Being “geek” in digital communication: The case of Chinese online customer reviews

In popular culture, the stereotypically iconized “geek” can be identified in different media narratives from mainstream television to magazines. Drawing upon insights from sociolinguistics and business communication studies, this paper attempts to identify the discursive constructs of “being geek” in Chinese digital business communication. By collecting the discourse data of online customer reviews from amazon.cn and analyzing the data based on the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study investigates how linguistic mechanisms operate in the shaping of geek culture and the construction of “being geek” in the participatory communication of business. The results revealed lexical variables and generic intertextuality are prominent in the discourse construction of “being geek”, to create a stimulus for a promotional culture in business communication.


Introduction
There is an increasing tendency in subculture scholarship to study "geek chic" as a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of experts in this field. "Geek" was originally a derogatory term deriving from the German word "geek", meaning fool or freak (Konzack, 2014: 52). "Geek" is a term used to mean an insult to describe eccentric and nonmainstream people and "to degrade and belittle intelligent outcasts". However, recently, its meaning has undergone a shift from being a derogatory insult (i.e., geek-as-sideshow-freak) to being a favorite term of endearment (i.e., geekas-intelligent-expert) (McArthur, 2009: 61).
The definition of "geek" on the online Oxford English Dictionary refers to "a person who is extremely devoted to and knowledgeable about computers or related technology." ("geek, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/77307. Accessed 27 February 2019.). The psychological attributes of "geeks" are generally associated with images of being "enthusiastic" and "expressing pride in their membership in a media and computer-based subculture" (McCain et al., 2015: 2). Stereotypically, the iconized "geek" in popular culture can be identified in different media narratives from mainstream television to magazines, or found within specific groups and spaces, including "geekish" characters such as "Sheldon" in the TV series The Big Bang Theory, (Bednarek, 2012) cartoon characters in the comic books, or the eccentric fashion covers of lifestyle magazines. In the reality of everyday life, many trendy youngsters who wear glasses without lenses or cosplay make-up on various occasions, for example in subway stations, clubs, and metropolitan shopping malls, demonstrate geekish elements as well. Due to the specificities of "space" and "occasions", geeks can be classified into diverse categories (such as "science geeks", "game geeks", "computer geeks", and so on) with specific and prominent traits and qualities. Although the stereotypical features of a "geek" can be realized in various media and by young people, one of the important qualities of being a geek is a supposed expertise required in a certain field or on a certain topic. After all, on one hand, the participants in the geek culture are identified to be active rather than passive (Sugarbaker, 1998) and on the other hand, "a geek is one who becomes an expert on a topic by will and determination" (McArthur, 2009: 62). Thus, "to be geek is to be engaged, to be enthralled in a topic, and then to act on that engagement. Geeks come together based on common expertise on a certain topic" (McArthur, 2009: 62). Therefore, "geek" can be roughly characterized as actively belonging to a group of participants with a shared expertise in a communal discourse on a corresponding field or topic. In other words, the social currency between self-proclaimed geeks is formed through "demonstrating knowledge of or devotion to these interests" (McCain et al., 2015: 2)such as sharing common themes; the use of magic or highly advanced technologies; elements from history or foreign cultures, etc. (p. 2).
The social construction of geekish identities can be realized either in an explicit or implicit way. Some groups of geeks, for example, in Chinese, are self-labeled to be "学霸xuébà" (learning geeks), "达人dá rén" (talented person) (健身达人jiànshēn dárén (sports geeks) or "技术控jìshù kòng" (technology geeks), and "电脑控diànnǎo kòng" (computer geeks); At times, the identity of "being geek" is implicitly shaped through performance in interactional encounters. This is because identity is not a static but rather a dynamic concept, which is usually situated in types of discourses in social practice. Situated identities "are the attributions that are made about participants in a particular setting as a consequence of their actions" (Alexander and Lauderdale, 1977: 225). Thus, situated identities are usually associated with participating in social activities. In the context of online customer reviews, reviewers reveal varying amounts of personal information about themselves within the review text, whether they are conscious of it or not, or whether they do so deliberately or not. After all, identity is "that part of an individual's self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership in a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership" (Tajfel, 1981: 255).
Thus, stereotypical and social identities offer opportunities to geeks to share their purchase experiences from either the technical or practical points of view. Their commentaries not only provide a new way to show their personal views on certain products in digital media, but also enhance strategic discourse practices, such as the discursive construction of identity designed to persuade the members of e-commercial community into act of purchasing.
The study aims to explore how online customer reviewers discursively perform "being a geek" in relation to a particular purchased product in the participatory context of digital communication. The two research questions that guided the study are formulated as follows: 1) How is "being geek" discursively constructed in the discourse of online customer reviews? 2) How does the construction of discursive identity perform in a promotional culture?

