Suchergebnisse

Lange Zeit war die Untersuchung von Beziehungen zwischen "Rassen" von spezifischen Paradigmen – insbesondere Assimilation vs. Multikulturalismus – dominiert, die auf Unterschiedlichkeit abhoben (als Problem bzw. als besondere Potenz). In neuerer Zeit hat die Vorstellung der "Mischung" von und des Austausches zwischen "Rassen" und Kulturen, haben Konzepte wie "creolization" oder "hybridization" an Bedeutung gewonnen. Ausgangspunkt dieses Artikels ist die Beobachtung, dass die Vorstellung "rassischer" oder kultureller "Mischung", von Hybridität bzw. "mestiçagem", eine zentrale ideologische Bastion der letzten Dekade des portugiesischen Kolonialismus war. Wenn Hybridität also kein neuer Begriff und Diskurs im zeitgenössischen Portugal ist, worum geht es bei diesem Konzept heute? Und was können wir aus dem portugiesischen Hybriditätsdiskurs über die portugiesische Situation hinaus lernen? Der Beitrag geht diesen Fragen mittels einer Kombination von visuellen und linguistischen Analysen des Lifestyle-Magazins Afro nach als einem Ort, an dem zeitgenössische Diskurse über "Rassen" ineinandergreifen.

The gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is a matter of growing social concern: although the female presence in these disciplines has grown during the last decades, men still outnumber women (Corbett & Hill, 2015). It has been shown that this is partly because of the lack of visibility that the work of women scientists has had along history, which has led to unconscious beliefs and stereotypes about gender and professional careers, and therefore, the disinterest in science on the female side (Nimmesgern, 2016). Previous research has shown that these stereotypes are reinforced through television programs depicting fictional women characters in STEM scenarios (Steinke, 2017; Davis & Coleman, 2018), and the present study aims to explore the representation of real female and male scientists on the Internet. By applying a multimodal analysis from a social semiotic perspective, I examine how gender identities are represented in eight crowdfunding project videos of science created by undergraduate students for an international science competition, the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM). Relying on the Swalesian move-step analysis genre approach for the verbal content (Swales, 1990, 2004), and Kress and van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar (VG) model for the visual content (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006), the analysis intends to uncover ideological purposes and meanings about gender roles within a context of scientific research. The results are compatible with previous studies that confirm that women are underrepresented in STEM, highlighting the ideologies that lead to the reinforcement of gender bias at the scientific workplace.

Training to interact interculturally on perceptions and identities: Implementing multimodal analysis in a cultural approach to discourse Michelangelo Conoscenti Professor of English Linguistics, Faculty of Political Science, Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO) The impact of communication on society via computers (computer-mediated communication, or CMC) is still evolving, and our understanding of its social, psychological, political and economic implications is far from complete. Online communication systems structure interaction in accordance with new forms of relating that affect the different social organisations that have emerged through the use of these systems. The situation is even more complex if we consider how the different actors that participate in a negotiation process – often with different motivations and diverging interests – will react to this new environment. The aim of this article is to carry out an analysis of intragroupal processes in a scenario of virtual diplomacy in order to better understand the influence of regulations on groups. To this end, we observe an intercultural group to understand how – even in such a specific case as that of CMC – people construct the world with language instead of merely describing it as it is.

This study aims at shedding light on the representation of some peculiar indicators of spokenness (i.e. idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs) across TV interviews featuring different interviewees: politicians, business people and personalities from showbiz. More precisely, the purpose of this work is to observe how, to what extent, and with which function these traits, which are more typical of oral and informal language, permeate TV interviews pertaining to different specialized knowledge domains. In order to develop a deeper understanding of the usage and the meaning-making of idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs in TV interviews, some multimodal aspects will be considered throughout the analysis. Drawing from the findings, it was noticed that these complex indicators of spoken style are abundant in the language of both interviewers and interviewees across all three domains, where they seem to work as lubricants that help smooth interaction and thus engage the audience. Furthermore, gestures with arms and hands appeared to occur together with idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs quite consistently, often pointing to their figurative meanings.

