn from this study include the trend of the Spanish language to be more didactic in its explanations, while the English language is more direct and concise. Likewise, regarding multimodal elements, once again, the Spanish language uses them more frequently than the English language. All of this demonstrates that the Spanish-speaking medfluencer aims to be didactic and educate, while in English, their primary goal is simply to provide information.