Online reviews as genre: narrative or commentary?
Online customer reviews refer to "peer-generated product evaluations posted on company or third party websites" (Mudambi and Schuff, 2010: 186). These reviews are a "primarily text-based, asynchronous (and very often, anonymous) genre of computer-mediated communication" (Vásquez, 2014: 3). The discourse of online customer reviews in the e-commerce context has developed into a prominent topic of interest for scholars of business communication and discourse analysis.
Digital technologies provide opportunities for consumers to express their opinions about purchased products, services, and purchasing experiences (Evans et al., 2001). The traditional way of marketing or communicating in relation to business has changed due to the impact of Internet technology in people's everyday lives. Instead of relying on merely WOM (word-of-mouth) marketing or traditional advertising, businesses now make use of more digitalized and networked communications between sellers and buyers. Seeking the online opinions of other consumers is increasingly becoming a part of purchasing behavior (Pitta and Fowler, 2008). The power of the content generated by consumers has become progressively stronger than the influence of "branding" the product in post-modern societies. Consumers should have the option to make better consumption choices by considering the information available on the network and having access to other consumers' suggestions and opinions, thus reducing the power and control of brands (Zureik and Mowshowitz, 2005). In addition, online reviews have had a massive economic impact on the marketing of products (Piller, 1999;Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006), and even the number of reviews available affects the perceived informativeness of the review and the popularity of the product (Lee et al., 2008). Accordingly, companies such as eBay.com and Amazon.com have taken actions to effectively increase the benefits of using online reviews (Melnik and Alm, 2002).
Among the diverse forms of contents generated by consumers on the Internet, online reviews have been evolving into a communicative genre and are becoming a naturalized form in the discourse of online business communication. The discourse of online customer reviews has aroused the interest of scholars from both marketing and discourse studies. Marketing scholars are keen on the economic impact of online customer reviews, i.e., the relationship between the online review as a brand-new way of marketing and its massive influence in business practices (Cockrum, 2011;Ghose and Ipeirotis, 2011). Scholars of discourse and communication instead try to find the linguistic mechanisms of online customer reviews in relation to their communicative values and social meanings within business practices (Vásquez, 2014). One of these social meanings lies in the notion that the discourses of the online reviews serve to create and perform participants' situated identities in online communities because reviewers' identities are very much of interest and use to readers of online reviews (Sen and Lerman, 2007;Vermeulen and Seegers, 2009). Therefore, this study intends to combine "geek" studies with digital discourse studies so as to identify the elements of "being geek" in the discourse of online customer reviews, and then to explore the linguistic/textual features that emerge in the participatory digital context.
