A Multimodal Discourse Analysis in Journalism: Language, Ideology and Cultural Relevance

Abstract

The swift growth of digital journalism has dramatically reshaped the strategic use of language and visuals in shaping public understanding of news events. This internship report focuses on how news headlines and visual elements form meaning, frame ideology, and build cultural relevance. The researcher was assigned as an intern under a news media company named ‘The Delta Lens’ and applied a qualitative methodology that incorporates thematic and multimodal discourse analysis. The study’s dataset was made up of chosen headlines and visuals published during the duration of the internship. The report revolves around the principles of linguistics, particularly discourse analysis, the concept of semiotic triangle, and framing mechanisms to shape audience understanding. The intern, as a part of her job responsibility, had to (i) write appropriate headlines of the news, and (ii) create visuals to go along with the news based on the readers’ ability to interpret through bite-size content. The internship report represents the intern’s attempts to achieve creativity by constructing narratives as a multimodal framework on social and national issues, with a focus on cultural relevance while composing.