Cover not available

Article published In: Multimodality, Politics and Ideology
Edited by David Machin and Theo van Leeuwen
[Journal of Language and Politics 15:3] 2016
► pp. 243–258

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Multimodality, politics and ideology

 | Örebro University, Sweden
 | University of Southern Denmark
Published online: 4 August 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15.3.01mac
This journal’s editorial statement is clear that political discourse should be studied not only as regards parliamentary type politics. In this introduction we argue precisely for the need to pay increasing attention to the way that political ideologies are infused into culture more widely, in entertainments media, software, administrative processes, children’s apps, healthcare and even office furniture design. We point to the way that there have been massive shifts away from traditional state forms of politics to the rule of neoliberalism and the power of the corporation which, like the former regime of power, requires meanings and identities which can hold them in place. We explain the processes by which critical multimodal discourse analysis can best draw out this ideology as it is realized through different semiotics resources.
References (51)
Abousnnouga, Gill. & Machin, David. 2013. The Language of War Monuments, London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allen, Robert. 1992. Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism. University of North Carolina PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beck, Ulrich. 1986. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chaney, David. 1996 Lifestyles. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cole, Michael. 2000. “Quangos: UK Ministerial Responsibility in Theory and Practice.” Public Policy and Administration, 151, 32–45. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cottle, Simon. 2009. Global Crisis Reporting. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curran, James. & Seaton Jean. 1980. Power without responsibility, London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ericson, Richard. V., Baranek, Patricia. M. & Chan, Janet. B.L. 1989. Negotiating control: A study of news sources. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fiske, John. 1987. Television culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. “British Cultural Studies and Television”. In Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism. Ed. By Robert Allen. 284–326. University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fishman, Mark. 1980. Manufacturing the News. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flinders, Matthew. & Buller, Jim. 2006. “Depoliticization: Principles, Tactics and Tools.” British Politics 1(1), 1–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fougner, Tore. 2006. “The State, International Competitiveness and Neoliberal Globalisation: Is there a Future beyond the Competition State?” Review of International Studies. 321, 165–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franklin, Bob. 1994. Packaging politics. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freidson, Eliot. 2001. Professionalism: The Third Logic. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gains, Francesca. & Stoker, Gerry. 2009. “Delivering ‘Public Value’: Implications for Accountability and Legitimacy.” Parliamentary Affairs, 62(3), 438–455. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Roger. 1980. “Green Farm Scout Camp.” In Culture Media and Language. Ed by Stuart Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and Paul Willis. 96–104. London: Hyman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Glasgow Media Group. 1980. More Bad News. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habermas, Jurgen. 1976). Legitimation Crisis. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, Stuart. 1984. “Cultural studies and the Centre: Some problematics.” In Culture, media, language Ed. By Stuart Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and Paul Willis. 117–121. London: HutchinsonGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. “The problem of ideology: Marxism without guarantees”. In Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies. Ed. by David Morley and Kathleen H. Chen. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herman, Edward. S. & McChesney, Robert. 1997. Global media: The new missionaries of global capitalism. London: Cassell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jarvis, Darryl. S.L. 2007. “Risk, Globalization and the State: A critical appraisal of Ulrich Beck and the world risk society thesis.” Global Society. 21(1), 23–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jessop, Bob. 1990. State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in Its Place. London: Polity.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. “Capitalism and its future: remarks on regulation, government, and governance.” Review of International Political Economy, 41 (31), 435–455. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. “Changes in welfare regimes and the search for flexibility and employability.” In The Political Economy of EuropeanUnemployment: European Integration and the Transnationalization of the Employment Question. Ed. by Henk Overbeek. 29–50. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kellner, Douglas. & Ryan, Michael. 1988. Camera Politica: Politics and Ideology in contemporary Hollywood film. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. 2005. “Gains and losses: New forms of text, knowledge and learning.” Computers and Composition. 221, 5–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Multimodality. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. & Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2001 Multimodal Discourse – The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lodge, Martin. & Gill, Derek. 2011. “Toward a New Era of Administrative Reform?’ The myth of Post NPM in New Zealand.” Governance. 