Structural and Semantic Dominants of r/SpaceX Discourse

This study presents a structural and semantic analysis of the discourse within the technologically oriented r/SpaceX community on Reddit. In the contemporary digital landscape, online forums construct and negotiate the public identity of technological corporations. While the socio-cultural impact of such communities is widely acknowledged, their intrinsic discursive architecture remains under-researched, e.g., the typology of multimodal (polycode) publications and the thematic dominants of their semantic core. The present research filled this gap by identifying the primary content structures and key topics that constitute the r/SpaceX discourse. The methodological framework employed a mixed-methods approach applied to 247 posts published between 2014 and 2024. The analysis integrated quantitative metrics, qualitative content analysis, semiotics, and discourse analysis to deconstruct communicative practices within the community. The resulting typology of polycode publications comprised verbal-visual (64%), purely verbal (25%), and video-verbal (11%) formats. The content analysis revealed five thematic dominants: SpaceX Operations (the core), Technical Specifications, Government Relations, the Founder’s Role (Elon Musk), and Environmental Impact. The stylistic analysis showed a predominance of an informative-factual register, characterized by process verbs, expert citations, and technical terminology aimed at establishing credibility. As a result, the r/SpaceX discourse emerges as a distinct hybrid form of digital communication, defined by a multimodal structure that facilitates content adaptation and a rigorous thematic focus. This architecture systematically transforms complex technological narratives into accessible content, thereby shaping the SpaceX corporate image. This comprehensive structural-semantic model contributes to the theory of multimodal texts and digital communication analysis.