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Abstract
Luxury is a 913BE global industry spanning multiple categories according to the Boston Consulting Group, and it represents a major market worldwide, one that has registered a tremendous growth in the last decade. Brands have developed a significant presence in the digital space and consumers have, indeed, augmented their purchases in the online environment. Even though there are a few studies about luxury in media and magazines there seems to be an absence of luxury studies on online magazines. More important, the examination of discursive representations of luxury in the online media has not, until now, deserved much attention. This paper explores the discursive construction and representations of luxury on the top 5 web magazines on luxury lifestyle. It concludes that Leisure, Hedonism, Carpe Diem, Singularity, Escape and Magnificence form the pentactic axis from which web magazines audiences take part in luxury discourse. By exposing this discursive pentactic construct, as well as by uncovering luxury web magazines social-cultural practices, linguistic, visual and strategic discursive principles, this investigation sheds light into the discursive mechanisms through which web magazines luxury discourse occurs. At the same time, the paper found that web magazines portrait luxury standing between two opposing poles: on one hand, luxury discourse is associated with the display of social status; on other hand, it is linked with personal gratification in a clear alignment with postmodern principles of Individualism, Hedonism and Indulgence.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 “Global personal luxury goods market on track for recovery”, Bain & Company, accessed in October 2021 in https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/2021/Global-personal-luxury-goods-market-on-track-for-recovery/
2 See “Older Americans Stockpiled a Record $35 Trillion. The Time Has Come to Give It Away” (Wall Street Journal) retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/older-americans-35-trillion-wealth-giving-away-heirs-philanthropy-11625234216; and “Gen X's Wealth Has Gone Up 50% During the Pandemic” (Bloomberg) retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-05/gen-x-leaves-boomers-trailing-with-50-wealth-jump-in-pandemic
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Samuel André Alves Mateus
Samuel Mateus, PhD, is Professor of Media Discourse Analysis in Madeira University (Portugal), and Integrated Researcher in Labcom in the areas of Media Discourse, Rhetoric and Communication Theory. He is author of Media Discourse (2021) and Introduction to Rhetoric in 21st century ebooks (both in Portuguese) and editor of Media Rhetoric- how advertising and digital media influence us (2021).