Danmu video as the resemiotised: An attitudinal analysis of Home Visit

Abstract

Danmu has been gaining increasing popularity in Chinese video-sharing platforms where users can project their comments directly onto the original video. Its popularity resonates with the general trend where user-generated content plays an increasingly important role. This article investigates possible meaning-making shifts produced by danmu from the perspective of resemiotisation. By deploying the Appraisal framework, particularly the attitude system, this study examines the attitudinal meanings expressed in a video and its danmu version. Comparisons between the two sets of attitudinal meanings reveal two patterns of meaning-making shifts. One is a shift in perspective, that is from whose perspective a certain scenario is presented. The other is a shift in the characterisation of one participant in the video. These findings raise our awareness of the possible manipulation of meaning afforded by danmu, which allows viewers to contribute directly to the meaning making of the danmu video. Danmu’s enablement of viewers’ co-production greatly extends the meaning and the meaning potential that could be afforded by the original video, which calls for a reconsideration of the purpose of video sharing, and the relationship between the original producer and viewers.