A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of The Recruiting Commercials Of The American Army

Multimodal discourse is a new type of meaning carrier which utilizes multiple semiotic resources,such as language,image,sound,music,gestures,and space to construct a complete meaning continuum.As the world entered into the age of multimedia,multimodal discourse has played a more important and dominant role in people’s daily communication.Video discourse is a common but important genre of multimodal discourse.How to analyze video text with systematic methods is still a problem to be solved by researchers.In order to explore new methods to analyze video discourse,and at the same time study the experience of American army in solving the problem of recruitment,the thesis made a comprehensive study of the American recruiting commercials with following research questions:(1)What major multimodal discourse features are displayed in the American recruiting commercials?(2)What multimodal images of the American army are constructed by these features?(3)What are the main skills and strategies the commercials adopted to shape these images?The thesis constructed a complete analytical framework based on visual grammar,aural grammar and theory of multimodal transcription to study the commercials from three main dimensions: representational,interactive and compositional level.The methodology the thesis adopted is a bottom-up approach which combined the qualitative methods of multimodal discourse analysis with the quantitative methods of corpus linguistic analysis.In this research,the multimodal information of the videos is turned into the words transcriptions which can be handled through the corpus linguistic tools after the procedure of data collection,annotation,segmenting and transcription.The statistical data obtained with software are the main materials of the multimodal feature analysis.Based on the findings of multimodal discourse features,some further discussion will be made to figure out the image construction and relevant multimodal strategies of the commercials.According to the detailed study,some major findings of this research could beII concluded as follows:Firstly,the research explored the main multimodal discourse features:At the representational level,the American recruiting commercials tend to show core themes by multi-angle presentation of different participants and their actions in a stage-based narrative model.At the interactive level,the commercials prefer to adopt interactive actions to present the main social relationship;furthermore,the commercials also display careful multimodal designs such as closer perspective,higher modality,aroused music and short but punchy language to offer interactive information to the viewers or to demand positive reaction from them.At the compositional level,the commercials prefer balance display of information value,high contract way of salience and stable photographic frame in the composition of each picture;while in the organization of shots,the commercials tend to use rhythmical and symmetric shots combination and multimodal coherence in semantic,visual elements and technical levels to enhance the wholeness of each commercial.Secondly,the research investigated the main images constructed by the selected commercials.At the representational level,the powerful image of the American army is shaped by following detailed images: loyal forces,forces in gallant array,combatoriented forces,master of multidimensional and cross-service warfare,highly organized,specialized and professionalized forces.At the interactive level,the solidary,reliable and friendly image of the American army is shaped by following detailed images: fair forces,solidary forces,friendly forces,reliable forces,individualistic-heroism forces.At the compositional level,the constructed image of the American army is shaped by following ways: intended absence of negative visual elements or events,similar shots style to the fictional warfare literature and films,safe mental distance to the dangerous things.Thirdly,the research explored the multimodal strategies adopted in the recruiting commercials: the multimodal strategies adopted in representational level are embodied in the careful choices of different multimodal elements and narrative ways;the commercials are good at presenting interactions through the usage of gestalt and metaphorical thinking to lead the viewers to represent the original scenes in daily life;the commercials tend to use rich and maturing language of shots to convey information and take the advantages of each mode to create a meaning complex.The comprehensive research of the commercials figured out the main features of this video genre,which will be valuable and suggestive for the further design of recruiting materials of our army.Besides,the new theoretical framework and quantitative methods proposed in this research can also provide a new operable plan for the future studies of video discourse analysis.