Using a multimodal discourse analysis approach, this dynamic collection examines various discourses, modes and media in circulation during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how these have impacted our daily lives in terms of the various meanings they express.

Sabine Tan was until recently a Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University, Australia. She has a background in critical multimodal discourse analysis, social semiotics, and visual communication. She has applied multidisciplinary perspectives for the analysis of institutional discourses involving traditional and new media, and worked on interdisciplinary projects involving the development of interactive software for the multimodal analysis of images, videos and 360-degree videos for research and educational purposes.

Marissa K. L. E is currently a Lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, critical multimodal discourse analysis and conceptual metaphor theory. She has published and presented in the areas of social semiotics, multimodal discourse analysis, multiliteracies and the use of multimodality for educational purposes.

Table of contents

List of figures

List of tables

List of contributors

Introduction

1. Discourses, modes, media and meaning in an era of pandemic: A multimodal discourse analysis approach

Sabine Tan and Marissa K. L. E

Part I. Use of semiotic modes/resources in COVID-19 discourses

2. 'Stay at home': Speech acts in Arab political cartoons on COVID-19 pandemic

Ahmed Abdel-Raheem

3. Communication as 'Graphic Medicine': A multimodal social semiotic approach

Marissa K. L. E and Sabine Tan

Part II. Use of media/media technologies in COVID-19 discourses

4. Design considerations for digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Losses and gains

Fei Victor Lim and Weimin Toh

5. Phraseology and imagery in UK public health agency COVID-19 tweets

David Oakey, Christian Jones and Kay L. O'Halloran

Part III. Communicative functions/strategies of COVID-19 discourses

6. Australian universities engaging international students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of multimodal public communications with students

Zuocheng Zhang, Toni Dobinson and Wei Wang

7. "We are in this together": Cultural branding and affective activations in a pandemic context

Carl Jon Way Ng

8. Defamiliarise to engage the public: A multimodal study of a science video about COVID-19 on Chinese social media

Zhang Yiqiong, Tan Rongle, Marissa K. L. E and Sabine Tan

9. Beyond Reporting: The communicative functions of social media news during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Yuanzheng Wu and Dezheng (William) Feng

10. Exploring strategies of multimodal crisis and risk communication in the business and economic discourses of global pandemic news

Carmen Daniela Maier and Silvia Ravazzani

Part IV. Wider communicative meanings/purposes of COVID-19 discourses

11. "Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Make Memes": A multimodal discourse analysis of UK internet memes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Avery Anapol

12. Everyday acts of social-semiotic inquiry: Insights into emerging practices from the research collective PanMeMic

Elisabetta Adami and Emilia Djonov

Index