exploring position and ideology in digital texts: lessons in multimodal discourse from the chinese...
TRANSCRIPT
Exploring Position and Ideology in Digital Texts:
Lessons in Multimodal Discourse from the Chinese
Professor
Mary B. McVee, University at Buffalo, SUNYColette M. Carse, University at Buffalo, SUNY
Research Trajectory
Equity & Social Justice
Research Trajectory
• Are you doing research you
care about?
• Can you communicate in a few sentences how this research fits into your overall research goals?
• Are you looking ahead not just to “the next step” but to the steps that come after?
• Your dissertation shapes your professional identity.
• Beware the shiny penny syndrome
Exploring Position and Ideology in Digital Texts:
Lessons in Multimodal Discourse from the Chinese
Professor
Mary B. McVee, University at Buffalo, SUNYColette M. Carse, University at Buffalo, SUNY
The Chinese Professor
First aired October 2010
Re-aired during 2012 Presidential Elections (October-November 2012)
Have you seen the video where the Chinese are laughing at us and saying they own us?
• Storylines—Konaev & Moghaddam, 2010
• Metanarratives/grand narratives—McLaren, 1993
• Layering & Affordances of Modes—Kress• Design—• Interaction across modes—
• Analysis— How can we analyze? • How can we learn to do analysis
as novices?
Questions(Critical Discourse Studies)
How are modes layered throughout the video?
What storylines are communicated through these modes?
How do various modes and storylines position viewers?
What ideological positions are constructed through the multimodal and narrative discourses?
Theoretical Perspectives
POSITIONING THEORY
“positioning theory is about how people use words (and discourse of all types) to locate themselves and others” (p.2)
“It is with words that we ascribe rights and claim them for ourselves and place duties on others” (p. 3). (Mogghadam &Harré, 2010)
Theoretical Perspectives
POSITIONING THEORY
“positioning theory is about how people use words (and discourse of all types) to locate themselves and others” (p.2)
“It is with words that we ascribe rights and claim them for ourselves and place duties on others” (p. 3). (Mogghadam &Harré, 2010)
Theoretical Perspectives Social Semiotics & Positioning
considers a variety modes (e.g., music, color, gaze, gesture, and movement) (Jewitt, 2009; Kress, 2003, 2010).
“Communication never just ‘communicates, ‘represents’, and ‘expresses’, it also always and at the same time affects us. The two cannot be separated” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001, p. 71).
Theoretical PerspectivesIdeologies
Each rhetor/designer has an ideological position (Kress, 2010)
In moment-by-moment discourse ideological positions are taken up, performed, and delineated
Ideologies are mental and individual but also social and shared (Van Dijk, 1998)
Macro-Micro
Data & AnalysisWorked across a variety of texts: TCP (primary)
Parodies of TCP Movies, magazine articles, TV news stories,
commercials of US-China relations Scholarly texts on China-US relations, “the Chinese
Threat”
Identified 24 frames (camera shots, camera angle, focal point, images within a specific camera shot); tracked in Nvivo
Identified modes
Analyzed for storylines
Identified positions created by modes and storylines
Popular Media
“Why Do We Fear a Rising China?” Time Magazine
“Obama Insists US Does Not Fear China” The Times of India
“The ‘Karate Kid’ Betrays America’s Fear of China” The Guardian
1984/1986
2010
Contextual Concerns
China will become the world’s largest economy 2020-2030 (overtaking the US).
The Chinese military buildup double- digit increases in spending
defense systems to intercept missiles, target satellites and launch of first aircraft carrier.
Chinese is the largest foreign holder of US treasuries, since 2008.
Trend in Perceptions US Greatest Enemy
Perceptions of Leading Economic Power in World
2013: Concerned about debt?
Citizens Against Government Waste(CAGW)
Founded 1984
“eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in the federal government”
“non-profit, non-partisan”
Comments about TCP: “features a chilling look at one potential future
scenario if the nation continues on its current path”
“no way means to imply the Chinese are responsible for America’s financial problem”
Contexts for TCP: Opportunity? Calamity? Concern?
China is expanding its influence around the globe
US influence and importance is shrinking
China upward mobility
US downward mobility
Communist Chinese Images(Frame 1)
Wei shen me qiang da de guo jia dou hui zou xiangmie wang ni?
“Why do great nations fail?”
The Chinese Professor
Mandarin Chinese with subtitles gets our attention in an “attention economy”
Non-Chinese speakers, the vast majority of the viewing audience in the US, are “force-positioned” (Harré & van Langenhove, 1991).
Wei shen me qiang da de guo jia dou hui zou xiangmie wang ni?