24(1), 141–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Machin, David. 2010. Analysing Popular Music. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013 “What is multimodal critical discourse studies”, Critical Discourse Studies, 10(4), 347–355. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Manovich, Lev. 2013. Software Takes Command. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, Ron. 1997. “Regional Dimensions of Europe’s Unemployment Crisis”. In Unemployment and Social Exclusion Landscapes of Labour inequality and Social Exclusion, Ed. by Sally Hardy, Paul Lawless and Ron Martin. 11–48. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McBride, Stephen., McNutt, Kathleen. & Williams, Russell. 2007. “Tracking Neo-Liberalism:Labour Market Policies in the OECD Area.” In Neo-Liberal-ism, State Power and Global Governance. Ed. by Simon Lee and Stephen McBride. 79–95. AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonald, Paul. & Wasko, Janet. 2007. The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Myles, John. & Quadagno, Jill. 2002. “Political Theories and the welfare state.” Social Service Review, 76(1), 34–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Power, Michael. 1997. Audit Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rayner, Steve. 2007. “The rise of risk and the decline of politics.” Environmental Hazards. 71: 165–172. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sewell, William. H. 2005. “From ‘State-Centrism’ to Neoliberalism: Macro-Historical Contexts of Population Health since World War II.” In Successful Societies: Institutions, Cultural Repertoires and Health. Ed. by Peter Hall and Michelle Lamont. 254–87. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schudson, Michael. 1980. Discovering the News. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stiglitz, Joseph, 2002. Globalization and its discontents. New York: WW Norton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talbot, Colin. 2004. “The Agency Idea: sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes borrowed, sometimes untrue.” In Unbundled Government. Ed. by Christopher Pollit and Colin Turnball. 3–21. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
ul Haque, Irfan. 2004. Globalisation, neoliberalism and labour, discussion paper, United nations conference on trade and development.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2005. Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. The Language of Colour: An Introduction. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Looking Good: Aesthetics, Multimodality and Literacy Studies.” In The Routledge Handbook of Literacy Studies. Ed. by Jennifer Rowsell and Katie Pahl. 426–439. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilks, Stephen. 2007. “Boardization and corporate governance in the UK as a reponse to depoliticization and failing accountability.” Public Policy and Administration. 22(4), 443–460. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Willis, Paul. 1977. Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. Aldershot: Coger.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 1997. The Plague of Fantasies. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (52)

Cited by 52 other publications

Darwish, Maria & Lucas Gottzén
2025. The contemplative man: ‘positive’ affect and masculinity in ecofascist visual communication. Journal of Gender Studies ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Komarawan, Yulizar, Mohammad Febryanto & Krisna Yudha Bakhti
2025. De-naturalizing the worldviews underlying representations of eco-awareness: a multimodal critical discourse analysis of Indonesian EFL textbooks. Journal of World Languages DOI logo
Osei Fordjour, Nana Kwame & David Weiss
2025. Mediated self-presentation, authenticity, and image construction: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of an African Vice President’s communication on Twitter. Communication and the Public DOI logo
Watson, Finley
2025. Participatory Propaganda and Politics From the Bedroom (Studio): The Semiotics of Conservative Influencers on YouTube. Television & New Media 26:8 ► pp. 894 ff. DOI logo
Oskolkov, Petr, Sabina Lissitsa & Eyal Lewin
2024. Lenin, Putin, and Rage Guy: Internet memes in the discourse of a Russian far-right community. Journal of Information Technology & Politics ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Sibai, Dina & Sylvia Jaworska
2024. Triangulating visual and textual corpus-assisted discourse analysis to study social actor representations: the case of Saudi women in the British and Saudi news media. Corpora 19:1 ► pp. 61 ff. DOI logo
Sun, Yike, Tianxin Yu & V. Shridhar
2024. Analysis of Xinhua’s Cross-Platform Discourse on WeChat Public Media Under the Background of Big Data. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Based Information Processing and Applications—Volume 3 [Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies, 198], ► pp. 277 ff. DOI logo
Awopetu, Ifeoluwa & Innocent Chiluwa
2023. Resistance in Visual Narratives: A Multimodal CDA of Images of the #EndSARS Protests in Nigeria. Visual Communication Quarterly 30:3 ► pp. 155 ff. DOI logo
Branicki, Layla J., Elizabeth King & Kate Norbury
2023. Joy and the mop: The role of film in doing and undoing gender in entrepreneurship. Gender, Work & Organization 30:6 ► pp. 1960 ff. DOI logo
García Agustín, Óscar & Paolo Cossarini
2023. The Image of the Urban People: Visual Analysis of the Spatialised Demos of Left-Wing Populism in Madrid. Javnost - The Public 30:4 ► pp. 603 ff. DOI logo
Yang, Zheng
2023. How do Chinese scientists maintain their discourse authority? Critical discourse analysis of discourse “boundary work” in genetically modified organisms discussion on a Chinese knowledge-sharing network. Chinese Journal of Communication 16:1 ► pp. 90 ff. DOI logo
Catalano, Theresa
2022. The visual representation of dual language education. Visual Communication 21:2 ► pp. 306 ff. DOI logo
DeHart, Jason D.
