{"title":"Music and discourse: A systemic-functional approach for music analysis in multimodal contexts","authors":"Diego L. Forte","doi":"10.1177/26349795231153963","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795231153963","url":null,"abstract":"Meaning in music constitutes an issue that have risen (and still rises) a strong debate. Although it has been approached from different perspectives there seems to be no consensus for its theorization. From a Social Semiotic perspective, music can be analysed as a part of a bigger construction, sharing the task of making meaning with other modes (verbal, visual, etc.). This paper aims to make a contribution to multimodal studies proposing a way to include music analysis in Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. We adopt as framework Halliday’s theory (1978; 1994), although we start from Kress and van Leeuwen (2020) adaptations and include McKerrell (2015) and van Leeuwen (1999). Our working hypothesis is that, in multimodal contexts, music contributes with the construction of meaning, particularly ideational meaning, establishing a relation with other modes.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115287013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and shaming on TikTok: A multimodal appraisal analysis","authors":"Margo Van Poucke","doi":"10.1177/26349795231153955","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795231153955","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the issues of vaccine hesitancy and shaming which arose in response to the implementation of World Health Organization COVID-19 recommendations, on the social media platform of TikTok. By extending Appraisal theory to include the use of visual attitudinal appraisals, the study examines how TikTok users employ the semiotic resources at their disposal within the overarching context of the pandemic. A total of 254 videos expressing pro- and anti-vaccination viewpoints, predominantly posted by American and Australian users, between 1 January 2021 and 31 January 2022, were extracted from the social media application and subjected to a computer-assisted multimodal appraisal analysis. It is shown how speakers from both groups primarily aim to elicit a strong emotional response from like-minded users, promoting polarisation. The findings further reveal an ideological clash between the objective structure of governmental healthcare protocols and the subjective orientation of the anti-vaccination group’s habitus. Since the pro-vaccination group’s own subjectivities hinder the effective sharing of information on COVID-19 via TikTok, the paper recommends the use of non-judgemental language and gestures in videos targeting a vaccine-hesitant audience.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134387509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Government nation building and memetic reactions: Different visions of the UK in COVID-19 related communication","authors":"Lyndon C. S. Way, K. O’Halloran","doi":"10.1177/26349795221146248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221146248","url":null,"abstract":"The UK government uses news conferences, press releases, official websites, mainstream and social media to provide advice and information about the COVID-19 pandemic. This information has become ‘source material’ for social media users to react to government announcements in ‘digital popular culture’; that is, memes and short videos shared on social media. Close examinations of both reveal how different views of the nation are articulated whilst giving and reacting to pandemic information and advice. Here, we analyse a sample of official government webpages on COVID-19 announcements and reactions to these in digital popular culture. We employ Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies to understand how the modes of lexica and images work individually and together to articulate views on the nation. Through such an analysis, we reveal not only what the public ‘receive’ from the government, but also broadly held ideas and beliefs by the public on the nation.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"171 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113991444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"(Ab)scent aromas: Mapping the smell texture of the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"L. Allen","doi":"10.1177/26349795221146734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221146734","url":null,"abstract":"This paper maps the smell texture of the COVID-19 pandemic. Media and official accounts of the pandemic have been dominated by statistical rates of viral infection and death, as well as visual images of overburdened hospitals and deserted city streets. Mobilising smell as a medium for knowing the world differently, this paper documents pandemic smell markers such as ‘hand sanitizer’, ‘disinfectant’ and ‘breath and body odour’. To do this, it employs ‘smellwalk’ and ‘urban wandering’ methodologies in Bayside, a coastal town in Aotearoa-New Zealand. It argues the pandemic produces a specific smell texture, conceptualised as a momentary re-arrangement of the normal smellscape. This re-arrangement is signalled by both the presence of pandemic smell markers, and absence of normal smells which create atmospheres of ‘uncertainty’, ‘anxiety’ and ‘dis-ease’. In accordance with other emerging sensory scholarship about the pandemic, the paper considers whether this change in smellscape constitutes a ‘sensory revolution.’","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114573327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ivana Cvetković, D. Vasquez-Guevara, Ethereal V Reyes, Natali R Carmona Guzman
