Unmasking Digital Prejudice: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Racial, Gender and Ideological Violence in Memes Targeting Kamala Harris’ Speeches

Integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is becoming increasingly common in K-12 classrooms, and small group activities are ubiquitous to STEM instruction. This article includes both theoretical and practical descriptions of a microethnographic approach to critical multimodal discourse analysis that we used to explore power and positioning within a mixed-gender group of students working together on an engineering design challenge. We drew upon social semiotics, positioning theory, and activity theory to ground this work and utilized three phases of data analysis: microethnography to develop individual and group storylines, critical multimodal discourse analysis of key events, and the integration of storylines and discourse analysis. This multi-phase approach granted us insights into our data that would have otherwise been lacking. Microethnography revealed the significance of the shift between science and engineering activities in relation to power and positioning within the group. Multimodal analysis revealed that the introduction of new physical artifacts influenced power and positioning within the small group, with different modes of communication having different intensities across the unit. We argue that our approach is useful in analyzing complex small group interactions within science classrooms and highlight key methodological decisions for researchers interested in employing a microethnographic approach to critical multimodal discourse analysis.

This study applies a critical multimodal discourse analysis to three television commercials: 1) Neutrogena ‘Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup’, 2) Colgate ‘Advanced Total whitening toothpaste’ and 3) Danone ‘Activia probiotic yogurt’. In order to gain further insight into how advertising discourses can shape body image ideologies, this study sets out to investigate how television commercials construct a relationship between health and beauty. This research includes analysis of both the visual and the verbal modes, drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, and Inter-mode relations. The findings are discussed in terms o f the theories of healthism discourse and aestheticization of everyday life. In addition, Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, lifestyle, taste, capital, and field will be used to discuss how the health-beauty consolidation is recursively produced and reproduced by society and its members. The results of this study suggest that there is a colonization o f the advertising non-health related products under healthism discourse, and this type of advertising is cooccurring with ideologies of the body beautiful resulting in an unprecedented consolidation between the concepts o f health and beauty. These findings underscore the need for media literacy and hence the importance o f practicing and also teaching discourse analysis approaches such as SFL, CDA, and MDA that are designed to expose ideological underpinnings.

The purpose of the proposed paper – which places itself within the field of Postcolonial Critical Discourse Studies (see Esposito, E. (2021).Politics, ethnicity and the postcolonial nation – a critical analysis of political discourse in the Caribbean. John Benjamins Publishing Company) – is to analyse the multi-semiotic practices contributing to the characterisation of the protagonist of Trinidadian short-film “Doubles with Slight Pepper” as a cinematic portrayal of the hybrid Indo-Trinidadian identity. By way of a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (1996).Reading images: the grammar of visual design. Routledge, London, Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2001).Multimodal discourse. The modes and media of contemporary communications discourse. Hodder Educations, London, Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2006).Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd ed. London: Routledge; O’Halloran, K.L. (2004).Multimodal discourse analysis. Continuum, London), the study aims to cast light on the strategies exploited by the filmmaker (1) to depict the protagonist (Dhani) as an in-betweener whose ambitions are inhibited by his social status stemming from generations of subjugation and misuse by colonialists; and (2) to promote Indo-Trinidadian cultural specificities. Following an introduction to the key concept of individual and collective identity with a focus on Trinidad and Tobago, and an outline of diasporic cinema as applied to the Indo-Trinidadian community, the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis is carried out on the verbal, non-verbal, and visual sub-corpora gathered up in sequences according to the main three identitarian traits exhibited in the short-film: ‘religion/folklore’, ‘food’, and ‘lineage’.

Discourse analysis can be said to have evolved out of the desire linguists had to move beyond the sentence and be able to analyze all kinds of texts, from conversations to advertisements and texts with written or spoken language, images, video and music. As it evolved, some ideologically centered discourse analysts developed what is called CDA: Critical Discourse Analysis and then, to deal with the complex nature of mass mediated texts, MultiModal discourse analysis and, for some, Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis. Two examples of how discourse analysis can be used are offered: the first is a discussion of the way language in speed dating shapes decision making by speed daters. The second is an analysis of a Fidji perfume advertisement.

Critical discourse analysts are increasingly required to account for multimodal phenomena constructed through language and other resources (e.g. images, sound and music) and to relate high-level critical insights on the social motivations of these texts to their realizations in low-level expressive phenomena, and vice versa. In this paper, we use interactive software resources for critical multimodal discourse analysis (O'Halloran, K.L. (2011b). Multimodal analysis and digital technology. In A. Baldry & E. Montagna (Eds.), Interdisciplinary approaches to multimodality: Theory and practice. Readings in intersemiosis and multimedia (pp. 21–34). Campobasso: Palladino; O'Halloran, K. L., Tan, S., Smith, B. A., & Podlasov, A. (2010). Challenges in designing digital interfaces for the study of multimodal phenomena. Information Design Journal, 18(1), 2–12; Smith, B. A., Tan, S., Podlasov, A., & O'Halloran, K.L. (in press). Analyzing multimodality in an interactive digital environment: Software as metasemiotic tool. Social Semiotics) to help in achieving these aims. The field of critical discourse studies, itself being interdisciplinary, along with its holistic approach, is well placed to take advantage of interactive software, as these resources encourage the application, exploration and correlation of various analytical perspectives at different levels of description. Drawing on the analysis of a short video advertisement, we demonstrate how the interactive (multimodal) digital environment is one in which the discourse analyst can effectively draw upon different traditions of analysis, including ‘mainstream’ and social semiotic traditions, as well as other traditions such as media studies, to interpret dynamic audiovisual media texts in a critically self-reflexive manner.

