Volume 12, Issue 2

This paper discusses the linguistic features of the production of football commentary within its macrosocial contexts. It contrasts the communication of the TV production team during a football game with the live football commentary aired on TV. Applying a mixed methods analysis, it reveals how football commentary is prepared and produced in the technical setting of the commentator’s booth in a stadium. This study reveals how a medial reality of the same events concerning a goal are broadcasted in the 11 min highlight video football commentary. The author and her co-principal investigator video recorded a total of 36 h in four work settings. Finally, retrospective interviews with the commentator and head of sports of the TV station place the study in the broader social context of football as a media production. In this paper, I show how live football reporting is prepared and conducted using two different theoretical and methodological frameworks: Conversation Analysis (CA) and Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis (MMIA). Both provide insight into the synthetic verbal, non-verbal and parallel actions for the successful production of the football commentary and they also reveal the sequential structure of naturally occurring talk (CA).

Drawing on multimodal conversation analysis and past literature on synchronization, this study sheds light on the temporal properties of embodied remembering , which we define as co-operative enactment(s) of a mutually-established recollectable. Our main argument is that the nature of a recollectable shapes the practical organization of embodied remembering. To demonstrate this, we investigate the phenomenon in three performance-based settings: (a) taiko ensemble rehearsal, (b) Korean TV show, and (c) ESL service-learning reflection. In each setting, participants jointly produce a (quasi-)synchronized performance, but for different purposes: to advocate one version of choral chanting against the other, to demonstrate one’s knowledge of choreographic moves and understanding of an expert correction in the pursuit of humor, and finally, to foster peer solidarity through nonserious competition. Detailed analysis uncovers varying degrees of performative precision, through which participants display their in-situ understanding of the consequentiality of achieved synchrony for the task-at-hand. The temporal unfolding of embodied remembering is locally shaped by participants’ mutual orientation to a given activity context and the nature of a recollectable. Participants’ orientation to relevant performative precision is embodied in the very way they enact the recollectable.

This article aims to contribute to the construction of the pedagogy of multiliteracies. It presents a study developed to answer the following research question: How does focalization construct ideological meanings in digital multimodal narratives? A case study of a story app was developed involving multimodal critical discourse analysis. Findings reveal that focalization productively inscribes ideological meanings in the multimodal narrative through a complex layering of meanings resulting from the use of specific semiotic resources and the establishment of intermodal meaning processes. The findings suggest that focalization is a relevant dimension in the enactment of critical analysis of multimodal narratives, pointing into its importance in the enactment of the pedagogy of multiliteracies. Findings and implications are discussed with reference to extant research.

Advertisements of Thai brain-enhancing lifestyle products are analyzed in terms of their multimodal entextualization practices illustrating how they use two prominent Thai cultural tropes – discourses of Thai motherhood and of learning in Thailand. Four products were chosen: Brand’s Junior, Brand’s GenU, Peptein, and Altertide, and a lexical and multimodal analysis of their advertisements was conducted. The initial focus was on entextualization and lexical practices: naming, overlexicalization, suppression, repetition, and personalization, noting how the advertisements created relationships between text (“good brain”) and image (the thinking gesture and brain images) that index Thai cultural tropes. This analysis revealed how the products created relationships between consumption of the product and implied benefits through multimodal entextualization practices while invoking the voice of science through faux scientific diagrams, overlexicalization and repetition of images. To triangulate and augment our multimodal analysis, interviews were conducted with the assumed target audience: students, young professionals, and mothers. The interviews augmented the textual findings regarding the presence of Thai cultural tropes around discourses of Thai motherhood and learning. In manipulating relationships between text and image, these products not only take advantage of Thai cultural tropes but also evade consumer protection controls through a stronger use of image than text.

The prevalence of intercultural communication in the business domain has led to an increase in the occurrence of misunderstandings. The advancement of telecommunication technology and the implementation of epidemic prevention policies in various countries have resulted in electronic written communication becoming the most widely utilized method for business interactions, thereby giving rise to a significant number of misunderstandings. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the specific reasons for misunderstandings within a particular country. Given China’s prominent global position, it is crucial to conduct a thorough examination of Chinese companies and workers. Thus, this article aims to identify the sources and strategies employed to address misunderstandings in intercultural electronic written communication in China by analyzing naturally occurring electronic written communication documents and conducting interviews with Chinese businesspersons. The findings reveal that language-related and culture-related factors are the primary causes of misunderstandings. Chinese businesspersons have employed strategies such as seeking advice from familiar Chinese coworkers, engaging in further communication with the interlocutors, and modifying their own expression habits to resolve and prevent misunderstandings. Researching the distinctive forms and causes of misunderstandings in electronic written communication is essential for individuals engaged in international business to identify solutions and enhance communication efficiency by minimizing misunderstandings.

The purpose of this article is to show how to identify and clarify the roles of distinctive discourses in empowering and advocacy communication meant to create bridging and bonding social capital through building new intellectual and symbolic capital. More precisely, the purpose is to explain the roles of multimodal discursive strategies employed when issues of gender equity and empowerment are communicated in corporate context, viz. in employee magazines, by world-acclaimed women professional athletes and corporate employees. For accomplishing this purpose, a series of multimodal interviews appearing in the Puma’s online employee magazines, Puma Catch Up , are systematically examined. Overall, the study suggests that especially legitimations used by successful professional women are key discursive resources for empowering women across various kinds of borders and for creating a corporate symbolic capital. By outlining how legitimations constitute empowering and advocacy discursive resources, this research work contributes with a multimodal perspective to the field of social change communication.