Social Semiotic Approach Research Articles

Social Stereotypes and Pre-Wedding Photo-Discourse on Nairaland, Nigeria

The study examines social stereotypes in pre-wedding photo-discourse on Nairaland, using a social semiotic approach. It specifically explores how oversimplified conceptions and language interact to implicitly communicate attitudinal meaning in this discussion board. Findings show that semiotic signifying features such as metaphor, collocative synonyms, symbolism and address terms are significant to the construction of social stereotypes which particularly suggest expository, sarcastic, indifferent, condemnatory and justificatory attitudes. From these attitudes, not many of the commenters are against the idea of pre-wedding photo shoot, but very many of them seem to be saying that the phenomenon of pre-wedding photo does not deserve the degree of social attention devoted to it. The study therefore concludes that the concept of pre-wedding photo shoot in Nigerian online environment is deficient of positive reception, as commenters consider the practice as a waste of time, a forum for sexual pleasure, a channel of self-proclamation, and a means of religious evocation.

A rebellious thinker or a cultural icon: Chan master Huineng in theatrical resemiotization

Adopting a multimodal social semiotic approach, this study investigates the resemiotization of the story of Huineng in two theatrical performances, the opera Snow in August performed in Taipei in 2002, and the musical theater The Sixth Patriarch Huineng performed in Shanghai in 2007. Although both claim to have been based on the historical record of Huineng, especially the Platform Sutra, significant differences exist. Focusing on the differences, the study investigates: (1) how semiotic resources of language, music and mise-en-scène are adopted to present Huineng in a particular way; and (2) why the semiotic resources are mobilized to present Huineng in such ways. Analysis shows that while Snow in August presents Huineng as a rebellious, independent thinker through episodes concerning Huineng’s innate enlightenment, breaking the alms-bowl and burning the robe, and his decline of the imperial invitation, The Sixth Patriarch Huineng presents Huineng as a cultural icon by emphasizing his reconciliation with former enemy Shenxiu, and the harmonious relationship between Huineng and the other characters. Each performance is contextualized to reveal ways in which resemiotization is socially situated and ideologically positioned.

On the hypoiconic structure of cartoons

ABSTRACT The core claim of this paper is that mainstream political cartoons uniquely combine three features of iconicity, direct resemblance, diagrammatic schematization, and metaphoric displacement, summed up by Charles S. Peirce under the concept of hypoiconicity. Accordingly, cartoon readers cannot but reconstruct direct resemblance relations with actual, historical persons and situations from their metaphoric distortion provided in the cartoon and retrace the cartoonist’s schematized, diagrammatic reasoning in order to arrive at the cartoon’s satirical message. The main source of the humorous effect of cartooning is shown to be the incongruity between the cartoon and the viewer’s reconstruction of the cartoonist’s satirical target. The paper rehearses the semiotic relations involved in Peirce’s notion of hypoiconicity, before reviewing the cartoon literature from the angles of genre, reader response, and multimodal discourse, via a social semiotic approach. The paper concludes with a reading of a single-frame, political cartoon from the perspective of hypoiconicity, followed by a brief generic description.

Multimodal construction of ‘rule of law’ in Chinese anti-corruption public service advertisements

Multimodal construction of ‘rule of law’ in Chinese anti-corruption public service advertisements

Affordances of narrative and numerical data: A social-semiotic approach to data use

Data use in education is a sensemaking process in which practitioners and researchers interact with different systems of meaning such as anecdotes or spreadsheets. The representational qualities of data and their influence on practice are critical but less well-discussed aspects of data use. Drawing on social semiotics, this theoretical article proposes that data should be discussed in terms of narrative and numerical modes of representation. Narrative data typically consist of protagonists and actions organized in a temporal structure, while numerical data typically consist of mathematical notations and visual representations such as graphs and figures. We argue that the representational properties of these two modes affect how data are interpreted and acted upon. We then present two contrasting cases from New Zealand and Norway of how affordances affect teachers’ data use processes. Finally, we discuss five challenges arising from our theorization about the affordances of data.

Establishing authenticity and commodifying difference: a social semiotic analysis of Sámi jeans

This article investigates a semiotic phenomenon within the global fashion industry: the branding of designer jeans as ‘authentic’ and ‘genuinely local’, focusing on the Swedish brand Sarva. Drawing on a social semiotics approach, the authors see authenticity as a discursive construct and look at the ways in which Sarva authenticate their jeans as Sámi in multimodal texts. The aim is: (1) to reveal how places and narratives are commodified in texts that accompany the jeans; and (2) to explore how authenticity is materially instantiated in the jeans by using different resources. The article focuses on the connotative provenance and affordances of different semiotic materials for the rendering of authenticity. The analysis of the jeans as semiotic entities reveals how the thickness of the garment, texture and leather details, and the choice of materials, languages as well as iconography, evoke ideas about historical and local ‘Sáminess’, whilst at the same time indexing a global ideology that regiments what quality jeans are. The analysis shows how authenticity can be reinvented and relocated in ways that allow a commodity to travel between the local and the global. It also shows how this movement is not neutral or straightforward, but rooted in power relations that underlie globalization and advanced capitalism.

