Text linguistics and critical discourse analysis: A multimodal analysis of a magazine advertisement (original) (raw)
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This chapter explores the theoretical framework used in social semiotic studies through some analytical instantiations based on the Multi-Modal Discourse Analysis (MMDA) of issues connected to gender and race in advertising. By means of a discursive/social semiotic perspective, print adverts are here investigated as a global discourse worthy of critical investigation. In particular, the exploitation of the human body, in promotional discourses, is seen as having an important role in the construction of gendered and racial identity representation. Drawing on Kress and van Leeuwen’s ground-breaking volume, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (1996), the chapter does not aim, however, to present a complete and exhaustive account or theory of visual grammar. Rather, it simply attempts to introduce some rudimentary visual elements that can be used to classify iconic images and, especially, verifiably detect the visual means adopted in the mediated construction of stereotyped gendered and racial identities. My main aim is to observe and analyse the different types of identities construed in promotional discourse from a diachronic perspective, paying particular attention to the way the representation of the human body is used as a semiotic resource as well as a promotional strategy. After a preliminary methodological overview of the underpinning theories informing this chapter, which briefly range from Halliday’s SFL to recent developments in the field of Multimodal Discourse Analysis, a practical recapitulating grid for establishing some important criteria in the analysis of ‘semiotic metafunctions’ is provided in paragraph 2. The VINCorpus, a diachronic multimodal corpus of magazine and newspaper ads comprising print ads produced from the 40s to the 60s in the Anglophone contexts of Britain, the US and Canada, is introduced and analysed in the third paragraph. The MMDA of three ‘vintage’ print adverts highlights the strict connection between advertising and the way promotional discourses are culturally dependent and able to influence important aspects of social practice. In particular, a diachronic approach to the biased construction of identities in ads proves to be very informative to contemporary society’s understanding of the resilience, whether intentional or not, of gender and racial prejudice still perpetrated in our cultures and societies today. Indeed, if such strict categories of gender and race are still upheld, despite “a kind of stubborn ‘weight’ of history” (Pitcher, 2014: 145), within complex and complicated discourses of injustices and inequalities, power and hegemony, it then becomes compulsory to persistently reiterate how gendered and racial stereotypes keep on construing negative meanings in social representations.
A B S T R A C T. Like fast food and fizzy drinks, discourses are globally marketed by powerful multinational corporations. In this article we look at discourses about women which are distributed around the planet by the 44 different national versions of Cosmopolitan. These versions are localized, but still transmit the Cosmo brand, resulting in similarities between the versions. We apply a multimodal discourse analytic approach to understand this global branding, the type of analysis which is lacking in existing accounts of globalization, and ask, what exactly does remain the same across the localized versions? What this article offers is not an analysis of the magazine per se, but an analysis of the discourses that underpin it. We show how the magazine creates a fantasy world through the use of low modality images, which allow a particular kind of agency, mainly sex, to signify power. The multimodal realizations of Cosmo discourse enable women to signify their alignment with the Cosmo world through such things as the cafes they frequent, the clothes they wear and the way that they dance. Cosmo presents these not as real, but as playful fantasies, something which existing literature on women's magazines has missed. In these fantasies, women act alone and rely on acts of seduction and social manoeuvreing, rather than on intellect, to act in and on the world. K E Y W O R D S : branding, globalization, multimodal analysis, women, women's magazines
Objective – This paper presents a discourse study on the print advertisements of a particular theme in Malaysia, that is, Malaysia Day, for social and commercial functions by a telecommunication company. Methodology/Technique – The print advertisements studied were analyzed in a detailed manner within a discourse analytic and cultural perspective. The data were analyzed qualitatively to seek for information along the dimensions of categories and characteristics stated in the research questions. Findings – Through linguistic features and semiotic approach (i.e. sense-making), the study revealed that the soft-sell advertisements employed a combination of the four language styles to reflect the norms and values of Malaysia's multiracial society. Besides language styles, some of the advertisements also included a number of semiotics such as the distinctive unity symbol, the national flag, landscape and historical building to represent the unity of the multiracial Malaysia's population. Novelty – The findings suggest that the thematic advertisements have the soft-sell the advertiser's brand or product while communicating the social messages. The language styles also help in communicating the social message to the audience.