This study aims at shedding light on the representation of some peculiar indicators of spokenness (i.e. idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs) across TV interviews featuring different interviewees: politicians, business people and personalities from showbiz. More precisely, the purpose of this work is to observe how, to what extent, and with which function these traits, which are more typical of oral and informal language, permeate TV interviews pertaining to different specialized knowledge domains. In order to develop a deeper understanding of the usage and the meaning-making of idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs in TV interviews, some multimodal aspects will be considered throughout the analysis. Drawing from the findings, it was noticed that these complex indicators of spoken style are abundant in the language of both interviewers and interviewees across all three domains, where they seem to work as lubricants that help smooth interaction and thus engage the audience. Furthermore, gestures with arms and hands appeared to occur together with idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs quite consistently, often pointing to their figurative meanings. Keywords: TV interviews; idiomatic expressions; phrasal verbs;

The authors conduct a multimodal analysis of the anti-corruption discourse in China by employing the SFL genre theory and the SF-MDA approach. Anti-corruption discourse that popularizes the anti-corruption mechanism and educates the officials constitutes an important part of China's anti-corruption campaign. This paper first presents a genre analysis of a corpus of 51 anti-corruption videos on the official public legal education website to examine how these videos are designed in their overall organization to achieve the persuasion purpose—alert officials to stay away from corruption. It is found that most anti-corruption videos are expositions that are embedded with different story genres and emphasize the negative consequence of corruption on one's family. Using Multimodal Analysis Video software, the authors then analyze the different reader stances enacted through a range of multimodal resources in three representative anti-corruption videos. Based on the detailed multimodal analysis, the authors finally explain how the use of linguistic and visual resources in the videos realizes the underlying ideologies of rule by law and rule of law and future implications of this study.

This study aims to identify the multimodal argumentative topoi in 16 informational and preventive audiovisual capsules by the Chilean Ministry of Health, from March to July 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic. For that purpose, the theoretical basis of topoi (Wodak, 2003) is taken as an argumentative strategy, the discourses of authority employed as generators of mental representations and the multimodal role as negotiating messages of power. These conceptual references in addition to the tenets of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) allow to identify the function of the topoi and to observe the multimodal messages addressed to the population, taking as well the concepts of visuality (Abril, 2007), textuality (Pardo, 2007) and speech-sound relations (van Leeuwen, 1999). The findings indicate that the topoi analyzed show discursive inconsistencies. Despite explicitly transmitting preventive information, there are implicit discourses that segment the image of the "ideal country". According to this, a big part of the Chilean population becomes invisible due to the stereotypes manifested in the capsules, dialectically demonstrating that the messages of preventive care from the authority do not protect all Chilean citizens. ; La presente investigación busca identificar los topoi argumentativos multimodales de 16 cápsulas audiovisuales de carácter informativo y preventivo emitidas por el Ministerio de Salud (MINSAL) del Gobierno de Chile de marzo a junio de 2020 en el marco de la pandemia mundial por COVID-19. Con tal propósito, se toma la base teórica de topoi (Wodak, 2003) como articulador argumentativo; los discursos de autoridad como generadores de representaciones mentales; y el rol multimodal para la emisión de mensajes de poder. Estos referentes conceptuales, junto a los postulados de los Estudios Críticos del Discurso (ECD), permiten identificar la función de los topoi y observar los mensajes multimodales dirigidos a la población, tomando como recursos centrales la visualidad (Abril, 2007), el tratamiento textual (Pardo, 2007) y sonoro (van Leeuwen, 1999). Los hallazgos indican que los topoi analizados muestran incongruencias discursivas en los diferentes recursos, donde, a pesar de emitir explícitamente informaciones preventivas, existen discursos implícitos que segmentan la imagen de "país ideal". Bajo esa figura se manifiestan estereotipos que ocultan la diferencia, demostrando dialécticamente que los mensajes de cuidado de parte de la autoridad no velan por todos los chilenos.

Abstract
Adopting a critical, multimodal perspective based on Kress and van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar, this study analyses how, throughout her campaign for the presidency of Trinidad and Tobago in 2010, Kamla Persad-Bissessar forged a self-image of a democratic and caring leader, able to clean up the country from its corruption scandals and foster solidarity and collaboration. The analysis focuses on the official portraits from the rally collected in the booklet Kamla 2010 − The People's Partnership: Postcards from a Journey to Victory (Drakes 2010).