The Life and Death of a Protest Anthem at the Frontier of a New Cold War

Amidst the rise of a new Cold War between China and the US, Hong Kong has been called Ground Zero, the new Berlin, or the Global Frontier by various media outlets. During an ongoing US-China trade war, the Water Movement broke out in 2019. It was the largest and most prolonged social movement that Hong Kong has seen, and one that was met with the direst consequence – the imposition of a sweeping National Security Law that has changed the political landscape of Hong Kong. Soon after the social movement erupted, the song Glory to Hong Kong gained huge popularity and came to be known unofficially as the ‘national anthem’ of Hong Kong. It has been sung regularly at protests, with many language versions being circulated on YouTube. Taking a social semiotic approach, this paper interprets the meaning of this protest anthem, teasing out its multimodal layers and analysing its production, lyrics, musical form, digital renditions, and live performances in light of the evolving socio-political situation at the time. The analysis suggests that certain renditions of the song expressed not only political defiance but also a budding national imagination as a route of redressing injustice, as disappointment in rule of law grew; however, ideological cohesion among movement participants remained limited. Although the National Security Law has successfully quenched such political expressions, confidence in the rule of law has to be restored in order to provide a much-needed pressure valve for Hong Kong.

A Social Semiotic Approach to the Attitudinal Meanings in Multimodal Texts

As a special type of multimodal text, picture books for children are highly valued in the creation of meaning by the integrative use of verbal and visual semiotic resources. Informed by Painter and Martin’s framework of visual narratives, this paper primarily deals with the interpersonal meanings encoded and expressed by the two semiotics (image and verbiage) within the Chinese picture books. It aims to analyse the visual and verbal choices available for writers to establish engagement between various participants. In the hope of investigating the collaboration and interplay of verbal and visual semiotics to construe interpersonal meanings, it examines the attitudinal meanings inscribed or invoked in picture books, exploring the ways in which visual and verbal resources are co-instantiated to encode attitudinal convergence and also divergence.

Selfie Objectification: Representation Of Hijabed Women In Instagram

Selfie (self portrait) is both a discourse and a global phenomenon (Day, 2014; Veum and Undrum, 2017). as a phenomenon, selfie action has attracted the attention of researchers (Zhao and Zappavigna, 2017) to examine the selfie from the various perspective. Objectification against women has also become the focus in research from various disciplines. However, so far there have not many researches on the objectification of hijabed women’s selfie. Hijabed women face the tension between religious norms and the desire for self-actualization in the virtual realm. A piece of cloth called ”Hijab” brings the consequences of conduct for the wearers. This article discusses about the selfie objectification as representation of hijabed women in Instagram. Do they contribute to reproduce and sustain a representation of piety or are they constructed an alternative representation? This article analyzes selfie photos of hijabed women and captions using objectification theory and selfie objectificaton. This study uses social semiotics approach from Theo van Leeuwen which discusses representational meaning, interactional meaning, and compositional meaning. Selfie photos are selected based on celebrity on Instagram account or selebgram (Ind). They are @laudyacynthiabella, @zaskiasungkar15 and @dianpelangi. They are celebrity in offline and celebrity on Instagram. The account are choosen because they have over 4 million followers. Hijabed women posted selfie as a representation and selfactualization in Instagram to get recognition. Instagram is considered as a spaces that can sustain a discourse of piety. When they construct a piety self, they also objectify themselves. Selfie objectification is done to attract the attention of followers. Selfie objectification is done to facilitating their business.

How brand visual aesthetics foster a transnational imagined community

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how visual aesthetic referents used in branding can help foster a transnational imagined community (TIC). The authors use brands embedded with Middle Eastern visual aesthetics as a research context. As such, the study aims to examine how Middle Eastern non-figurative art is used by non-Middle Eastern brands to foster an imagined Middle Easternness.Design/methodology/approachThrough a critical visual analysis, the authors apply a visual social semiotic approach to Middle Eastern art canons to better understand the dimensions of transnational imagined communities.FindingsThe study finds and discusses six sub-dimensions of Middle Easternness, which compose two overarching dimensions of TIC, namely, temporal and spatial. These sub-dimensions provide brand managers and designers with six different ways to foster transnational imagined communities through the use of visual aesthetic referents in branding.Research limitations/implicationsThis research identifies the specific visual sub-dimensions of brands that enable transnational communities to be imagined.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the visual aesthetic sub-dimensions in this study provides brand managers with practical tools that can help develop referents that foster transnational imagined communities in brand building to achieve competitive advantage and reach a transnational segment.Originality/valuePrior studies have primarily focussed on how visual aesthetics help in understanding issues related to national identity. In contrast, this paper examines the use of visual aesthetics in branding from a transnational perspective.

