Positive Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of “Dad,Where Are We Going?”

The coming of computer era indicates that human beings begin to enter an age of information. With the rapid development of science and technology, people have not restricted their researches of discourse on the level of mono-mode any more to achieve the best social communication, so multimodal discourse analysis appeared as the mainstream of discourse analysis in the 1990 s. The data selected for this thesis is a reality show program which is obviously a typical multimodal discourse and at the meanwhile the analysis of this multimodal discourse is from the perspective of positive discourse analysis. As there has never been a ready-made model for the positive multimodal discourse analysis at present, the author of this thesis proposes an analytic model for the positive multimodal discourse analysis from the integration of appraisal theory and visual grammar and tries to reveal the roles of both the verbal and non-verbal resources in the construction of a harmonious society through some concrete case studies. Besides, this thesis tries to explain that even though different kinds of semiotic resources may possess different proportions in the same multimodal discourse, they work together to contribute to the achievement of a best communication.Although network and different kinds of media have penetrated into every aspect of social life, TV station, as a kind of traditional medium, still has the largest number of audience, so TV station undoubtedly undertakes the vital responsibility in society. For instance, the data selected in the present research is a popular reality show program of parent-child named “Dad, where are we going?”. As a kind of reality show, either the words said or the performance performed by the represented participants in the program are spontaneous without any scripts to refer to. At the meanwhile, owing to the participation of these children, there are always some situations that are out of control of the fathers or the workers of the program. And in order to avoid bothering the audiences or the obstruction in achieving the educational goals, the image producers will first dispose the images before its first broadcasting on the TV and during this process, they may have some their own expressions expressed vaguely and subtly. While, most of these dispositions are disposed by a principle to weaken the conflicts in the program, and this process of disposition is a kind of manipulation of viewers’ ideology unconsciously conducted by the image producers.The present research of this thesis has theoretical significance as well as practical significance. First of all, the study of the present thesis provides a new perspective for the future study of multimodal discourse analysis. Secondly, the study of this thesis stresses the relationship of complement between the critical discourse analysis and positive discourse analysis rather than antagonism. In the end, the sites selected for the present study broadens the locale of positive discourse analysis, which makes the study of positive discourse analysis never restrict on some social affairs with some conflicts, such as some public speeches, some news of people’s livehood, and some government reports. As for its practical significance, the study of this thesis will give some inspirations for the design of the future TV programs and also some different kinds of genres of multimodal discourse. For that reason, the interactions between the represented participants and the interactive participants will be better promoted, and at the meanwhile the discourse can be better understood.