Multimodal Discourse Analysis of
Visual Fake News Images
BY
Bello Alim Babi
alimbabi@gmail.com
0803 947 0634
Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola
Abstract
Social media is a powerful source of
information. The spread of fake news on social media has both immediate and
long-term effects on its users, who may be reluctant to share and post genuine
news for fear that it, will be misrepresented. This study examines five visual
fake news images that were selected for investigation from a variety of social
media sources. Multimodal discourse analysis theories are used to evaluate fake
news photographs and explain their meaning potential by using the three
semiotic functions of - representational, interactional, and compositional. The
most essential goals of the fake news image are to invite cooperation and
persuasion in the social relationships between the personalities and the
viewers. The use of news captions, positive language, questions, and short
phrases are the main features of the analyzed fake news discovered.
Keywords: Multimodal, Discourse, Fake News, Three Meta-functions
1.0 Introduction
The ability to utilize visuals to undermine the
text's point of view and words to undermine the image's authenticity gives
multimodal presentations an intrinsic critical potential. Nonverbal components,
such as visual images, are largely disregarded when utilizing language even
though they always come after the verbal ones. It must be understood that the
language user will be successful in conveying the full meaning of a discourse
by combining both verbal and non-verbal aspects that are useful in social circumstances.
Understanding language from a single point of view is known as mono-modal
comprehension, whereas understanding text from multiple points of view is known
as multimodal comprehension. The study of language in isolation is extended to
the study of language in combination with other resources, such as images,
scientific symbolism, gesture, action, music, and sound. Multimodal discourse
analysis, which integrates discourse and technology, is emerging as a paradigm
in discourse studies. An example of a discourse that combines different modes
to produce a single artifact is said to be a news item (Sinar 2012).
The term "multimodality" was
initially used by Halliday at the Sydney School of Semiotics to describe the
types of analysis that might be used to determine the meanings of words and
things using semiotics. Moreover, multimodality has its roots in the Prague
School, which started as a linguistics-focused institution but gradually
expanded to include art and theatre. Also, the same techniques from linguists
were used by various researchers to analyze clothes in antique paintings and
photographs as a source of information for a person's status, age, and religion
as well as for the time or event, settings, gestures, or actions (van Leeuwen,
2015). According to van Leeuwen, multimodality refers to the discourse which
implies other features of communication apart from spoken discourse such as
"voice, gestures, facial expressions or components of
self-presentation". Multimodality refers to semiotic analysis techniques
that imply semiotic modes for interpretation, such as image, sound, and
language, developed alongside technology.
McGonagle (2017) defines fake news as
information that has been purposefully created and circulated to deceive and
persuade others to believe lies or dispute uncertain facts. False information,
sometimes known as fake news, is any content that is willfully false and can be
independently verified with the potential to deceive readers. Fake news is
frequently written and published to mislead readers to harm a company,
organization, or individual and/or to profit financially or politically. To
attract more readers, sensational, dishonest, or outright invented headlines
are frequently used (Alawode, Olorede and Azeez, 2008).
The
internet has turned into an excellent source of news and information, but
regrettably not all of it can be trusted. Fake and twisted news sources have
existed since the invention of the printing press. Social media is the platform
where news spreads the fastest, according to a survey published on October 15,
2018, by a US-based organization the PEW Research Center. Social media has a
larger propensity to do so on multiple platforms, more than 50% of respondents
believe that social media is to blame for the spread of fake news.
The analysis of fake news by
academics has been attempted repeatedly utilizing a variety of extra linguistic
tools. However, research on fake news has not paid much attention to multimodal
analysis. To comprehend how language, symbols, images, and photographs relate
to social media fake news, a multimodal study is necessary. The federal
government has attempted to stop the transmission of false information,
particularly on social media, in several ways, but these efforts have been
ineffectual. The establishment of a robust censorship board that controls the usage
of all social media platforms is necessary for the government to reinforce its
efforts to halt the spread of fake news, which is a threat to national
security.
2. Aim and Objectives
This study aims to investigate the various
multimodal patterns used in the selected fake news visuals, using
Multimodal Discourse Analysis as the theoretical foundation. The following are the
aims of this research:
i.
To
examine how language and various multimodal formats are used on social media to
draw people's interest.
ii. To examine how fake news images are presented
on social media as a means of persuading users to believe them.
iii. To highlight the importance of multimodal discussion
analysis in spotting real and bogus images on social media.
