A Study On Self-presentation On Social Media Of Chinese Naturalized Athletes From The Perspective Of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

The media image of athletes has always been a hot topic in academia,with Chinese naturalized athletes exhibiting themselves through social media as well.This research concerns three aspects including the means by which they present themselves on social media,the changes that have taken place and the hidden power relations behind.Based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional analysis model,this paper conducts multimodal critical discourse analysis on Chinese naturalized athletes’ use of social media from three dimensions,including text dimension,discourse practice dimension and social practice dimension.Firstly,the research analyzes the text dimension of the athletes’ use of social media.Through the quantitative analysis on the characteristics of the athletes’ presentation,it is found that:1.After being naturalized,the athletes are presenting the sports events more,but less on themselves;2.Athletes are faced with challenges and impacts brought by "change"and "busyness".The emotional analysis shows that they seem to be actively overcoming these difficulties and showing strong adaptability.In addition,the naturalized athletes are presenting harmonious and happy emotions more,adding more Chinese elements,plus the emotions of excitement and tension from foreign male athletes amplified.Before being naturalized,the forms of athletes’ use of social media included images,videos,and words,with images and words used in parallel more often;most of the presentations are all in high modality,which creates a sense of reality for the audience for being quite convincing;emotions in the presentations include excitement,harmony,happiness,no special emotions,tension and glory,among which foreign male athletes are more inclined to show excitement and tension than Chinese athletes.Themes of these presentations include competition,friendship,family,daily life,fashion,honor,and body.Compared with other athletes,foreign male athletes present the theme of competition more but less on friendship,while female athletes often present the theme of honor and body.Subjects of these presentations include people,objects,and scenery;behaviors in the presentations include injuries,freeze-frame photography,tourism,competition,training,award-winning and gathering.Among them,male naturalized athletes,especially foreign athletes,are more inclined to present the scenes of competition,while female athletes are more inclined to present the scenes of training and award-winning.Chinese elements in the presentations include Chinese,watermark,background,and training clothes.Chinese athletes often show Chinese elements by taking photos with Chinese people on purpose or not.However,after being naturalized,all kinds of naturalized athletes are presenting the emotions of harmony and happiness more with more Chinese elements.Based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar,it is found that in terms of cultural context,the outline structure of the athletes’ text genres before and after naturalization is generally divided into four types,and they will choose one or three of them to present,plus their self-presentation mostly being non-technical.The transitivity analysis of the text shows that,in the presentation of social media texts before and after naturalization,the category of clause process is always dominated by material process,supplemented by psychological process and relationship process,with abundant modal words being used,which plays a role in promoting the image affinity,figurative degree and personification degree of the athletes.As far as the results of discourse function analysis are concerned,the athletes tend to use omission to link up and hide the subject and highlight the narrator,and their texts often use "external reference" in reference as cohesive devices.Through the analysis of visual grammar,it is found that the athletes are moderately free in using their social media accounts before and after naturalization.When using images to present personal daily life,most of their behavioral subjects are self-centered.In the aspect of characterization,complete representation is often used.In terms of presenting the theme "body",female naturalized athletes tend to be sexy,and mainly focusing on the themes of bodybuilding and self-confidence,while male athletes focus on some traditional masculinity,conveying the sense of strength and aggression.Some sensitive elements presented by some male athletes before naturalization basically disappeared after naturalization.It can be concluded that clubs are exerting certain pressure on the athletes’use of their own accounts,and there is a vertical power relationship between the two.Secondly,in the aspect of the discourse practice dimension,the research finds that intertextuality is often used in the athletes’ text production to promote disciplined selfpresentation.Specifically,they have increased the Chinese elements of intertextuality,some of which are designed on purpose.Further investigation on the domestic social media of the sample athletes shows that the foreign athletes who join the club highlight their Chinese identity in the domestic social media,increase the presentation of their own "Chineseness"and cater to the imagination of Chinese netizens.There also exists a presentation strategy of "being different at home and abroad",which forms up "frontcourt" and "backcourt" for these athletes to escape from Chinese identity in foreign social media.As for the process of text dissemination and consumption,the page arrangement of Instagram helps to realize the vertical power relationship between athletes and image readers,and athletes’ repeated presentation of certain themes forms a discourse sequence,which strengthens the audience’s partial impression of them.The mass media are also creating identity for Chinese naturalized athletes and fostering their controversial "Chineseness".Finally,in the aspect of the social practice dimension,the research shows that Chinese sports organizations are more inclined to eliminate the differences of Chinese naturalized athletes by means of "trying to solve or overcome differences" and "making athletes unanimously recognize the power to eliminate differences and standardize the power".As far as the relationship between organization management and athletes’ power of speech is concerned,the Chinese naturalized athletes at this stage are more like a member of the functional body,participating in the operation of functional organizations.For these athletes,excessive interference in self-presentation is not only a burden,but also a barrier to communicate,which hinders the athletes from changing their role from "an organizational member" to "a community member".As far as state power and athletes’discourse power are concerned,decision makers should consider the experience,perception,and identity construction of athletes before and after their naturalization,and should also seek to understand how these elements interact with or are influenced by environmental and structural factors.