Abstract:
This study is a case study of television advertisements of selected companies in
Ghana. It examines the choice and motivations for the use of multimodality in the
advertisements. Data for the study consisted of selected advertisements from some
communication companies, banks, insurance companies as well as alcoholic
beverages in Ghana and was obtained and downloaded from YouTube. The study
employed the qualitative research design in the analysis of data. Using Multimodal
Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) and Visual Semiotic Theory (VST) as the
theoretical frameworks, the advertisements were individually analysed, paying
particular attention to the contributions of the various semiotic resources and modes to
the messages the advertisements convey. The study concludes that written and verbal
texts are used in the various advertisements to complement each other in the
dissemination of the messages. Another conclusion drawn is that gestures, as well as
other semiotic resources and modes are used to conceal and/or send particular
messages that are subtly and tacitly expressed to block and at the same time pick out
particular audiences. It is concluded in the study that some of the advertisements used
famous personalities in society to project their products and also tap into their huge
fan base. It is also concluded that the choice and use of certain modes acknowledge
the existence of competition among the companies and project the ideologies of
certain companies. The research again, concludes that the release of the various
advertisements in terms of timing does not generally show competition though the
closeness of the dates of some advertisements appear to suggest the existence of
competition. The study recommends that multimodal text producers should not lose
sight of the fact that readers are not only influenced by the multimodal aspect of texts
but also the extra linguistic elements
Description:
thesis in the Department of English Education, Faculty of
Foreign Languages Education, submitted to the School
of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(English Language)
in the University of Education, Winneba
MAY, 2022