Tag: multimodal discourse analysis

How do the visuals of the Hong Kong Protest 2019 in online news articles tell you the story?

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Iris Po

The Hong Kong Protest has started since June 2019 and the movement has been continued for a few months. Medias have reported the movement at different angles, some of them described the protesters as ‘rioters’, while some of them highlighted the growing police brutality. It has been argued that some of the mainstream medias were biased when they reported related events of the movement. The language used in the news reports is certainly powerful in conveying the intended message to the audience, but what about the power of the pictures attached? Do you have a habit of reading ‘e-news’? 

Approach: Multimodal Discourse Analysis

The focus of this analysis is how the visuals (e.g. images) interact with the text (e.g. choice of vocabulary) in the three chosen news articles.

Image 1

South China Morning Post, July 2019
Title: Protesters and police fight pitched battles in late-night showdown after mass rally against Hong Kong extradition bill

It was taken when a clash between the protesters and police officers in Mong Kok broke out. The photo was taken as if the photographer was one of the police officers as it showed the angle of them confronting the protestors. The police officers were raising batons and formed a cordon line to prevent the protesters from going any further. Meanwhile, the black-dressed protestors, who wear masks, were holding black umbrellas to avoid being dispersed by the police. They also showed that they were ready for the confrontation through their firm gaze at the police officers. The situation was described as ‘chaos’ and ‘running battles’ in the article. The vocabulary chosen echoes when looking at the photo alone, as it may give an impression that facing the uncontrollable crowd of demonstrators, the police used reasonable force to handle the chaos after the original peaceful demonstration.

Image 2

Bloomberg, October 2019
Title: Hong Kong Protests Flare for 21st Weekend Amid Global Unrest

It captured the moment when the protestors gathered during a protest in Tsim Sha Tsui. Though it was mainly a crowd of demonstrators waiting for their turn to move, an obvious big black flag that one of the protestors raised has brought to the spotlight. The Chinese words on the flag has the meaning of “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time”. The slogan was used by a candidate in an election campaign in 2016. It was reused in the Hong Kong protests 2019 as the main slogan and caught the world’s attention. The author did not mention the slogan or the content of the flag captured in the photo. Nonetheless, the photo provided the real scene of the protest that adds extra information to the article. The other feature of the protestors discovered in the photo was that they were mostly masked. 

Image 3

Hong Kong Free Press, December 2019
Title: In Pictures: Pepe frog and protest pig – Hongkongers bring internet memes to life at protest

Various images of demonstrators wearing different kinds of over-sized animal masks have been showed. The photo chosen showed that most of the people wore the oversized ‘Pepe the Frog’ masks and showed the gesture of “five demands, not one less” with their right hands. The ‘Pepe the Frog’, originated in a comic and later used as a hate symbol in the US, was used in the Hong Kong protests as a symbol of liberty and resistance. The author suggested that it was used as a disrespectful symbol of their dissatisfaction with the Beijing’s rule, explaining the reason why the protesters wore the oversized ‘Pepe the Frog’ masks or carried the frog dolls when joining the rallies. One of the interviewees pointed out that the frog symbolizes humour, confidence and positive thinking for the ongoing movement. The photos attached with the news add lively protest scenes and revealed the fact that the symbol was widely used for the protest.  

Sources:
1. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3017627/protesters-and-police-fight-pitched-battles-late-night

2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-25/hong-kong-protests-set-for-21st-weekend-as-unrest-circles-globe

3. https://hongkongfp.com/2019/12/09/pictures-pepe-frog-protest-pig-hongkongers-bring-internet-memes-life-protest/

Where reverse discourse meets advertising discourse: A parody poster against police brutality

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Jacqueline Tsang

Fairclough (1992) pointed out that a text is interdiscursive when it illustrates “an instance of mixing of genres, discourses and styles”. A parody poster against police brutality designed by Hong Kong netizens demonstrates how reverse discourse mixed with advertising discourse to spread the message – say no to police brutality, in a combination of verbal and visual modes.

In early November, the government released a series of posters asking citizens to stay away from violence. In other words, they spread a message that citizens should never support these violent protesters or rioters. To resist the dominant institutional discourse, the pro-democratic side released a parody poster in which the mainstream slogan and the ideology behind (stay away from violence) were adopted. Smartly through this revers discourse, they turned the mainstream opinion into one that spreads the subordinate belief. Additionally, the poster also shows some aspects of advertising discourse, which helps to intensify the message behind.

