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Protest in Style: Exploring Multimodal Concision in Rhetorical Artifacts

Multimodality, Meaning, and Institutions

ISBN: 978-1-78743-330-4, eISBN: 978-1-78743-329-8

Publication date: 30 November 2017

Abstract

This research explores two interconnected questions: (1) How do we approach stylistic features of multimodal rhetorical artifacts such as protest posters? (2) Do said artifacts designed for different purposes exhibit systematic stylistic differences? Drawing on Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic categorization, this study develops a framework for examining concision, one of the primary stylistic considerations for multimodal rhetorical artifacts such as protest posters. This paper illustrates the use of this framework by exploring the correlation between rhetorical purpose and concision in posters created and disseminated before and during the 2011–2012 Québécois student movement. This study fine-tunes our existing knowledge on multimodality with style sensitivity, and demonstrates how an economy-of-sign based semiotic approach could enrich the empirical examination of multimodal rhetorical artifacts by generating more controlled interpretations.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

Heartfelt thanks are extended to the editors of the volume, Dr. Markus Höllerer, Dr. Thibault Daudigeos, and Dr. Dennis Jancsary, for their excellent guidance and to reviewers for their constructive comments. I am also indebted to Dr. Bernard Forgues, Dr. Philippe Monin, Dr. Renate Meyer, and Dr. Roy Suddaby for their insights and advice, which greatly benefited this study and the research program of which this study is a part. I wish to thank Dr. Eva Boxenbaum, Dr. Bing Ran, Dr. Bill Foster, Dr. Ignasi Marti, and participants at the 2nd International conference: Visuality, Materiality, Multimodality, the 32nd EGOS Colloquium Paper Development Workshop on Multimodality, the 43rd Annual Conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, and the 2014 Organizational Studies Summer Workshop, as well as my colleagues at SCANCOR, Stanford University during my stay, for their valuable inputs to this study.

Citation

Zhao, W.(. (2017), "Protest in Style: Exploring Multimodal Concision in Rhetorical Artifacts", Höllerer, M.A., Daudigeos, T. and Jancsary, D. (Ed.) Multimodality, Meaning, and Institutions (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 54A), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 119-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X2017000054A005

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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