Online customer reviews have been widely explored as a genre in discourse analysis studies (Racine, 2002;Pollach, 2008;Taboada, 2011;Skalicky, 2013). Although adopting different perspectives, the previous studies tend to regard the discourse of online customer reviews as having generic qualities. Based on a corpus of data, Taboada (2011) identified the specific stages of online movie reviews as the Descriptive Stage and the Evaluation stage. Skalicky (2013) explored the social and rhetorical processes of the most "helpful" product reviews in the discourse of amazon.com. Moreover, the online product reviews of amazon.com have been found to be characterized as conveying a personal style of writing (Racine, 2002), and as sharing similar rhetorical strategies (Pollach, 2008). Mudambi and Schuff (2010) even suggested that product type could have an influence on the style of reviews to determine whether or not a review was "helpful". There are quite a few studies on the online reviews of amazon.com in the Western context. However, there are few studies that are concerned with the discourse of online reviews in the Chinese context. Therefore, for the present study, the customer reviews of Kindle (Paperwhite) available at Amazon.cn (a Chinese online shopping website acquired by Amazon.com) are selected in order to study a Chinese case.
Although the online review takes the form of digital discourse, as a genre, it is still ambiguously demarcated. For example, as noted above, Taboada (2011) attempted to apply the SFL approach to explore online movie reviews and identified their stages as descriptive stages with an obligatory evaluation stage. De Jong and Burgers (2013) conducted a genre analysis of online film reviews showing generic differences between the online film reviews written by consumer critics and those written by professional critics. They suggested that consumer critics mainly evaluated the movies from a personal perspective, whereas professional critics largely described the movie instead of evaluating it. From a different perspective and informed by sociolinguistic narrative (Labov and Waletzky, 1967;Bamberg, 2004Bamberg, , 2007Ochs and Capps, 2001), Vasques (2014) preferred to consider online reviews as digital narratives which tell/ share personal experiences online, and even proposed a cline of narrativity as a framework to describe the continuum of accounts of personal experience-sharing online (Vásquez, 2014).
However, in the present case study, the online review is preferred to regard as a genre of commentary, which is essentially evaluative, rather than a genre of narrative out of the following considerations. First, online customer reviews are "peer-generated product evaluations posted on company or third party websites" (Mudambi and Schuff, 2010: 186). Thus, the primary performative function of customer reviews is to evaluate a product or service. Second, the genres of online reviews have been closely examined in previous literature, indicating that the identified generic structures carry out an evaluative function in whatever form they may take. For example, both descriptive stages and evaluative stages have been identified in movie online reviews, but the evaluative stage is compulsory (Taboada, 2011). In addition, Vásquez (2014) viewed online reviews as variations of a typical narrative, thus suggesting that there is a cline of narrativity in the discourse of customer online reviews by combining Labov's framework together with Ochs and Capps's (2001) approach. Indeed, Labov and Waletzky's (1967) narrative model consists of six components, i.e., abstract, orientation, complication, resolution, evaluation, and coda, where the evaluation is generally a critical element because it helps to explain the relevance of the central and reportable events of a story. Moreover, Cortazzi and Jin (2000) also observed that evaluation in narratives can be analyzed from two perspectives which are complementary with each other. One is to evaluate the evaluation of the narrative, which means that the teller structures his/her evaluations inside the narrative, while the other is to evaluate the narrative as a performance, that is, to evaluate through narrative. This view approaches narrative as a linguistic/textual mechanism to express authorial evaluations. On the basis of the studies reviewed above, it can be asserted that online reviews are evaluative in nature.

