Chinese Online Celebrities’ Discursive Strategies of Promoting Domestic Products

Online Posters as Multimodal Ensembles

Bibliographic Data

ID21830763
AuthorsYusa Wang (0000-0003-2309-2449, University of Macau, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume14
Issue4
Pages11
Publication date2024-06-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of English Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1923-869X • E-ISSN: 1923-8703
PublisherCanadian Center of Science and Education (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5539/ijel.v14n4p11
OpenAlexW4399983184
LanguageEN
References cited24

Although Chinese online celebrities have received much scholarly attention, scant studies pay attention to the crucial role they play in promoting the emerging “buy national” in China. This study investigates the multimodal discourse conveyed in a collection of advertising posters designed by online celebrities to promote Chinese domestic products (known as guohuo in China). Through a social semiotic lens, it provides a multimodal analysis of how online posters employ visual imaginary and textual messages for commercial purposes within the rising consumer nationalistic context. Drawing upon a dataset of 20 online posters, the analysis reveals a set of semiotic resources including color, image, typography, layout and non-linguistic gesture and gaze. These modes are employed collectively to orchestrate the national script and produce the authoritative representatives that convert the online posters into a kind of national multimodal ensemble. The study highlights the extensive spread of online posters and provides new insights for analyzing the visibility of online celebrities in the growing wave of “buy national” in China

Advertising · Business · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Media Studies and Communication

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