Abstract
The present study investigated students’ ( N = 404) interpretations of the main message and use of modes in a persuasive multimodal video on vaccines. It also examined whether students’ topic knowledge, language arts grades, and self-identified gender were associated with their interpretations. Students analyzed a YouTube video in which two entertainers demonstrated the importance of vaccinating children. Students’ interpretations of the usefulness of vaccines varied in terms of quality of reasoning, which was associated with students’ topic knowledge. Notably, many students’ interpretations of the use of modes were incomplete, or they did not even mention certain modes in their response. The results suggest that students should be explicitly taught how to interpret different modes and their uses for argumentative purposes.
Highlights
The rapid integration of the internet into our daily lives has transformed literacy practices in many ways (Leu et al, 2004; Mills, 2010; New London Group, 1996)
The present study will contribute to this emerging field by examining how adolescents interpreted the main message and use of multiple modes in a persuasive video on a socioscientific topic, and whether their interpretations were associated with their topic knowledge, language arts (LA) grades, and self-identified gender
Because prior knowledge plays an important role in building a coherent representation of multimodal texts (Magliano et al, 2013; Verhoeven & Perfetti, 2008), we investigated the role of topic knowledge in students’ interpretations
Summary
The rapid integration of the internet into our daily lives has transformed literacy practices in many ways (Leu et al, 2004; Mills, 2010; New London Group, 1996). Multimodality, and a social semiotics perspective (Kress, 2010), was employed to analyze the video that students watched and to examine how they interpreted the role of different modes in meaning-making. Multimodal text processing (Magliano et al, 2013; Verhoeven & Perfetti, 2008) and multimodal argumentation (Tseronis, 2018) were used to examine students’ different interpretations of the main message in the video, especially in terms of the main arguments advanced through the use of multiple modes. This study was guided by a social semiotics (Kress, 2010) view of multimodality that emphasizes how various modes—including, but not limited to, visuals, sounds, text, motions, and gestures—are integral in meaning-making In this approach, language is no longer privileged in communication, and other modes have the potential to contribute to meaning (Jewitt, 2009). The specific research questions were the following: Research Question (RQ1): How did students interpret the main message and supporting reasons in a persuasive video on vaccinations? Research Question (RQ2): Which modes did students identify as the most important in communicating the main message of the persuasive video, and how did they interpret the use of these modes in communicating the main message? Research Question (RQ3): Are students’ topic knowledge, mean grade in LA, and gender associated with their interpretations of (a) the main message and (b) the use of different modes?
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