Multimodal critical discourse analysis is a dynamic approach to qualitative data analysis that expands critical discourse analysis to include multiple communicative modes-such as images, graphics, video, and sound/music-into the semiotic analysis of ideology and power relations within contemporary forms of communication. We reflect on the potential of multimodal critical discourse analysis to be combined with arts-based health research as an analytic method to deconstruct discourses that shape the health and well-being of marginalized communities. Specifically, we frame this potential within our research about men's body image based a project using cellphilming and the deconstruction of cis-heteronormative and related ideologies.

Social media, such as Twitter, enable immediate and delayed interaction with a wide audience. Online personas of political figures, such as the X account @aniesbubble, are in the spotlight in the 2024 election campaign, especially in attracting the attention of potential young voters in Indonesia. This research aims to ana-lyze the critical multimodal discourse on X @aniesbubble account in the context of the 2024 election political campaign. The main focus is to understand how multimodal ele-ments are used to shape opinions and interactions with audiences, as well as the implica-tions of using this strategy in cultural and political contexts. This research uses a qualita-tive method with a multimodal critical discourse analysis approach. The main data was taken from the X @aniesbubble account in the time period before the general election until the determination of the election winner. The analysis was conducted based on Norman Fairclough's theory, which includes three levels of analysis: text, discursive practice and social praxis. Additional data was obtained from relevant books, news articles, and journal articles. The research found that the @aniesbubble X account succeeded in creating an authentic and attractive political persona for the younger generation through the use of glocalization and cultural hybridity strategies. The account also demonstrates the dynamic interaction between global and local influences, and is able to convert social capital into economic capital through the active participation of fans. The findings suggest that social media plays an important role in shaping political and cultural narratives.

This study examined how the selected memes depict the state of the Nigerian economy using multimodal critical discourse analysis. The acquired data were examined using Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) multimodal discourse analysis and Van Dijk’s (2015) critical discourse analysis.

The multimodal analysis tries to analyze the practice of semiotic discursive or non-discursive discourse such as language, visual images, materials, and architecture. The tool for analyzing semiotic objects is one of the analytical tools in systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The formulation of the problem in this study is the form of representation of ideas in advertising discourse based on the meaning and function of grammatical semantics. Specifically, the research question is the ideology in advertising discourse in ideational, interpersonal, and textual aspects. This study tries to analyze the multimodal element to explain the choice of linguistics and the object of discourse. This research is descriptive qualitative where takes the inductive paradigm. This research approach is critical multimodal discourse analysis with systemic functional linguistic analysis. The research data is in the form of beauty product advertisements in 2017. The results show that the meaning of beauty product advertisements in terms of physical characteristics is white skin colour, sharp nose, slender body, long hair, and white teeth. The concept of ethnically beautiful identity from the two advertisements is different. The local product advertisements emphasize ethnic captivating identity. Foreign beauty product advertisements representations emphasize fair Caucasian beauty.

Rollingstone; February 9<sup>th</sup>, 2006 edition was made because there is the meaning intended on it. The researcher uses critical multimodal discourse analysis from O’Halloran (2004), Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), Halliday and Matthiessen (2014). The objectives of this study are to describe the generic structure potential, representational meaning, and the context of situation of Rollingstone; February 9<sup>th</sup>, 2006 edition. The approach of this study is qualitative research and the type is document research. The researcher uses document from the picture of Rollingstone; February 9<sup>th</sup>, 2006 edition which taken from Rollingstone’s official website. Analysis techniques flow model of this study are collecting the data, displaying and concluding. The results of this study are (1) There are some generic structure potential elements found. They are Lead, LoA, Comp. LoA, Display, Emblem, Announcement, Enhancer, Call and Visit Information and missing one element that is Tag. (2) The representational meaning of this magazine cover by applying narrative process for action process and conceptual representation for symbolic process. (3) The context of situation divided into field, tenor and mode. Field consists of The College Dropout Album, Jesus Walks Songs, 47th Grammy Awards, Rollingstone; February 9th, 2006 edition. Tenor consists of Kanye West as Song Writers, Rollingstone as production house and the target market. The mode consists of the word “The Passion of Kanye West”.