3. Literature Review
A growing number of individuals utilize the
internet to keep informed and share millions of posts, articles and videos on
websites and social media platforms such as; Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Fake news is now a common occurrence in our daily digital lives as a result of
the social media platforms' quick uptake. Social media's incapacity to check
the veracity of a news item is partly to blame for the dissemination of false
information. Sharing expertly edited photographs and films that appear to be real
is now simple. It is widely acknowledged that false information has a
substantial impact on public opinion and debate (Schwartz 2015).
The spread of fake news on social media has
both immediate and long-term effects on its users, who may be reluctant to
share and post genuine news for fear that it will be misrepresented. This is
because fake news spreads primarily through disinformation and misinformation
on social media, which are two major ways in which it is spread. According to C, A., & T. M. (2017),
the term "misinformation" refers to people who spread false
information without realizing it is false, typically just because they observe
their friends or other people doing it. The social media system is made of an
algorithm that recommends specific news or information to a consumer based on
the group to which he or she belongs on social media, their prior history, and
their circle of friends, such that when a friend views something, another
friend is recommended the same thing, and it will notify the user that such
content has been viewed or liked by his or her friends which will motivate such
an indulging behaviour. The echo chamber effect significantly contributes to
this aspect.
Without adequate verification, those who share
the same beliefs or belong to the same political party will disseminate and
exchange material that is favourable to their political goals. According to the
cognitive theories of Kai & Huan, (2019), people are generally bad at
telling what is real and what is authentic, and they are more susceptible to
fake news because they are naturally gullible. Kai and Huan, (2019) also stated
that, people often tend to trust things that support their beliefs
(confirmation bias), will disseminate these things without checking them, and
will misinterpret facts that do not support their beliefs—even if they are
true.
Disinformation is the practice of disseminating
false information while being aware of its falsity for either political or
financial advantage. The use of social bots and trolls exacerbates this issue
further (malicious accounts). Potential sources of bogus news on social media
include social bots and trolls. An online algorithm that communicates in human
form is referred to as a "social bot" in this context. Social bots
were first developed by some businesses to answer client requests, but some
malevolent people have exploited them to disseminate false information. A
social bot may quickly publish a message on Facebook and swiftly re-tweet and
follow thousands of accounts on Twitter (Dickerson
et al, 2014).
It might be difficult for regular news readers
and social media users to know which news sources to believe. The majority of
news stories' veracity is questionable, misleading readers and consumers.
According to studies on the confusion caused by fake news, 61% of men think
that it greatly confuses people. The majority of the women, 68%, think that
fake news can cause havoc. Fake news, in the opinion of 67% of adults in the 18
to 29 age range, is dangerous to society. Fake news, according to 58% of
individuals over 65, might have a significant impact on society.
A technique called multimodal analysis looks at
a variety of communication modalities, such as text, colour, and images. It is
a method for discursive analysis that takes into account both how each mode
communicates and how other modes interact to form semiotic meaning.
Incorporating writing, an image, and colour into one sign offers observable
benefits, claims Kress (2010). Each mode performs a specific function, such as
writing names that would be difficult to display or presenting long-to-read
graphics. Colour is utilized to highlight specific elements of the overall
message. Therefore, examining multiple modes at once leads to a more
comprehensive and nuanced investigation, especially when taking into
consideration online circumstances.
Multimodal Metaphor, a study of multimodal
discourse from a cognitive perspective, published in the middle of the 1990s,
raised awareness of multimodal discourse. In Systematic Functional Linguistics
by Halliday, Forceville claims that "all discourse elements are persuasive
in nature as they aim at sorting of cognitive, emotional, or aesthetic
consequences" (or all three together and typically coupled and establish
verbal and mechanical communication). This theory emphasizes the perceptive
nature of semiotic resources while ignoring the natural ones that are
physically generated by and through the continual need to explain the changing
language, especially in the modern digital environment. With this viewpoint in
mind, academics like Van Leeuwen and Kress created the multimodal discourse
analysis trademark in their works.
Kress and Van Leeuwen, (2006) have an approach for analyzing
how multimodal resources, particularly texts, interact to create potential
meanings. They both introduced what they called the "grammar of visual
design" to describe how depicted fragments in texts are combined to
generate cohesive wholes. The writers made a strong case for how "the
visual component of a text is an independently ordered and structured message,
connected to the vocal text but in no way dependent on it—and similarly the
other way around.
The theoretical underpinnings of the "Grammar of Visual
Design" are found in Halliday's functional grammar. According to Halliday
(1994), language has three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal, and
textual. The use of language to convey a person's experience of the outside
world is known as the metafunction of language, often referred to as the
experiential function of language. It also looks at the functional elements of
participant, process, and context. Ideational metafunction, in the words of
Halliday (1985), is "the meaning in the sense of "content". To
understand how visual elements "represent objects and their relations in a
world".
