The course offers fundamental concepts and tools for the critical multimodal analysis of discourse in terms of linguistic, semiotic and technological strategies that are used to convey meaning through digital media.
Kress, Gunther (2011), Multimodal Discourse Analysis. The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis edited by James Paul Gee, Michael Handford, London and New York, Routledge, pp. 35-50. (The text is available on Moodle)
Jewitt, Carey and Berit Henriksen (2016), Social Semiotic Multimodality. Handbuch Sprache im multimodalen Kontext edited by Nina-Maria Klug and Hartmut Stöckl, Berlin, De Gruyter, pp. 145-164 (The text is available on Moodle)
Machin, David and van Leeuwen, Theo (2016). Multimodality, Politics and Ideology. Journal of Language and Politics 15 (3), pp. 243–258. (The text is available on Moodle)
Jones, Rodney H., Hafner Christoph, A. 2012. Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction. London & New York: Routledge, Chapters 3,4,5,7,8,10 (The text is available at the Library)
Moschini Ilaria (2017). A Digital ‘Meeting Place’? A Socio-semiotic and Multimodal Analysis of the WhiteHouse.gov Social Hub. In Rita Salvi and Judith Turnbull, The Discursive Construal of Trust in the Dynamics of Knowledge Diffusion, Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK): Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 184-205. (The text is available on Moodle)
Moschini Ilaria (2018). Storytelling for Geeks. A Multimodal Analysis of Disney’s Stickers in Altre Modernità. Special Issue Language and Discourse in Social Media: New Challenges, New Approaches edited by Massimiliano Demata, Dermot Heaney e Susan C. Herring, 10, pp. 124-144. (The text is available on Moodle)
Moschini Ilaria (2018). Social semiotics and platform studies: an integrated perspective for the study of social media platforms. Social Semiotics, Special Issue: Social media as Semiotic Technology edited by Søren Vigild Poulsen, Gunhild Kvåle & Theo van Leeuwen 28:5, 623-640. (The text is available on Moodle)
Poulsen Søren Vigild (2018), Becoming a semiotic technology – a historical study of Instagram’s tools for making and sharing photos and videos. Internet Histories, 2:1-2, 121-139 (The text is available on Moodle)
Zhao, Sumin, Zappavigna Michele (2018) The interplay of (semiotic) technologies and genre: the case of the selfie, Social Semiotics, Special Issue: Social media as Semiotic Technology edited by Søren Vigild Poulsen, Gunhild Kvåle & Theo van Leeuwen 28:5, pp. 665-682. (The text is available on Moodle)
A selection of examples that will be uploaded to Moodle.
Learning Objectives
The main knowledge provided by the course concerns the concept of “discourse” in its multidisciplinary perspectives, what is meant by “digital discourse” and its characteristics, the relationship between “digital discourse” and contemporary political discourse, the three phases of multimodal and semiotic analysis of discourse and its basic tools. At the end of the course students must be able to understand, analyse and contextualise a digital communication act in English from a linguistic, semiotic and technological point of view as well as to master the related scientific literature and jargon.
Teaching Methods
The lecture-based lessons that involve the direct participation of students.
Further information
The course is in the second semester.
Until March 2020, the professor is Visiting Scholar at the Center for Multimodal Communication of the University of Southern Denmark. It is possible to contact her via mail.
Type of Assessment
The final exam is written also for non-attending students or exchange programs (Erasmus and others). The test features open questions and, in detail, theoretical questions and questions that involve the application of the acquired concepts.
Course program
The course is divided into two modules. In the first module, the basic concepts of critical multimodal analysis of digital discourse are provided, while the second module features a participatory analysis of examples of digital discourse.