Data and methodology
In order to respond to the research questions formulated for this case study, reviews of Kindle on the website of amazon.cn were collected as data and sampled. The sampled data were analyzed within the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (hereafter CDA).

Data sample
As the focus of the study was the discourse of amazon.cn (amazon.com@China), online customer reviews of the Kindle product were collected as data and sampled within an approximately one-month period in 2015 from February 18th to March 20th. The data sample consists of 446 Kindle comments with 33,739 Chinese characters in total. The online customer reviews were posted with diverse textual features as shown in Extract 1 (see the Appendix).
The examples in Extract 1 clearly show that there is a range of variation in text length. Examples 1-2 are concisely composed, while examples 3-4 seem to be lengthy and well organized. Examples 5-6 present both verbal and pictorial instructions. Generally, the online reviews collected for the case study demonstrate some kinds of evaluations. The short and concise reviews are evaluative, explicitly commenting on the purchases of the product, whereas the longer ones are reflective of personal experiences.

Methodology: CDA and textually-oriented discourse analysis
The analytical approach adopted in the present study is "textually-oriented discourse analysis" (hereafter TODA), informed by Fairclough (1992Fairclough ( , 2003 framework for CDA, which is rooted in critical linguistics (Fowler et al., 1979;Hodge andKress, 1993/1979) from the 1970s and developed into critical approaches to study the use of language in the social sciences. The essence of this approach is that it is interdisciplinary (van Dijk 1997(van Dijk , 1998. Differing from cognitive-social approach (van Dijk 1986(van Dijk , 1987(van Dijk , 1990(van Dijk , 1991(van Dijk , 1998Chilton, 1996Chilton, , 2004 which centers on the discursive production or reproduction of social issues or domination (cognitively and socially informed) in society, and the discourse-historical approach (Wodak, 2001) where CDA is framed as interdisciplinary and problem-driven (Wodak, 2001: 69), TODA tends to provide a detailed analysis of the language in use (the textual analysis) in the discourse.
TODA (Fowler, 1991(Fowler, , 1996Swales, 1990;Fairclough, 1992Fairclough, , 1995Fairclough, , 2003Stubbs, 1996;Gee, 1999Gee, , 2014) is based on the belief that texts are the central parts of social events because "language is an irreducible part of social life, dialectically interconnected with other elements of social life" (Fairclough, 2003: 2). Indeed, Fairclough's three-dimensional framework for CDA involves three thematic constructs, namely, the text (the study of texture); the discoursal practices (the concept of order of discourse), and the sociocultural practices (the concepts of culture). The three-dimensional framework aims to map the three separate forms of analysis onto one another: analysis of (spoken or written) language texts, analysis of discourse practice (processes of text production, distribution, and consumption) and analysis of discursive events as instances of sociocultural practice. Therefore, this approach tends to combine the work inspired by social theory and work which focuses on the language of texts. However, Fairclough (2003) suggested that text analysis is an essential part of discourse analysis because "texts are the causal outcomes of the social agents in social actions, social events or social structures" (p. 8).
As Fairclough (2003) observed, texts are multifunctional and are associated with ways of acting, representing, and being. Thus, as part of social events, texts can be analyzed through performing two actions: one is "looking at them (these texts) in terms of three aspects of meaning, Action, Representation and Identification and how these are realized in the various features of texts (their vocabulary, their grammar, and so forth)" (p. 28). The other is "making a connection between the concrete social events and more abstract social practices by asking which genres, discourses, and styles are drawn upon here, and how are the different genres, discourses, and styles articulated together in the text" (p. 28). Fairclough argued that social and cultural phenomena "are realized in textual properties of texts in ways which make them extraordinarily sensitive indicators of sociocultural processes, relations, and change" (Fairclough, 1995: 4). In other words, social and cultural analyses can be enriched by textual evidence. After all, what is "in" the text and what is absent from the text can offer significant insights into sociocultural analysis.
Thus, Fairclough (1995) provides a framework to analyze discourse where the meanings are situated and captured from a bottom-up approach through examining the textual features linguistically, such as various grammatical relations to the meanings, or intertextually, such as the text types or genres represented or inscribed in the surface of the text (Fairclough, 1995: 4-5). TODA demands diversity of focus with respect to levels of analysis because it assumes that any level of organization may be relevant to critical and ideological analysis (p. 7). Therefore, the analysis "requires attention to textual form, structure, and organization at all levels (p. 7)", including lower levels such as the phonological, grammatical, lexical levels, as well as higher levels such as patterns of argumentation or generic structures.
In contrast with other methods of CDA, TODA is concerned with the centrality of text analysis. However, as Fairclough (2003) clarified, "the text analysis is an essential part of discourse analysis, but discourse analysis is not merely the linguistic analysis of texts" (p. 3). Moreover, text analysis is not confined to mere linguistic analysis, but also includes interdiscursive analysis, which regards "texts in terms of the different discourses, genres and styles they draw upon and articulate together (Fairclough, 2003: 3)".
Informed by Fairclough's approach to discourse analysis, the present study aimed to uncover the identity of "being geek" in the discourse of online customer reviews. Through exploring the textual features and the linguistic mechanisms operating in this discourse, the identity of the "geek" can be discursively constructed within the promotional culture.

Data analysis
Informed by TODA, this section aims to apply textual analysis to map out how "being geek" is constructed through linguistic or discursive mechanisms in the discourse practices of online customer reviewers. The textual features manifested in the discourse which are conducive to the discursive construction of geekish identity include three variables: the use of lexis, lexical rhetoric, and generic intertextuality as discourse practice, as will be discussed in the following sub-sections, respectively.

