A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Romantic Comedy Movie Posters
Main Article Content
Abstract
Multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) is a new and prominent approach in discourse analysis with a quite rapid pace of development. According to this approach, meaning is made not only by words but also by the integration of other semiotic resources such as images, sounds and colours. This study further supports this theory by the analysis of the posters of fifteen top grossing American romantic comedies. Based on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s framework (2006), the research indicates the similarities and differences in using semiotic elements to create meaning and promote the movies. The results not only identify the patterns in designing movie posters but also examine the effectiveness of the framework in analyzing multimodal texts.
Article Details
Keywords
Multimodal discourse analysis, romantic comedy movie posters
References
Bell, P., & Milic, M. (2002). Goffman’s gender advertisements revisited: Combining content analysis with semiotic analysis. Visual Communication, 1(2), 203-222.
Bo, X. (2018). Multimodal discourse analysis of the movie Argo. English Language Teaching, 11(4), 132-137.
Chen, Y., & Gao, X. (2013). Interpretation of movie posters from the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis. GSTF International Journal on Education, 1(1), 1-24.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2009). Context of culture and of situation. In J. J. Webster (Ed.), The essential Halliday (pp. 55-84). Continuum.
Harrison, C. (2008). Real men do wear mascara: Advertising discourse and masculine identity. Critical Discourse Studies, 5(1), 55-74.
Hu, C., & Luo, M. (2016). A multimodal discourse analysis of Tmall’s Double Eleven advertisement. English Language Teaching, 9(8), 156-169.
Iftikhar, S., Shahnaz, A., & Masroor, F. (2019). Multimodal discourse analysis of the poster covers of academy award winning animated feature movies. PUTAJ – Humanities and Social Sciences, 26(2), 49-80.
Jewitt, C. (2009). The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. Routledge.
Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. Arnold.
Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203619728
Machin, D. (2007). Introduction to multimodal analysis. Hodder Arnold Publication.
Machin, D., & Thornborrow, J. (2003). Branding and discourse: The case of cosmopolitan. Discourse and Society, 14(4), 453-470.
Martinez, L. M., & Chovanec, J. (2012). The dream of a perfect body come true: Multimodality in cosmetic surgery advertising. Discourse and Society, 23(5), 487-507.
Moran, C., & Lee, C. (2013). Selling genital cosmetic surgery to healthy women: A multimodal discourse analysis of Australian surgical websites. Critical Discourse Studies, 10(4), 373-391.
O’Halloran, K. L. (2004). The dynamics of visual semiosis in film. In K. L. O’Halloran (Ed.), Multimodal discourse analysis (pp. 109-130). Continuum.
O’Halloran, K. L. (2008). Systemic functional-multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA): Construing ideational meaning using language and visual imagery. Visual Communication, 7(4), 443-475. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357208096210
Paltridge, B. (2012). Discourse analysis: An introduction (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Ton, N. M. N,., & Nguyen, T. M. P. (2019). Exploring text-image relations in English comics for children: The case of “Little red riding hood”. VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 35(3), 128-138. https://doi.org/10.25073/2525-2445/vnufs.4372