{"title":"National aeronautics and space administration on IGTV: Multimodal discourses of space","authors":"Ivana Cvetković, D. Vasquez-Guevara, Ethereal V Reyes, Natali R Carmona Guzman","doi":"10.1177/26349795221138941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221138941","url":null,"abstract":"This study employed critical analysis of multimodal texts to examine how NASA utilizes multiple modes like text, visuals, font, and sound to communicate space on a modern multimodal platform—Instagram. Four main themes emerged in the analysis of 34 NASA IGTV videos: space as a scientific aim, space as a scientific means, space as a U.S. territorialization effort, and space within the general public’s reach. Multimodal discursive practices enabled NASA to produce institutional discourses and disseminate meanings of space that enacted and reinforced gendered and racial exceptionalism, technological and economic space elitism, and hegemonic territorialization operationalized through space appropriation and commodification. While visuals, text, and auditory mode in many cases worked together to create meanings, the use of visuals communicated that space-related accomplishments are still achieved in white and male environments. Thus, the unpacking of multimodal discursive practices calls for more holistic approaches that address multimodal arrangements and an inclusive approach to the roles of individual modes in meaning-making.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116428180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The multimodal meaning-making potential of self-representation and self-expression in digital storytelling","authors":"P. Towndrow","doi":"10.1177/26349795221140023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221140023","url":null,"abstract":"This auto-ethonographic essay offers an analysis of my work as an education researcher and digital storyteller. Using research data and drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s literary theory relating to addressivity and answerability, I describe and attempt to justify the proposition that sense-making in and of the world through viewing and representing is an educative dialogic process. This statement stands in vivid contradistinction to a view of the world that is typically objective and impersonal. In closing, I discuss an important implication of my reflections for multimodal research.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"96 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121111097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding “flow”: A multimodal reading of political economy and capitalist erotics in hip hop","authors":"Kate Maxwell, J. Greenaway","doi":"10.1177/26349795221136859","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221136859","url":null,"abstract":"One of the essential elements of a rapper’s art is “flow”: the delivery of text against beat. Hip hop, with its linguistic dominance and street origins, is traditionally male-orientated, with women often depicted in terms of (sexual) subordination. However, when considered through a female gaze, the discourses conjured by “flow” take on different meanings. From the flow of desire to monthly visits from Aunt Flo, “flow” is integral to female sexuality. As a commercial art form in a capitalist society, the flow of capital is another meaning that has been largely overlooked in hip hop studies. In this article we broaden the understanding of “flow” to include that of the libido, menstruation, capital, and social media. We analyse five hip hop songs (with videos) using a methodology that builds on Van Leeuwen’s (1999) multimodal analysis of sound, together with a tripartite division of “mode” into cultural practices, semiotic resources, and elements (Maxwell, 2015), underpinned by close readings of the Marxist philosophers Deleuze and Guattari. We show that the dominant flow in hip hop is inevitably that of capital – the Deleuzian great flow – and that even this self-consciously subversive music style is governed by the insatiable drive of the market.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121911234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Turning towards discomfort in postdevelopmental approaches to childhood art: The potentials of multimodal mediated discourse Analysis","authors":"M. Sakr","doi":"10.1177/26349795221135579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221135579","url":null,"abstract":"Postdevelopmental approaches to childhood art aim to go beyond the constraining parameters and trajectories of the dominant paradigm of developmentalism. Postdevelopmental researchers embrace methods that enable us to engage more fully with children’s art-making by actively turning towards aspects of the experience that may be uncomfortable or disruptive. Multimodal mediated discourse analysis (MMDA) is a methodological tool that can be used as a way to tune into ‘pivots’ in the action of children’s art-making. In doing this, MMDA can be used as a means to provoke a wider and richer discussion of children’s art-making. In this article, I show how working with MMDA can deepen our dialogues about taboo, disgust, mess, cleanliness, waste and scarcity in relation to children’s art-making.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126656636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"History, materiality and social practice: Spatial discourse analysis of a contemporary art museum in China","authors":"Louise J. Ravelli, Xiaoqin Wu","doi":"10.1177/26349795221134982","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221134982","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the challenge of incorporating longer historical time frames into a social semiotic understanding of meaning-making. We focus on museums as complex, multimodal assemblages, and trace the distinct trajectory of museums and their development in China. We illustrate the key differentiating stages of museums in China, and focus on the contemporary Chengdu Tianfu Art Museum (hereby TAM), as a case study exemplifying the intertwined nature of history in aspects of contemporary museum practice. We argue that history is inherently intersected in the making of materiality and meaning, and demonstrate through illustrative Spatial Discourse Analysis how this intersection is materialized in the design and use of TAM. Our analysis shows that TAM is both continuous with, and different from, prior museum practices. In doing so, we reveal connections between semiotic change and social change, and demonstrate that history and materiality cannot be divorced from the politics of representation.","PeriodicalId":134431,"journal":{"name":"Multimodality & Society","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115579979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}