The slogan

In the slogan, the designer used the same vocabulary暴力to point out a counterargument. The designer also acknowledged the public notion that there were violent acts throughout the protest. However, with the use of reverse discourse, such violence no longer comes from the protesters, but the Hong Kong police. This allows the poster not to be argued by the mainstream; meanwhile, it challenged the current power structure by pulling down the police’s status from a powered discipline service team to a group of beasts doing violent acts.

Moreover, readers are directly addressed through the use of imperatives. According to Simpson, Mayr and Statham (2019), these imperatives allowed the designer to engage Hongkongers “on an individual basis” as if they are having a conversation with the designer. It is, therefore, more efficient to convey the message that citizens should stay away from the police in order to avoid violence.

The parallelism also intensified meaning. The repeated structure of an imperative starting with a phrasal verb turned the slogan to be a more melodic and rhythmic one, as well as intensifying the message behind – stay away from the police.

The faceless photo

Stepping on the protester’s head, the riot police seem to be the powered in the photo. Nevertheless, they are collectivised as a cold-blooded, unprofessional, “homogenous community” who is not performing the duty of protecting the citizens but hurting them (Calsamiglia and Ferrero, 2003). This, in turn, weakens the professional image of the whole police force. The collectivisation also reinforces the message that the riot police are all unable to make a judgement as they lack autonomy once they become a group.

Contrastively, the lone protester is individualised and humanised. Although he/she is powerless in the picture, the protester is still “personalised”, and thus readers are likely to regard them as a reasonable agent who could have enjoyed more autonomy if he/she had not been stepped at his/her head (Bernard, 2018).

Simpson, Mayr and Statham (2019) pointed out that “what is absent in a text is just as important”. It is therefore important to look at the missing facial expressions of both parties in the photo. The absence of faces of both the protesters and the riot police distances the social actors from readers. As a result, readers might have no feeling of the incident. However, such absence could also imply a warning message that the social actors in this photo, both the unfortunate victim on the floor and the brutal perpetrator, could actually be any of us. The designer, indeed, wanted to intensify the overall meaning to persuade the audience to choose wisely (by staying away from the police as encouraged in the slogan) so that they will not become similar to the violent police, nor the being beaten up by the riot police.

The layout

The simple layout here agrees with Kress and van Leeuwen’s notes on the idea of “Ideal” and “Real”. In the poster, the more generalised idea about violence is put as a logo on the top while the more “factual, down to earth information” is placed at the bottom. Such logical layout indeed helps readers to first grasp the more “frivolous” idea before knowing what exact actions they have to take (as demonstrated in the slogan).

Colour choice

The red colour, which reminds readers of blood or danger, was used with words violence as well as the term police. This fosters the message that the police force equals to the origin of violence in the protest. Contrastively, black colour is used in the background. Practically, it helps readers to focus on the photo and the slogan as a black background “make the other colours stand out”; while ideologically, it symbolises the dark side of the disciplined service team, as well as the dark future, or even the death of Hong Kong’s political environment.

Conclusion

The designer skilfully demonstrated a reverse discourse by turning the mainstream objection about protesters’ violence into an accusation towards police brutality. The visual elements, particularly the photo which personalised protesters, also reinforce such message. The lack of facial expression of both social actors allows readers to reflect on which side they should take. As a consequence, the poster might affect the current power relations that more citizens might be aware of police brutality and switch their side to support the protesters.

References:

Bernard, T. (2018). The Discursive Representation of Social Actors in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Integrated Annual (IA) Reports of Two South African Mining Companies. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines, 10(1), 81-97.

Calsamiglia, H., & Ferrero, C. (2003). Role and Position of Scientific Voices: Reported Speech in the Media. Discourse Studies, 5(2), 147-173.

Hariman, R., & Lucaites, J. L. (2007). No caption needed: Iconic photographs, public culture, and liberal democracy. University of Chicago Press.

Simpson, P., Mayr, A., & Statham, S. (2019). Language and power: A resource book for students (Second ed., Routledge English language introductions series).