2022. We've Never Done It This Way Before. In Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Digital Ethnography as a Multidisciplinary Method [Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies, ], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Eriksson, Göran
2022. Promoting extreme fitness regimes through the communicative affordances of reality makeover television: a multimodal critical discourse analysis. Critical Studies in Media Communication 39:5 ► pp. 408 ff. DOI logo
Hultin Morger, Fabia
2022. Populism in Internet Memes. An Investigation with Analytical Approaches from Discourse Analysis and Multimodality. tekst i dyskurs - text und diskurs :16 (2022) ► pp. 277 ff. DOI logo
Martínez Lirola, María
2022. Critical analysis of dehumanizing news photographs on immigrants: Examples of the portrayal of non-citizenship. Discourse & Society 33:4 ► pp. 478 ff. DOI logo
Mu, Junfang & Rui Ma
2022. A CiteSpace-based analysis of the application of Critical Discourse Analysis in news discourse. Discourse & Communication 16:4 ► pp. 403 ff. DOI logo
Pei, Jiamin & Le Cheng
2022. Discursive profile of international telecommunication regulations as institutional dialogue: a sociosemiotic perspective. Social Semiotics 32:1 ► pp. 17 ff. DOI logo
Pritchard, Katrina, Helen C. Williams & Maggie C. Miller
2022. Tracing networked images of gendered entrepreneurship online. Gender, Work & Organization 29:6 ► pp. 1779 ff. DOI logo
Pritchard, Katrina, Helen C. Williams & Maggie C. Miller
2025. Methodological reflections on tracing networked images. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal 20:1 ► pp. 28 ff. DOI logo
Cannizzaro, Sara
2021. From ‘Motivation’ to ‘Constraints’, from ‘Discourse’ to ‘Modeling System’: Steering Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Towards Cybersemiotics. In Introduction to Cybersemiotics: A Transdisciplinary Perspective [Biosemiotics, 21], ► pp. 301 ff. DOI logo
Challenor, Julianna, Eugenie Georgaca, Rebecca Aloneftis, Nobuhle Dlodlo & Helena Curran
2021. Listening for What Is Not Being Said: Using Discourse Analytic Approaches in Mental Health Research. In Qualitative Research Methods in Mental Health, ► pp. 105 ff. DOI logo
Corey, Jessica Rose
2021. “Making” Progress in the Classroom and Beyond. In Materializing Silence in Feminist Activism, ► pp. 145 ff. DOI logo
Corey, Jessica Rose
2021. Introduction. In Materializing Silence in Feminist Activism, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Demuru, Paolo
2021. Gastropopulism: a sociosemiotic analysis of politicians posing as “the everyday man” via food posts on social media. Social Semiotics 31:3 ► pp. 507 ff. DOI logo
Hamann, Edmund T. & Theresa Catalano
2021. Picturing dual language and gentrification: an analysis of visual media and their connection to language policy. Language Policy 20:3 ► pp. 413 ff. DOI logo
Kuznyetsova, Ganna
2021. Political discourse from the standpoint of the addressee. Cognition, Communication, Discourse :23 ► pp. 118 ff. DOI logo
Moschini, Ilaria & Maria Grazia Sindoni
2021. Language as the tip of the iceberg? Shedding a critical light on ‘hidden’ discourse in digital platforms. Discourse, Context & Media 42 ► pp. 100505 ff. DOI logo
Osei Fordjour, Nana Kwame
2021. A Multimodal Social Semiotic Analysis of an African Vice President on Twitter. Visual Communication Quarterly 28:4 ► pp. 227 ff. DOI logo
Osei Fordjour, Nana Kwame
2022. Fantasy Themes, Symbolic Power, and Twitter: A Multimodal Analysis of Vice President Kamala Harris’s First 90 Days. Howard Journal of Communications 33:3 ► pp. 314 ff. DOI logo
Osei Fordjour, Nana Kwame
2024. Authenticity, Image-Construction, and Social Media: Multimodal Insights from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Twitter. Visual Communication Quarterly 31:4 ► pp. 223 ff. DOI logo