E explores, using textual (words) and visual (image) data from the corporate newsletters of two prominent Asian universities, how particular discourses and their associated discursive representations of neoliberal logic and subjectivity occur in higher education. In particular, she looks at the expression of both institutional priorities and state imperatives that lend themselves to a complementarity built upon two contradictory perspectives: individualism and communitarianism. She argues that the ever-increasing demand for, and utility of higher education in neoliberal society means that it no longer functions merely to provide knowledge and skills, but has implications for society, the individual and the state with regard to their ways of thinking, doing and being. Contributing to a growing corpus of literature on how higher education around the world is being shaped by neoliberal policies, E’s research is based on work done in the city-state of Singapore, a less-well represented context in current literature. While both higher education institutions possess significantly different institutional identities and backgrounds, the alignment of their varied representations of neoliberal logic and subjectivity with state-sanctioned imperatives that indirectly impose demands and constraints shows how neoliberalism as ideology adapts to the socio-political, socio-cultural and socio-economic dimensions that make up the Singapore context. The discursive representations of context-dependent neoliberal logics and subjectivity are discussed in terms of their ideological implications, focusing primarily on the complementarity between seemingly contradictory ideological positions. E’s work uses an innovative framework that integrates aspects of Discourse Theory with Critical Discourse Analysis and demonstrates the use of this framework through empirical linguistic and image analysis. Appealing to academics and graduate students in linguistics, especially those with an interest in critical multimodal discourse analysis, audiences from the domains of higher education research, critical geography, sociology and political science will also find this a useful book.

ABSTRACTA common strategy in media communication on climate change is to tailor messages to the existing values of specific target audiences in order to make climate change mitigation attractive to them. The question how such field-specific messages are oriented towards the reality of climate change, however, is often neglected. As an alternative to the common framing approaches to media communication on climate change, this paper advances a discursive and semiotic perspective that takes the epistemological position of a constructivist realism with C.S. Peirce and focuses on the way the abstract object of climate change is represented and transformed in media discourse. With a methodological framework of multimodal critical discourse analysis, which builds on the discourse-historical approach and investigates different discursive strategies, the field-specific representation of climate change in two factual television programmes is critically analysed and the effects of an (in)sufficient orientation towards the object of climate change are discussed.

The realisation of genuine national unity within its ethnically diverse society has always been the primary challenge facing Nigeria since its Independence in 1960. This study investigated the discursive recontextualisation of national unity through newspaper congratulatory announcements (NCAs) within Nigeria’s ethnically diverse society, focusing on the pseudopatriotic undertones of the privately sponsored NCAs. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the agenda-setting theory informed the theoretical underpinning of the study. The data is drawn from four major dailies, covering the period between 2011 and 2016. Multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) and the visual grammar (VG) are used as analytical methods to examine 97 privately sponsored NCAs. Dominant themes in the NCAs are highlighted along with the type of national unity projected in the NCAs. The analysis revealed that, in the name of promoting unity, private individuals and global conglomerates utilize pseudo acts to boost profits, enhance customer index, and construct their corporate image in the eyes of the ruling regimes and the general public in their host communities. It was also found that the envisioned future of the country as a united reality appears to contradict the common perception and lived experiences of the people. This study is meant to highlight the way certain ideologies are promoted and further interests are realised through the print media in the name of pseudo-patriotism. Further research may investigate comparable representations likely found in other newspaper genres as well as additional semiotic resources such as Nigeria’s Civil War artefacts and monuments, statues, and other national symbols. Keywords Pseudo-patriotism; newspaper congratulatory announcements; unity; multimodal critical discourse analysis; Nigeria

Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) as a sub-discipline of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) emerged from the availability of social semiotic frameworks describing multimodal meaning making. However, weaknesses of these frameworks have raised concerns and prompted recent methodological reflections in MCDA. Inspired by these reflections, this paper critically assesses MCDA research on advertising persuasion and identifies a lack of attention in studies to account for the social and ideological impact of advertising. This shortcoming is argued to be attributable to the weak empirical grounding of social semiotic frameworks which in turn is rooted in a ‘discursive gap’ (Bateman, 2019, p. 300) in multimodality as a discipline. The authors then propose methodological solutions involving eye tracking experiments and higher order data analytics which can strengthen the empirical basis of theoretical assumptions made in MCDA research on advertising. Drawing on methodological guidance for empirical multimodal research, the authors discuss specific issues in realizing this proposal, focusing on a strategy addressing operationalization challenges in experimental design and the affordance of a data cluster algorithm that calculates the common viewing path of a group of viewers.

Given the key role played by political metaphors in multimodal discourse, the objective of the study is twofold: first, to contrast the main source domains used by the national and the international press in a sample of political cartoons depicting Catalonia’s independence process (September-November 2017). Second, to critically analyse the political and cultural (mis)conceptions behind the cartoons and their potential implications on the international audience’s perception of Spain. This study draws upon the groundings of Kress and van Leeuwen’s multimodal critical discourse analysis and Charteris-Black’s critical metaphor analysis in order to address Critical Multimodal Metaphor Analysis. The results show relevant differences in terms of source choice by the international vs. national press, since the former makes use of sources that are absent in the later, and vice versa. This study supports the claim of a critical multimodal metaphor analysis to examine political metaphors in multimodal communication.