Abstract
This paper applies visual grammar theory to make a multimodal discourse analysis of book covers of the different Chinese versions of Jane Eyre. It illustrates the relationship between the social environment and social changes in Chinese society and culture in relation to an increasing social acceptance of the novel in China. This research not only validates the applicability and practicability of visual grammar in analyzing book covers, but also helps to show an ideological change in Chinese readers and publishers over time from the 1930s to the 21st century. Indeed, the connotations of book covers of the different Chinese versions of Jane Eyre seem to be closely related to different historical and social contexts. They document and bear witness to, in their particular way, the tremendous changes in Chinese society from early last century on. They also show that Jane, the heroine of the novel, seemed to be re-discovered over and over again in China, depending on the main social features of different periods. She seems to have been portrayed as the gray presence, the feminist, the lover and protagonist, and finally the icon.

Fat fashion blogging has largely been celebrated for its resistance potential. Historically, much of this blogging was collaborative with a focus on sharing information and counter-aesthetic images on plus-size fashion. With the rise of the advertising-driven social media platform Instagram, individuals can capitalize on fatshion blogging by becoming social media influencers who promote brands and encourage purchasing decisions. This article uses visual semiotic analysis and critical discourse analysis to show how two fat Black fashion influencers use fashion, flaunting and fat discourse to resist weight stigma. We argue that these efforts complicate our understanding of fat resistance due to the neo-liberal intensification of the entrepreneurial self. Exploring the fat fashion Instagram phenomenon opens new avenues for reflecting on digital resistance to weight stigma and how this is undermined by capitalist interests.

The aim of this research paper is to analyse the key political posters made for the campaigns of Irish political party Fianna Fáil framed in the Celtic Tiger (1997-2008) and post-Celtic Tiger years (2009-2012). I will then focus on the four posters of the candidate in the elections that took place in 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2011 with the intention of observing first how the leader is represented, and later on pinpointing the similarities and possible differences between each. This is important in order to observe the main linguistic and visual strategies used to persuade the audience to vote that party and to highlight the power of the politician. Critical discourse analysis tools will be helpful to identify the main discursive strategies employed to persuade the Irish population to vote in a certain direction. Van Leeuwen's (2008) social actor theory will facilitate the understanding of how participants are represented in the corpus under analysis. Finally, the main tools of Kress and van Leeuwen's visual grammar (2006) will be applied for the analysis of the images. The study reveals that politicians are represented in a consistently positive way, with status and formal appearance so that people are persuaded to vote for the party they represent because they trust them as political leaders. The study, thus, points out that the poster is a powerful tool used in election campaigns to highlight the power of political parties. ; El propósito de esta investigación es analizar los principales posters políticos empleados en las campañas electorales el partido irlandés Fianna Fáil enmarcado en los años de los períodos denominados Celtic Tiger (1997-2008) y post-Celtic Tiger (2009-2012). La atención se centrará en los cuatro posters del candidato a las elecciones que tuvieron lugar en 1997, 2002, 2007 y 2011 con la intención de observar cómo se representa el líder y en señalar las similitudes y diferencias entre los mismos. Esto es importante con el fin de observar las principales estrategias lingüísticas y visuales empleadas para persuadir a la audiencia para que vote al partido y para destacar al político representado. La perspectiva del análisis crítico del discurso será útil para identificar las principales estrategias discursivas empleadas para persuadir a la población irlandesa a votar en una dirección determinada. Las herramientas de la teoría de van Leeuwen (2008) sobre los actores sociales facilitará la comprensión del modo en que los participantes son representados en el corpus objeto de estudio. Finalmente, también se emplearán las principales herramientas de la gramática visual que proponen Kress y van Leeuwen (2006) al análisis de las imágenes. El estudio revela que se representa a los políticos de forma positiva, con estatus y apariencia formal de modo que se persuade a la gente para que vote al partido que representan porque confían en ellos como líderes políticos. Así, este estudio señala que el poster es una herramienta poderosa empleada por los partidos políticos en las campañas electorales.