“Why do great nation’s fail?”
Storyline 1: The US was a great nation, but now it is a fallen empire.
Aesthetic Experience
Capturing attention in an “attention economy”Spoken Chinese Iconic Communist ImagesSubtitles
Communist Chinese images
“Foreign writing” 全球经济学 : 全球 quan qui, 经济 jing ji, and 学 xue
meaning “Global Economic Study.”
Aesthetic Experience
Storyline 2: The US is a fallen empire because it betrayed its principles—its
core principles.
Storyline 3: Americans are losing their democratic and economic freedom; the
threat to private enterprise is a threat to democracy.
Storyline 4: The Chinese own us, and they are laughing at us, the United States of
America. We must take action.
“Humor” in the Chinese Professor
Camera Angle
Lighting
Gaze
Facial Expression
Laughter
Morreall (1983, 1987, 2005)
Joke
4 Storylines Build a 5th
Storyline 1: The US was a great nation, but now it is a fallen empire.
Storyline 2: The US is a fallen empire because it betrayed its principles—its core principles.
Storyline 3: Americans are losing their democratic and economic freedom; the threat to private enterprise is a threat to democracy.
Storyline 4: The Chinese own us, and they are laughing at us, the United States of America. We must take action.
5th or Metanarrative
5th Storyline & Metanarrative
The US was a great nation, but now it is a fallen empire.
The US is a fallen empire because it betrayed its principles—its core principles.
Americans are losing their democratic and economic freedom. This places private enterprise at risk.
The Chinese own us, and they are laughing at us, the United States of America. This is the future if US citizens do not unite to save America.
Communism as threat: Conflating democracy and free
markets
Americans believe US influence is falling while Chinese influence is rising
The professor’s “joke” –Americans should fear the future that Chinese influence will bring
Fear of communism and totalitarianism evoked by Chinese imagery
The recession is the result of taxes, spending, and health care (i.e., a socialist/communist cause).
The free market is democracy; democracy is the free market.
A Powerful Affordance of Modes
This advertisement posted on YouTube by CAGW has 2,618,325 views
Discussed prominently on Fox News, (Fox News, 2011) and written about in various news outlets and personal blogs.
Received awards in two categories at the 2011 TELLY Awards.
Re-aired in 2012 Presidential Elections
What makes this a powerful text?
73
86
Dichotomies of Race and Culture: The Viewer as “Other”
Third person pronouns to objectify and distance the self from Others (McVee, 2005)
Disequilibrium helps to heighten uncertainty and doubt.
Viewers are “force-positioned” outside the group that holds power
Representative of “malignant positioning” and “pre-positioning”
“Synthetic personalization” (Fairclough, 2001)
“Malignant Positioning”“Malignant positioning can be used to deprive
people of access to particular repertoires of social behaviour” (Louis, 2008, p. 29).
Malignant positioning is a discourse that positions people negatively in terms of the attributes they do not possess and thus limits their access to particular discourse repertoires (Sabat, 2008).
Scheer (2013) Wall Street narratives
Pre-positioning & Positioning
Pre-positioning (amongst individuals)
1st phase of the positioning act “involves attribution of qualities of character, intellect, or temperament” and may include reports on past behavior.
2nd phase of the positioning act: “the person being positioned is assigned or refused a
cluster of rights and duties to perform certain kinds of acts, thus constraining what someone, so positioned, can rightly do and say” (pp. 8-9).
Synthetic PersonalizationFairclough (2001)
How designers position mass media audiences to create a feeling that advertising is addressing only one viewer
“You have questions, we’ve got answers.”
Credible spokesperson: Mom, Celebrity, Doctor
Chinese professor: “self-opposed-to other” (McVee, Hopkins & Bailey,
Multimodality & Positioning
A focus on multimodality and positioning theory helps surface issues of design, position, and power in an evolving narrative between China and the US.
This is a storyline in the process of developing and becoming.
As educators, we are particularly concerned that this storyline positions both China and the US in negative ways that are unlikely to have productive outcomes.
The current storyline is not conducive to authentic conversations about American (or Chinese) identity but is likely to reify jingoistic, xenophobic attitudes.
Position & Storyline“Positioning someone…affects the repertoire of
acts one has access to” (Harré & Moghaddam, 2003, p. 5)
Will viewers ask: What other possibilities could there be for a US-
China future? What other storylines could be constructed?
