ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a method to study social media content, which is based on a communication perspective. This means that social media content is considered as a communicative artefact created and received in a specific context, according to the goals of a producer, in view of a receiver, using a code for conveying the meaning and a channel for its physical transmission. Approaching social media content from the perspective of communicative acts within a discursive system means defining them as textual genres, that is, as communicative artefacts defined by a goal and implemented through specific strategies. The chapter presents the main characteristics of argumentation as a specific type of communication activity to explain how to do an argumentative analysis of Online Travel Reviews. Reconstructing the inferential relations between standpoints and arguments allows evaluation of the strength of the arguments, which means if they are reasonable enough and adequate to justify the standpoint.
