MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED NUTRITIONAL MESSAGES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Student: Deborah Abidemi Ademola
Supervisor: Dr Sunokpera Sabi Abdul
HOD: Dr Ayoola Oladunke Aransi
Department of English
Linguistics & Languages
Kwara State University, Malete, Ilorin, Kwara State

Abstract

Research in multimodal discourse analysis has expanded significantly in recent years. This increase may be attributed to the growing need to examine how semiotic and multimodal resources are utilized in conveying meaning, particularly in the context of online nutritional messages. This study applies multimodal discourse analysis to investigate selected social media posts promoting nutritional content. The researcher randomly sampled 15 data from social media. 8 data were sampled from Instagram and 7 data were picked from Twitter. The sampled posts are rich in semiotic and multimodal resources, which were analyzed using Gunther Kress's (2001) Semiotic Approach. The analysis revealed that multimodal resources such as images, colors, and texts used in social media posts influence users' engagement with nutritional content. Additionally, layout, and interactivity, to analyze the language and tone used in nutritional messages. The study concludes that there is a strong connection between the multimodal resources used in social media posts and the nutritional messages. Therefore, it is recommended that creators of nutritional content strategically deploy appropriate multimodal resources to effectively communicate their messages and promote healthy and nutritional behaviors.

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