“fear is not, and cannot be, a foundation of moral and political argument” (Robin, 2004, p.251)
Positioning & Multimodality (Social
Semiotics)“Positioning someone…affects the repertoire of
acts one has access to” (Harré & Moghaddam, 2003, p. 5)
Identify and articulate storylines in visual media (e.g., political advertisements, breakfast cereal)
Explain how multiple modalities construct storylines
Examine how storylines frame intergroup relations through macro/micro perspectives and ideologiesConstrain or open opportunities for friendship and
enmity (Harré & Moghaddam, 2013)
Exploring Position and Ideology in Digital Texts:
Lessons in Multimodal Discourse from the Chinese
Professor
Mary B. McVee, University at Buffalo, SUNYColette M. Carse, University at Buffalo, SUNY
ReferencesAbeles, H. F., Hoffer, C. R., & Klotman, R. H.
(1994). Foundations of music education (2nd ed.). New York: Schirmer Books.
Blight, G. (2012) China a decade of change – an interactive timeline. The Guardian: UK.Retrived from: http:// www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/mar/23/china-decade-change- interactive-timeline
Citizen’s Against Government Waste (2010). The Chinese Professor. Retrieved fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSQozWP-rM
Fox News (2011). Interview with Frank Luntz on power of The Chinese Professor advertisement. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=7urHuQCwGcw
Gallop (2012a). Americans still rate Iran as top enemy. Retrieved fromhttp://www.gallup.com/poll/152786/americans- rate-iran-top-enemy.aspx
Gallop (2012b). Americans still view China as world’s leading economic power. Retrieved fromhttp://www.gallup.com/poll/152600/Americans-View-China-World-Leading-Economic-Power.aspx
Harré, R., & van Langenhove, L. (1991). Varieties of positioning. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 21(4), 393-407.
Howitt, D., & Owusu-Bempah, K. (2005). Race and ethnicity in popular humor. In S. Lockyer &M. Pickering (Eds.), Beyond a joke: The limits of humour (pp. 47-64). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jewitt, C. (Ed.). (2009). The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. London: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary commmunication. New York: Routledge.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold.
Lakoff, G. (2002). Moral politics: How liberals and conservatives think (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Louis, W. R. (2008). Intergroup positioning and power. In F. M. Moghaddam, R. Harré & N. Lee (Eds.), Global conflict resolution through positioning analysis (pp. 21-39). New York: Springer.
McVee, M. B. (2005). Revisiting the Black Jesus: Re-emplotting a narrative through multiple retellings. Narrative Inquiry, 15(1), 161-195.
Moghaddam, F. M., & Harré, R. (2010). Words, conflicts, and political processes. In F. M. Moghaddam & R. Harré (Eds.), Words of conflict words of war. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Nyquist, J. R. (201112/5/11). Warning from a Chinese professor. Financial Sense.http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/jr-nquist/2011/12/05/warning-from-a-chinese-professor
Morreall, J. (1983). Taking laughter seriously. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Morreall, J. (1987). Funny ha-ha, funny strange, and other reactions to incongruity. In
J.Morreall (Ed.), The philosophy of laughter and humor (pp. 188-207). Albany, NY: StateUniversity of New York.
Morreall, J. (2005). Humour and the conduct of politics. In S. Lockyer & M. Pickering (Eds.),Beyond a joke: The limits of humour (pp. 65-80). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nyquist, J. R. (201112/5/11). Warning from a Chinese professor. Financial Sense.http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/jr-nquist/2011/12/05/warning-from-a-chinese-professor
Robin, C. (2004). Fear: The history of a political idea. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sabat, S. (2008). In F. M. Moghaddam, R. Harré & N. Lee (Eds.), Global conflict resolutionthrough positioning analysis (pp. 81-94). New York: Springer.
Solomon, D. (2009). Questions for Frank Luntz, The Wordsmith. NY Times Magazine.Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24wwln-q4-t.html? scp=1&sq=&st=nyt
Kaufman, G. F., & Libby, L. K. (2012). Changing beliefs and behavior through experience-taking. Journal of Pesonality and Social Psychology, 103(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1037/a0027525
Konaev, M., & Moghaddam, F. M. (2010). Mutual radicalization: Bush, Ahmadinejad, and the"universal" cycle of out-group threat/in-group cohesion. In F. M. Moghaddam & R. Harré (Eds.), Words of conflict words of war (pp. 155-171). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
McLaren, P. (1993). Border disputes: Multicultural narrative, identity formation, and critical pedagogy in postmodern America. In D. McLaughlin & W. G. Tierney (Eds.), Naming silenced lives: Personal narratives and the process of educational change (pp. 201-235). New York: Routledge.
Teo, P. (2004). Ideological dissonances in Singapore's national campaign posters: A semiotic deconstruction. Visual Communication, 3 (2), 189-212. doi: 10.1177/147035704043040
van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Ideology: A multidisciplinary approach. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.