A social semiotic analysis of gender power in Nigeria’s newspaper political cartoons

ABSTRACT This paper is a critical examination of the ideological underpinnings of cartoons in Nigeria’s socio-political milieu. The study seeks to unveil cartoonists’ strategic moves to (mis)represent Nigerian women. The data comprise 10 political cartoons which were selected using a purposive-sampling method in line with the thematic concern of the study. They were analysed using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s social semiotic approach to the analysis of multimodal texts along with insights from critical discourse analysis (CDA). Findings reveal that semiotic resources, such as pronominal choices, speech acts, labelling, visual metaphorisation, information value, salience/emphasis, and framing, play significant roles in cartoonists’ commentaries on gender-related issues in Nigeria’s socio-political domain. Viewed against the United Nations’ global goal of gender equality by 2030, the study concludes that Nigerian newspaper political cartoonists’ representation of women ideologically both (re)produces or resists (un)equal gender relations among Nigerian citizens.

Literary space in Ismail Kadare’s novel The Palace of Dreams (A semiotic approach)

Abstract This research study focuses on a social semiotic approach to Ismail Kadare’s novel The Palace of Dreams. The novel was chosen for study and analysis because it is considered to be one of the Kadare’s most important works. The Palace of Dreams reflects many aspects of Albanian society including governmental abuse of power during the period of the communist regime. The analysis of literary space in this novel focuses on locating the literary discourse in the text and the spaces of the text that produce discourse with their shape, presence and extension. The purpose of this research study is to see how and in what way meaning is conveyed through spaces, and also how and in what shape it serves the comprehensive ideas of the novel. Our purpose is not only to highlight the values of this novel, but rather enable to understand the great importance that space plays in people’s work environments and in their private lives (the characters), and how crucial the space is for their lives and destinies.

Emoji as social semiotic resources for meaning-making in discourse: Mapping the functions of the toilet emoji in Cher’s tweets about Donald Trump

Emoji have emerged as a significant feature of modern discourse through the proliferation of social media. Noted for their ability to create meaning across linguistic boundaries, emoji are strongly associated with informal interaction where they serve to build and maintain social bonds. Following in the footsteps of Zappavigna (2011, 2015, 2018) I use a social semiotic approach to analyze how the celebrity, Cher, creates meaning across the strata of discourse and builds affinity with her followers through the use of the toilet emoji in relation to Donald Trump. The approach is successful at elucidating the complex layers of meaning which a single emoji can enact, providing further evidence of the value of the social semiotic approach in the context of global media. The affinity that is created by the toilet emoji can be understood through attitude-ideation couplings, where the coupling is made more 'bondable' to her ambient audience through the system of promotion. The possibility of an emoji enacting both attitude and ideation in a coupling is suggested and implications for how we understand certain semiotic choices discussed.

The Organised Self and Lifestyle Minimalism: Multimodal Deixis and Point of View in Decluttering Vlogs on YouTube

Abstract This paper explores how people present their relationship to their domestic objects in decluttering vlogs on YouTube, where they show the process of getting rid of undesired items. These videos are associated with discourses of ‘minimalism’ that are currently prevalent on social media platforms. The paper adopts a multimodal social semiotic approach, focusing on how language, gesture, and the visual frame coordinate intermodally to make meanings about objects. The multimodal construction of deixis in coordination with a type of ‘point-of-view shot’, filmed from the visual perspective of the vlogger, is examined. The broader aim is to investigate what these videos reveal about how digital semiotic capitalism is inflecting the lived experience of social media users. What is at stake is how people articulate intersubjective meanings about their experiences and relationships through the way they communicate about their objects.

Disjuncture, modality, and institutional repertoire: (De)colonizing discourses at a tribal school

The complicated ideological terrain of a tribal school11‘Tribal schools’ refers to schools in the United States that are controlled by federally-recognized tribes in conjunction with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). wrestles with aims of self-determination, academic success, and the legacy of settler colonial violence and theft through institutionalized schooling. One effect of these challenges is the ‘two-worlds’ approach to education for Indigenous students that categorizes linguistic and social practices as either ‘Indigenous’ or ‘modern’ (Lee, 2007; Wilson & Kamanā, 2009). Though this approach has long been recognized as problematic, it persists in Indigenous schooling contexts. This study employs a critical multimodal social semiotic (Kress, 2011a, 2011b) approach to language and sign to examine how school and community members invoke, reject, and reimagine ideologies from disparate cultural sources within a single event: one Ojibwe tribal school's kindergarten graduation ceremony. Contextualized with data from a larger ethnographic project, I extend Meek's (2011) work with disjunctures to call attention to the ‘institutional repertoires’ that shape the teaching and learning therein across multiple modes.

