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Title Trending Narratives: A Content Analysis of Hashtags on Instagram in Pakistan

Author(s) Fatima Bint Mazhar

Abstract In today’s digital media landscape, the use of hashtags has evolved into a powerful communicative practice that shapes online discourse. This study explores the role of neologized hashtags in constructing and circulating trending narratives on Instagram within the Pakistani context. As social media becomes a central space for public expression, hashtags are no longer limited to simple categorization; instead, they function as discursive tools for identity construction, social engagement, activism, commentary, and narrative building. Dealing with Pakistani Instagram users only, the study analyses the way the newly created hashtags are located within local sociocultural contexts, language choices, and developing online tendencies. The information includes 69 Instagram posts, and 14 trending hashtags gathered from January 2022 to December 2023. Qualitative content-analysis was made based on five thematic issues including religion, politics, social media, entertainment, and climate. These taxonomies can be used to investigate how hashtags capture the mood and group conversation about national events, popular culture as well as social issues. This paper is found on Digital Discourse Analysis (DDA) and examines the usage of these hashtags to cue meaning, shape perception, and mediate the interactions among the users as applied to digital texts. This framework allows the study to point out that hashtags have pragmatic forms of expression, including emotional, political, culture commentaries, humorous, and solidarities. The results indicate that the neologized hashtags on Instagram form part of how the Pakistani users interact with the modern discourse. These hashtags are elastic subject to the immediate situation and frequently combine English with other local languages and reflect the temporality and participation of online messages. They are used to represent identity, opposition, partying, and criticism. This paper sheds light on the nature of digital narratives propagated by the Instagram hashtags in Pakistan, and can be used to explain how language innovation, changes in pragmatics, and the impact of social media on matters of shaping a local, rooted understanding of the public sphere in a globalized world work.

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2025-04-17

Subject English Linguistics

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