Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Interpersonal Meaning Of Obama’s Campaign Advertising

Since the publication of the monograph How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis: A Multimodal Introduction by Machin and Mayr in 2012, Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis(MCDA) has become a research focus in linguistics. The research on revealing the relationship between power and ideology buried in the visual-verbal discourse with interaction of multiple modes from the perspective of MCDA has been the mainstream of Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA) study. As one type of typical multimodal discourse, video advertisement, characterized by its various modal resources, plays an important role in constructing interpersonal meaning and affecting customers’ ideology, viewpoints and feelings. However, given the fact that most of the researchers at home and abroad(e.g. Pandya, 1977; Chen & Xin, 2005; Wang, 2007; Liu, 2008) focus on the realization of interpersonal meaning in static advertisement in lack of/without enough studies on the interaction of multiple modes in constructing interpersonal meaning in dynamic advertisement, domestic and foreign research on advertisement is relatively inadequate. In order for an in-depth understanding of the way how video ads use various resources to establish the relationship with costumers for the persuasive function, taking Obama’s campaign advertising as a case study, the present study attempts to explore the interaction of verbal and non-verbal resources of video advertisements in the realization of political advocacy as well as the persuasion, manipulation and control of the audience’s thoughts and behaviors. Thus, it aims to answer the following three research questions in detail:(1) Which verbal mode resources does Obama use in his campaign advertising?And how do these resources realize the interpersonal meaning?(2) Which visual mode resources does Obama use in his campaign advertising?And how do these resources realize the interactive meaning?(3) How do verbal mode and visual mode interact with each other in realizing theobjectivity of persuading Americans to win the election?Based on these questions, this thesis adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods, choosing 30 Obama’s campaign advertising as the data, constructing multimodal corpus. The data processing and analysis are divided into three levels: linguistic level, visual level and image-text relations level. The linguistic analysis is carried out with the corpus analytical software Antconc to analyze the interpersonal meaning of verbal modal from mood, modality, personal pronoun and attitude. The visual analysis is carried out with multimedia annotation software ELAN to analyze the interactive meaning of visual modal from gaze, distance, angle, individualization and collectivization. In visual-verbal interactive level, the present study continues to use multimedia annotation software ELAN to carry on a comprehensive analysis on verbal mode and visual mode, analyzing the interaction of two modes and its relationship with interpersonal meaning construction.In order to accurately analyze video advertisements, the present study adopts Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar and Kress & van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar, applies Machin & Mayr’s analytical methods and tools of MCDA building an integrated model for multimodal critical discourse analysis which consist of verbal mode analysis, visual mode analysis and the interaction of two modes.The research results show three main points. Firstly, the interpersonal meaning of verbal modal in the campaign advertising is reflected in four aspects: mood, modality, person pronoun and attitude. In terms of mood, campaign advertising mainly uses the declarative mood to objectively convey information, which can realize the credibility and reliability of the information and then get the audience’s sense of trust. In terms of modality, campaign advertising mainly uses modal verb “will” and “can” to convey the confidence and ability of Obama to solve the predicament of the America, which can enhance people’s sense of identity for Obama. In terms of person pronoun, campaign advertising uses the first personal pronoun “we” to shorten the physical and psychological distance between Obama and the viewers so as to achieve the purpose of closing people. In terms of attitude system, campaign advertising mainly uses the positive attitudinal resources and negative attitudinal resources to express the relationship between the rivals in the race. Positive attitudinal resources are used to praise Obama’s policies and political views, while negative attitudinal resources are used to belittle and oppose Romney and his political views. Obama uses these two kinds of attitudinal resources to enhance people’s sense of trust for him. Secondly, the interactive meaning of visual modal is reflected in four aspects: gaze, distance, angle, individualization and collectivization. The widely used “offer images” which correspond to the declarative mood can convey Obama’s achievements and ruling idea objectively; the widely used close shot and collectivization which correspond to the first personal pronoun can shorten the interactive distance between Obama and the viewers; the widely used frontal angle indicates the equal interactive relation which can make the viewers be aware of Obama’s sincerity and confidence. It lowers viewers’ psychological guard and makes them unconsciously accept the ideology conveyed in these advertisements. Thirdly, as for the visual-verbal interactive mechanism in Obama’s campaign advertising, in terms of macro level, verbal mode and visual mode interact with each other to show three image-text relations. They are specification(38.3%), explanation(36.7%) and complement(25%). In micro level, verbal mode and visual mode enforce and complement with each other. Based on the construction of semantic coherent multimodal discourse, these relations construct the harmonious interpersonal meaning network. They not only combine Obama’s populist attitude, sense of mission and sense of leadership into a unity, but also arouse the audience’s fantasy for reflecting the economic and political policy of American dream, and cause the audience’s resonance, and even lay the foundation of establishing Obama’s authority of the President and political image.The present study proves the feasibility and applicability of the MCDA in the process of analyzing the interpersonal meaning of the campaign advertising. In addition, these findings will play an important role in advertising design, public speaking and the cultivation of language ability.