Social Imaginary in web advertising of e-readers

Abstract

This paper explores the imaginary meanings that appear in the advertising discourses on e-book reading devices commonly known as e-readers. It starts from the assumption that imaginary meanings are associated with both: the imaginary associated to digital technologies (Cabrera, 2006, 2011) and to the imaginary of "order of books" (Chartier, 2000, 2005). In order to carry out the exploration, the advertising discourses in the homepages of three cases are analized: The Amazon Kindle, Kobo and MovistarBq brands. The conclusion is that e-readers are devices that participate of the imaginary of the digital technologies as other devices in the complex of digital technologies in everyday life, and also refers strongly to the imaginary meanings related to printed books.