Stodolinska, Yuliya
2021. American University Discourse in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multimodal Aspect. Cognitive Studies | Études cognitives :21 DOI logo
Stodolinska, Yuliya
2021. American University Discourse in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multimodal Aspect. Cognitive Studies | Études cognitives :21 DOI logo
Xiao, Han & Lei Li
2021. A bibliometric analysis of critical discourse analysis and its implications. Discourse & Society 32:4 ► pp. 482 ff. DOI logo
Årman, Henning
2021. Affects of verbal hygiene: the impact of language activism at a Swedish high school. Language Policy 20:2 ► pp. 151 ff. DOI logo
Catalano, Theresa & Linda R. Waugh
2020. The Main Approaches to CDA/CDS. In Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Studies and Beyond [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 26], ► pp. 155 ff. DOI logo
Catalano, Theresa & Linda R. Waugh
2020. Critiques of CDA/CDS and Responses. In Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Studies and Beyond [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 26], ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
Catalano, Theresa & Linda R. Waugh
2020. Symposium in Amsterdam, Formation of CDA, Work of the Founders. In Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Studies and Beyond [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 26], ► pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
Gross, Tamar & Tammar B. Zilber
2020. Power Dynamics in Field-Level Events: A Narrative Approach. Organization Studies 41:10 ► pp. 1369 ff. DOI logo
Kulikova, Lyudmila V. & Juliya I. Detinko
2020. Discursive Construction of “Others” in the Semiotic Space of Political Communication. In Functional Approach to Professional Discourse Exploration in Linguistics, ► pp. 199 ff. DOI logo
Milani, Tommaso M.
2020. Language Ideology and Public Discourse. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Pritchard, Katrina
2020. Examining Web Images: A Combined Visual Analysis (CVA) Approach. European Management Review 17:1 ► pp. 297 ff. DOI logo
Jing, Xiao & Wang Jing
2019. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning, ► pp. 93 ff. DOI logo
Li, Jian & Yuxiu Sun
2019. Meaning construction in legislative discourse: a sociosemiotic interpretation on supervision system reform in China. Social Semiotics 29:3 ► pp. 393 ff. DOI logo
Li, Long, Xi Li & Jun Miao
2019. A translated volume and its many covers – a multimodal analysis of the influence of ideology. Social Semiotics 29:2 ► pp. 261 ff. DOI logo
Martínez Guillem, Susana
2019. Performing (in) places, moralizing (through) spaces. Journal of Language and Politics 18:6 ► pp. 803 ff. DOI logo
Way, Lyndon C. S.
2019. Discourse, music and political communication. Journal of Language and Politics 18:4 ► pp. 475 ff. DOI logo
Zienkowski, Jan
2019. Politics and the political in critical discourse studies: state of the art and a call for an intensified focus on the metapolitical dimension of discursive practice. Critical Discourse Studies 16:2 ► pp. 131 ff. DOI logo
Engström, Robin
2018. The body politic of independent Scotland. Metaphor and the Social World 8:2 ► pp. 184 ff. DOI logo
Engström, Robin
2020. (De)legitimizing Scottish independence on Twitter: A multimodal comparison of the main official campaigns. Discourse & Communication 14:6 ► pp. 580 ff. DOI logo
Ng, Carl Jon Way
2018. Skilling the nation, empowering the citizen. Journal of Language and Politics 17:1 ► pp. 118 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Politics, Ethnicity and the Postcolonial Nation [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 93], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue