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‘It all begins with a teacher’: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of Singapore’s teacher recruitment videos
Citation
Teo, P. (2021). ‘It all begins with a teacher’: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of Singapore’s teacher recruitment videos. Discourse & Communication, 15(3), 330-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481321999909
Abstract
This study focuses on a series of videos aimed at teacher recruitment in Singapore and how they are used as an ideological tool for persuasion. By adopting a multimodal critical discourse analysis approach to focus on affect, it examines how these videos create and promulgate the ideology of an ideal teacher as one who is caring, encouraging and supportive of students. The analysis shows how affect is not only embodied in and performed by the primary protagonists in the video narratives through their action, facial expression, posture and speech. It is also evoked through various secondary meaning-making modes, such as focus, angle, lighting, background music and setting, through which the narratives unfold. More importantly, it demonstrates how affect is used not only as a means to arouse and engage viewers’ sensibilities but also as a persuasive strategy to manufacture and manage particular social and economic realities in contemporary society.
Date Issued
2021
Publisher
Sage
Journal
Discourse & Communication