Politics of Meaning in Categorizing Innovation: How Chefs Advanced Molecular Gastronomy by Resisting the Label

This study examines innovators’ efforts to conceptualize and communicate their novel work through categorization. Specifically, we view category formation as a controversial process of meaning making, which we theorize through the concept of “politics of meaning” and operationalize through a social semiotics approach. By analyzing the labeling controversies underlying a new culinary style publicized as “molecular gastronomy”, we find that innovators’ efforts at categorization unfold along four consecutive stages: experimenting with a new style, communicating the new style, contesting the dominant label, and legitimating the category meaning. Our study suggests that a new category’s dominant label can substantially deviate from the innovators’ intended denotations, yet nonetheless bring that category forward by triggering public negotiations around its meaning, which lead to categorical deepening and legitimation. By putting forward a “politics of meaning” view on categorizing innovation, this work advances our understanding of the connection between labeling and category formation in the context of innovation.

Multimodal mapping: Using mind maps to negotiate emerging professional communication practices and identity in higher education

Mind or concept maps have long been viewed as helpful tools to plan texts. The pedagogical focus is often focused on the end product as material artefact, with less pedagogical or assessment attention being paid to the process of mind mapping. A process-product approach to text and text-in-use can fulfil a variety of pedagogical goals that allow participants in a professional communication course to collaboratively negotiate meaning-making. By presenting mind maps in class and receiving immediate peer feedback, students have the opportunity to redesign their work to enhance understanding. This article uses a multimodal social semiotic approach as well as the notion of authorial stance (defined multimodally) to analyse a mind map, as both artefact and presentation. The analysis shows how a particular student transforms her work and thinking during in-class engagement. Besides turn-taking and experiential participation as communicator and audience, this negotiation of meaning-making contributes to graduate work-readiness. We argue that these scaffolding and scaffolded activities act to engage student identity formation as emerging professionals for the workplace.

Visual Crisis Communication in the Scandinavian Press

Abstract This study marks a shift in research focus from verbal to visual aspects in crisis communication and contributes to the emerging field of visual crisis communication by exploring the use of images in the Scandinavian press when reporting on and/or commemorating a disaster. We used rhetorical arena theory (RAT) and a social semiotic approach to visual analysis to investigate how fifteen newspapers from Sweden, Norway and Denmark visualised the MS Estonia disaster ten, fifteen and twenty years after the sinking of the ship. We examined 93 images published on the anniversaries in 2004, 2009 and 2014 to determine what kinds of images accompanied the press reports and how these changed over time. The results demonstrate that the images, which changed considerably over time, represented the disaster both as an irreversible loss and as a process with a strong symbolic value.

A Social Semiotic Approach and a Visual Analysis Approach for Chinese Traditional Visual Language: A Case of Tea Packaging Design

the theoretical framework of visual analysis blends approaches to analysing packaging, social semiotic analysis and Chinese semiotic analysis. A package of Chinese West Lake Dragon Well tea is an example of a physical object that communicates social meaning related not only to the product itself but also to Chinese culture. To have a better understanding of social meaning for traditional Chinese visual language on contemporary tea packages, this study considers visual social semiotic theories and Chinese visual design semiotic analysis theories that provide insights into the meaning of visual elements of packaging by understanding the signs used in this packaging. Furthermore, there is diversity in understanding of these packaging elements due to language, culture and expertise. It is also useful to draw on packaging analysis theory, which facilitates the identification of traditional and contemporary design elements. This study identifies the representations of traditional cultural symbols used on the bestselling contemporary tea packages in China and provides a way for contemporary tea packaging designs to be analysed. It provides one answer for the question: “How can traditional symbols be interpreted as cultural meaning?”

Animation and the remediation of school physics – a social semiotic approach

ABSTRACT This paper opens by proposing a model for the holistic study of design software that emphasises user operations. It then examines the affordances of Explain Everything, a popular interactive whiteboard software, for animating concepts that play a crucial role in the Australian Year 7–10 physics curriculum. Building on earlier work on animation by Leão [(2012a). “Movement in Film Titles: An Analytical Approach.” Unpublished PhD, University of Technology, Sydney], the meaning-making resources of animation, in general, are presented as a stratified system (of choices), which is then deployed to explore the animation operations that Explain Everything facilitates. It is found that Explain Everything can animate some of the Year 7–10 physics concepts but has limitations with respect to others and is not able to realise all the options which the animation system generalises. In this way, the paper seeks to contribute to the growing body of social semiotic studies of multimodal semiotic technologies.