"Being geek" as identified through the use of lexis
There are several dimensions used to define "geek" or "nerd" in geek culture. As noted in the previous section, being "geekish" is particularly associated with anyone characterized by fannish, technical, or subcultural interests and pursuits in studies related to entertainment, academic, and computer culture. Thus, the main feature of being geek is to recognize oneself as such, to express a sense of pride in having membership in a particular communal discourse, and to be socially misfit in digital communication. Thus, "being misfit" suggests that the self is identified to stand out or to belong to a particular membership. In the discourse of online customer reviews, the process of recognizing a common self in the communal discourse is realized both explicitly and implicitly.
Examples 7 and 8 from Extract 2 illustrate this case. After thinking for a long time, I finally got started and I can throw away my mobile phone. Honestly, I didn't see any evaluation. The page turning speed was slower than I thought, but the sense of use can make up. No folder is a bit of a hassle. I am a sorting control (我是分类控wǒ shì fēnlèikòng), currently only use the favorites, a little troublesome.
In these cases, reviewers 7 and 8 explicitly name themselves either as a "book worm" or as "a sorting control". These references clearly assign a label that means they are especially skilled in a certain area and potentially "misfits" with respect to other people.
While explicit realization of identity is through naming, implicit realization occurs through the use of pronouns. Participants and their identities in digital communication are often linguistically marked by the use of personal pronouns. "Being geek" is an issue that deals with discursive construction of "identity" in discourse practice. Thus, we would like to explore how "self" is discursively constructed. The data from the case study show 288 instances of the pronouns "我wǒ (I)" and "我们wǒmen (we) " in the customer reviews. The use of "我wǒ (I)" and "我们wǒmen (we) "can be further classified into two types: the active use of ""我wǒ (I)"and the causative use of "我wǒ (I)" as shown in Table 1 (see examples 9-12 in the Appendix). Examples 9-12 demonstrate that the active use of "I" usually takes the structure of "I do" (with Kindle) or "I think" (about Kindle), which indicates that Kindle users employ "I" to initiate activity in digital narratives that involves "my" own action. In addition, the causative uses of "I" are usually shaped with the structure of "(using/buying Kindle) makes me" ("让我ràngwǒ (make me)", "对我duìwǒ (for me)", "于我yúwǒ (to/for me)", "使我shǐwǒ (make me)" and "---了我lewǒ (---to me)". This suggests that the use of Kindle is associated with experiential evidence of "I/me being as a Kindle user".

"Being geek" as identified through lexical rhetoric
The second discourse practice that contributes to the construction of "being geek" is lexical rhetoric, namely, the use of insider languages and "code-switching". Insider languages can be identified as the marked language that serves to construe the identity of self, which is then aligned to a speech community. For example, the insider language found out in the discourse of online customer reviews is exemplified as "499" and "899", both of which mean that the two versions of Kindle are respectively sold at the price of RMB 499 (Kindle) and RMB 899 (Kindle Paperwhite). Similarly, lay people cannot quite understand technical references such as "续航能力xùháng nénglì (Battery life)", "免 费mobi资源miǎnfèi mobi zīyuán (unprotected MOBI formatted contents)", "云端yúnduān (Cloud collections)" and trendy phrases such as "累觉不爱lèijiàobùài (I feel too tired to be loving it)", "满星推荐mǎnxīng tuījiàn (recommended with five stars)".

"Being geek" as constructed through generic intertextuality
Generic intertextuality is another strategy used as discursive practice to construe the Kindle users as "geek". "Generic intertextuality" (Briggs and Bauman, 1992) refers to the phenomenon of online reviews as a genre of commentary that is not rigidly confined to be customers' evaluations for its own sake to the Kindles or their purchase of Kindle, but that opens up possibilities for other communicative purposes in the digital communication of business. A canonical commentary as a highly evaluative text is usually subject to "bending" (Bhatia, 1993) in order to be differentiated into different planes of discourse. These planes are summarized to be three types of generic intertextualities, including the divisions between "formal writing vs. informal writing", "experiential discourse vs. inspirational discourse", and "verbal discourse vs. pictorial discourse".

Formal writing vs. informal writing
The genres specified in the discourse of online customer reviews are hybridized in terms of the distinction between formal writing and informal writing. Some online reviews are formal and technically oriented to provide a specific evaluation of the performance of the product or to explicate or illustrate step-by-step how to use Kindle. In contrast, informal reviews are non-technically-oriented and they are more concerned with the elements of personal narratives as well as general comments about the products and delivery services. Examples 13-19 (see Extract 4 in the Appendix) provide illustrations of formal writing vs. informal writing.
Examples 13-15 reflect informal writing and consist of remarks that are less technical remarks in terms of their content because the reviews are less informative and based on the reviewer's general thoughts about the elements of shopping experience or the product. The reviews in formal writings (examples 16-19) are instead lengthy and informative stretches of discourse that elaborates of the performance of products. The discourse functions of these formal writings can be summarized as follows. First, the geekish identity can be cued through formal writing since these reviews show a command of technical expertise to some extent. The informative customer reviews seem to be well sorted out with highly technical comments on the performance of Kindle (see the italics in example 16) and they are well structured with numeral headings and points (as shown in examples 17-19). Secondly, the customer reviews with formal writing seem to be thematically contractive, mainly focusing on the compositional qualities of Kindle and its usage. Therefore, the tenor of these reviews is more technically instructive for fresh users among the participatory community or among outsiders.

