Interactive Multimodal Metadiscourse in COVID 19 Campaign Posters by Ministry of Health, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the interactive multimodal metadiscourse features of campaign posters developed exclusively by Kenya’s Ministry of Health (MoH) or collaboratively with religious groups and development partners. The objectives of the study were to establish the generic structure, categories, frequencies and functions of interactive textual metadiscourse and visual resources. Using a mixed research design employing qualitative and quantitative research approaches, the study analyzed a corpus of 25 posters on six thematic areas including social stigma, immunity, signs and symptoms, handwashing, immunity, mental health. The frame work of analysis is partly drawn from Hyland’s interpersonal model of metadiscourse (2005) and Kress (2010) and Kress and Van Leewun (2001, 2002, 2006) on visual interactive resources. The findings revealed presence of evidentials, code glosses and frame markers in the textual metadiscourse used by the poster designers. Evidentials were the most frequent used textual metadiscourse markers followed by code glosses and frame markers. On use of interactive visual resources, the research established use of information value, framing, connective devices and fonts to supplement the textual interactive metadiscourse devices to guide the readers. The results expand our knowledge on multimodality communication in respect to guiding readers when engaging in multimodal public health communication.