Lies at Wal-Mart: Style and the subversion of genre in the Life at Wal-Mart blog

Blogs are increasingly popular among private persons, public institutions, non- governmental organizations and companies. While a range of communicative functions is associated with blogs in the way they are used specifically by corporations, one key area of interest is clearly public relations. This is especially pertinent to large businesses that face a significant amount of criticism in the media. As an example for such a case, this paper presents an analysis of Life at Wal-Mart, an image blog maintained by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Following a description of corporate blogs as an emerging genre, I will outline how Life at Wal-Mart is used to further specific communicative goals of the company and what the findings indicate for a modern theory of digital genres.

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