Experiential discourse vs. inspirational discourse
Geekish attributes seem to be identified through the discourse of sharing personal shopping experiences with other participatory users, in which inspirational discourses are embedded. Thus, the discourse of online customer reviews also features generic intertextuality demonstrated through their integration of experiential discourse and inspirational discourse. Examples of such instances are shown in Extract 5 (see the Appendix).
Apart from the division between formal writing and informal writing, the second type of generic intertextuality falls within a division between experiential discourse and inspirational discourse, which both seem to involve the personal narrative. However, experiential discourse deals with the discourses on the plane of recounting personal experiences, while inspirational discourse seems to involve the speech elements used in inspiring other Kindle users to call for an action. Experiential discourse can be marked with the key elements identified in oral narratives such as cause-effect relationships and happenings in the past (see the bold in the extracts), whereas inspirational discourse carries the evaluative elements to stimulate a response from the affiliated audience, such as offering a straight recommendation (bold + italicized) as shown in example 21 [是全新的 我觉的 还值 shìquánxīnde wǒjiàode háizhí (The replacement is brand new, and I feel It's worth it)] and example 23 [PS：近视眼的人推荐，眼睛好的人， 还有本钱折腾，就不强力推荐了 jìnshìyǎnderén tuījiàn, yǎnjīnghǎoderén , háiyǒu běnqián zhēteng, jiù bù qiánglìtuījiànle (People with myopia are recommended, people with good eyes, and the cost of tossing, it is not strongly recommended.], or giving a direct suggestion as in example 20 [建议jiànyì以后直接通过"在线聊天" 的方式联系亚马逊客服，这个比电话来的快。(I recommended to contact Amazon customer service directly through "online chat" in the future, which is faster than the phone.)] and example 22 [直接899吧 绝不会后悔的! zhíjiē 899 ba, juébùhuìhòuhuǐde (go direct for 899; and you won't regret it)]. Such a binary distinction usually appears in a customer review and shows that experiential discourse usually claims an epistemic authority over the evidential standings of the inspirational discourse. In other words, the evidential reliability of calling for a certain action is based on the first-person experiential talk. Thus, the custom reviewers are considered experienced users who are qualified to offer reliable knowledge, suggestions, or recommendations to other participants or outsiders. In this sense, the geekish identity of customer reviewers can be demonstrated through the workings of two different discourses. Overall, experiential discourse and inspirational discourse perform different functions; i.e., the experiential discourse tends to fulfill self-expression of personal experience or stories, while the inspirational discourse serves to position the participants to be potential Kindle users.

Textual/verbal discourse vs. pictorial discourse
Notably, the geekish characteristics can be captured through placement of the pictures or photos to the verbal messages in the discourse of customer reviews. Thus, the third generic hybridity can be spelled out by distinguishing textual/verbal discourse from pictorial discourse. Textual/verbal discourse refers to verbally oriented messages posted online, while pictorial discourse refers to the adoption of images that co-work with the verbal messages. Examples of this usage are shown in Extract 6 (see the Appendix).
In these examples, customer reviews are verbally based, which tends to make claims about the use of the product, while adopting images seems to co-work with the verbal message and provides a truer picture of using the products over the claims made. Example 24 shows a general positive comment about Kindle with an image to support the user's comment as true. Similarly, in example 26, the expression of "首先，阅读体验是真的如书一般 shǒuxiān, yuèdútǐyànshìzhēnderúshūyìbān [(first of all, it reads like reading real books)", a metaphorical statement which associates "experience of reading on Kindle" with "experience of reading the real books", appears with a picture of a Kindle book in a hand. The interaction between the image and the verbal message represents a dual track for communicating about the purchase of product. On one hand, verbal message composes the Kindle user's reactions and attitude to the product; on the other hand, the pictures are visualizing the verbal messages how the verbal works. The interplay between verbal and picture can be shown through the uses of the pronoun "它tā (it)" in the example 24 and 26, in which the referent of"它tā (it)" are directed to the picture of Kindle attached below the customer's words. The pictures seem to provide some degree of truth and evidentiality to the claims made by users. No matter what roles the pictures will serve in the discourse of online customer reviews, the placing of the pictures shows technical presentation or involvement that Kindle users will be engaged with to show off potential attributes of being geekish.
In sum, the generic intertextuality discussed above serve to identify "being geekish", which is classified into three planes. First, formal writing can be distinguished from informal writing in terms of technical discourse vs. non-technical discourse. Technical discourses embedded in the discourse of online customer reviews function to elaborate or explicate the performance of Kindle. This kind of generic intertextuality positions Kindle users as "sophisticated" users rather than lay users or even outsiders. Second, the experiential discourses converge with the inspirational discourses. Experiential discourse serves as a means for self-expression to claim an epistemic authority in relation to using Kindle, whereas inspirational discourse establishes an alignment with other Kindle users. Third, verbal information sometimes works together with pictorial information. Pictorial information serves to provide hard evidence for elaborating the use of Kindle.

