Speech strategy sequencing in personal ads

Traditional personal advertisements often follow an ‘X seeks Y for Z’ format. The current study analyses the presence of these different components of personal ads (referred to as speech strategies) and their sequencing across four socio-sexual groups (women seeking women, women seeking men, men seeking women and men seeking men) and distinct types of relationships desired (romantic, sexual and other) in two regions, Mexico City and London. Results indicate that the structure of personal ads varied by both factors across regions. Posters who expressed desire for romantic relationships in London diverged less from the traditional format than those who portrayed themselves as seeking sex or other types of relationships. Additionally, socio-sexual groups differed in the type and frequency of several components within their personal ads. The indexicality of the XYZ structure as well as differences in portrayed relationship desired between regions are discussed as factors contributing to regional differences.

Reporting pre-exposure prophylaxis use in Craigslist personal advertisements among men seeking sex with men in the United States

This study describes the self-reported use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in the personal advertisements of men seeking sex with men in the United States on the online classified advertisement site, Craigslist. Overall self-reported PrEP use was low (0.20%; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.18–0.22). However, PrEP use in personal ads was described in conjunction with seeking sexual risk behaviours including ‘bareback’ sex (22.7%; 95% CI = 17.7–27.7%) and sex with substance use (26.8%; 95% CI = 21.5–32.1%). Only 4.0% of personal ads sought safe sex (3.3%; 95% CI = 1.2–5.4%) or required condoms (0.7%; 95% CI = –0.3–1.7%). Our findings underscore the need for increased public PrEP awareness, particularly among men seeking sex with men, as well as the importance of healthcare providers emphasising sexually transmissible infection prevention behaviours (i.e. condom use) used in conjunction with PrEP.

PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS AS TEXT COLONIES: FEATURES AND TYPES OF COLONIES

The genre of personal advertisements is relatively new; nevertheless, various branches of the social and linguistic sciences deal with this text type since personal advertisements refl ect social behaviour and attitudes and thus may provide information about language and society. The present paper studies personal advertisements from the perspective of text colonies and compares printed and online advertisements in order to explore the language manifestations of the communicative strategies employed by the two media. The study is carried out on advertisements published in The Times and placed on the dating website datingdirect.com.