Corporate TV Public Service Advertisements:Dramatism And Identification Approach

Based on Kenneth Burke’s thought of dramatism and identification, this research is designed to construct a framework for multimodal discourse analysis of corporate Public Service Advertisements (PSA) on TV. Due to the multimodality of TV PSA, the research must be a multimodal analysis. The purpose is to reveal the motives behind the symbolic acts and analyze the identification strategies adopted in the six corporate TV PSAs.According to the genre property, the corporate PSA on TV can be classified into six types, which are environmental protection PSA, social ethics PSA, social education PSA, health PSA, safety PSA and certain special subject PSA. To study these subjects, Burke’s new rhetoric thought is adopted in this thesis for analysis from two aspects:Dramatism and Identification, namely DI framework. The motive is gradually revealed through the analysis of the five terms of the pentad—scene, agent, agency act and purpose and the dominant ratios in the corporate PSA on TV. In addition, the following analysis of identification strategies used in the corporate TV PSA explains how the rhetors identify with the target audience. The identification strategies are composed of substantial identification and formal identification. For the substantial identification, the strategies are identification by sympathy, identification by antithesis and identification by inaccuracy. For the formal identification strategies, there are conventional form, progressive form, repetitive form and minor forms. As the development of new technology nowadays, many new figures of speech like those mentioned in visual rhetoric may be used in the TV PSAs.From the dramatistic analysis, it can be found that the motives of the six corporate PSAs on TV are different because of their difference in communicative purposes. But in regard of the profit-making property of corporations, the research subjects share a similar motive, which is to establish a good corporate image and bring profits to the company in the end. According to the identification analysis, from the aspect of content, the strategy used most in the corporate TV PSA is the identification via sympathy. When involved in the strategy in formal patterns, the conventional form is used least. The repetitive form and progressive form are often used to create a special effect. In addition, several figures of speech like parallel, contrast etc. in the minor form which can also be found in the visual rhetoric are used most. The use of these figures of speech can vividly display the motives of the PSA while at the same time facilitates the communication and identification between the rhetor of the PSA and the audience.The study can make the readers better interpret the motives and identifications strategies behind the corporate PSA on TV. In addition, this study opens up a new perspective for multimodal discourse analysis by adopting Burkean DI framework. What is more, the study is of considerable significance to other studies on multimodal discourse as few of the thesis paper adopting Burkean thought.