Conclusion
This present case study has explored how the geekish identity is constructed through a range of discursive practices in e-business communication. It has identified the discourse mechanisms that underlie the formation of "being a geek" in a digital business context and has examined the functions that the discourse features may perform in a promotional culture.
Social scientists have suggested that people take on social identities in their social interactions and that there are many ways for people to construct their identities through discourse (Butler, 1990(Butler, , 2004Goffman, 1959;Zimmerman, 1998;Benwell and Stokoe, 2006;Bucholtz and Hall, 2005). For example, identity work can be distinguished as being transportable from situated identities and discourse identities (Zimmerman, 1998). Transportable identities refer to the individual's latent or invoked attributes or characteristics that he or she carries across discourse contexts, whereas discourse and situated identities involve locally occasioned roles adopted in a speech situation (Page, 2012: 16-17). Therefore, identity can be understood as a dynamic concept, which is usually situated in social settings and is closely connected with language in use. The discursive view of identity can also be applicable to digital discourse, where online participants perform in order to exchange information in a situated community. The performance of these participants "gives" or "gives off" (Goffman, 1959) their situated identity through a sequence of interactions or articulations in digital communication. Echoing Page's (2012) discursive view of identity, which "is ideally positioned to interpret the identity work that occurs in online contexts. Online interaction primarily takes place by means of discourse: text that is created by its participants" (p. 17), this study has attempted to provide insights into the discursive construction of geekish identity in digital communication.
In terms of textual practice, the features of "being geek" can be located through identifying Kindle users as geekish. This identification can be realized in either explicit or implicit ways. The identity of "being geekish" is verbally constructed through the use of lexis and grammar, such as reflexive naming or labeling oneself to be (or in a pursuit of being) an expert or "geek". However, some of the participants identified themselves in implicit ways by adopting lexical strategies to show or to display "a skill" in using Kindle. Some implicit ways of discursive realization involve the use of lexical rhetoric and generic hybridity. Code-switching and insider language are usually adopted to the textual practice. This suggests that such strategies or devices are available and presumably technically oriented to the insider participants of the digital business community. In this case study, generic intertextuality has been identified as a discourse practice that involves the discursive construction of being a geek. Genres are hybridized in digital communication to implicitly form an identity of being a fannish or technical person in relation to the Kindle product. In particular, the practices of generic hybridity were classified into three dimensions: formal vs. informal writing, experiential vs. inspirational discourse, and verbal discourse vs. pictorial discourse. Moreover, the discourse functions of these dimensional discourses were teased out to elaborate how they contribute to the formation of being a geek.
Indeed, both explicit and implicit ways of realizing the discursive identity of "a geek" reflect a process of selfidentification in belonging to a communal membership, where the roles of the participants are contextually presupposed and the digitally communicated topics and values are shared. In the context of social media, the interactions among the users can also be bound with kind of shared identity. This seems to fit in with the concept of "ambient" fellowship noted by Zappavigna (2012) and this form of online fellowship is "ambient" due to participants' indirect interaction with each other. Thus, the "ambient audiences" (Zappavigna, 2011(Zappavigna, , 2012(Zappavigna, , 2014 are affiliated to interact in the digital context and to perform their relational identity to do things through digital platforms (Zappavigna, 2014).
In conclusion, in the business communicative context, there appears to be a tension between communicative pathos and communicative ethos. The individual Kindle users can perform the "geek" identity to inform or interact with other ambient audiences by posting reviews online. Thus, a bond between the digital participants (customers) and other ambient audience (including the potential customers) is established. The online fellowship of customers enacts the geek identity to potentially align with other customers through various practices of digital interaction.