Interpersonal metafunction, according to Halliday (1994),
illustrates how language is employed to encode interaction. There is a
relationship between the speaker and the listener when two people are speaking.
It is also shown that there are interacting differences between people who
share information or objects and people who engage in demanding or offering
interactions (Butt et al., 2000). After this, the visual grammar framework claims
that "any semiotic mode has to be able to project the relations between
the producer of a (complex) sign and the receiver/reproducer of that sign. Any
mode must show a certain social connection between the creator, the observer,
and the thing depicted, according to Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006).
The textual metafunction is that aspect of the meaning
potential that distinguishes a text from being just a collection of sentences
or clauses. Thus, it involves phenomena like coherence, information structure,
and theme structure. The blending of linguistic components into a coherent
whole or text is referred to as the textual metafunction. This was emphasized
by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) who stated that "any semiotic mode has to
be able to form texts, complexes of signs that are coherent both internally
with each other and externally with the context in and for which they were
produced."
Representational Semiotic Function
The depicted objects in the text—such as bodies, limbs, and
tools create a vector or line that forms the framework for the story-telling.
It can be produced by the represented individual gaze or eye contact. The
existence of a vector, according to Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), results in
narratives that depict the text's sequences and changes in the various
processes. The participant who generates vectors is the actor, and the
participant who receives them is the goal. In this case, a narrative with
action is produced. An eyeliner or gaze that creates a vector produces a
reactionary tale. Here, the goal transforms into a phenomenon, and the actor
takes on the role of the reactor. Action and reaction processes can be either
transactional or non-transactional. In the conceptual process, there is no
vector involved, and participants are represented in terms of their "more
generalized and less stable and timeless essence, in terms of class, structure,
or meaning" (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). In other words, "conceptual
processes are concerned with the representation of ideas in images where
participants can be analyzed, classified, or defined" (Ly & Jung,
2015). Examples of such images include charts, tree structures, and scientific
diagrams.
Interactional Semiotic Function
The interactional semiotic function considers how
participants (both interactive and represented) are related to images in text,
much like Halliday's interpersonal function of language. The analysis considers
the social meaning that image-makers have structured and coded using different
semiotic resources (such as gaze, distance, and angle). The narrative will be
interpreted by the readers, who will then fictitiously link to the characters
being depicted and/or the interactive participants.
The identification of semiotic resources like gaze, social
distance, and angle serves as the starting point for an interactional analysis
of a text. Even on a hypothetical level, the gaze creates touch or a false
social connection with the spectator. When participants glance at the viewers
or not, there is a fundamental difference that is established, according to
Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006). When depicted participants gaze at the viewers,
a request for an image act is made. Producers employ this image act when they
want something from the audience. The manner of the relationship being formed
is determined by the motions and facial expressions of the persons who are
being portrayed. A seductive pout can indicate that viewers are being asked to
develop desire for the participants, a smile can indicate that viewers are
being asked to engage in a social affinity relationship, a cold-eyed stare can
indicate that viewers are being asked to relate with the participants, a hand
gesture pointing in the direction of the viewer can indicate that participants
want the viewer to get closer, and a defensive gesture can indicate "Stay
away from me" Kress & Van Leeuwen, (2006). On the other hand, an offer
is given when depicted participants in texts are not looking directly at the
readers. As a result, spectators are changed into "invisible
onlookers" who inspect the participants like "specimens in display
case".
In addition to the connection created by gazes, distance
also contributes to the development of participant engagement. This concerns
the degree to which viewers are invested in the participants who are portrayed,
and it establishes a casual relationship of physical proximity in everyday
interaction. Horakik, (2015), Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006) identified the
following categories of distance by Hall (1966): intimate distance, close
personal distance, or the distance at which "one can hold or grasp the
other person," far personal distance, or the distance that "extends
from a point that is just outside easy touching distance by one person to a
point where two people can touch fingers if they both extend their arms";
close social distance, defined as the "distance at which impersonal
business occurs," long social distance, defined as the "distance at
which business and social interaction has a more formal and impersonal
character," and public distance, defined as the "distance between
people who are to remain strangers," are the three types of social
distance. It can be assumed that a more intimate bond develops closer to the
people who are being portrayed to the observer.
The angle or perspective is another tool that establishes
the connection between the participants and the audience. Applying angles to
images enables viewers to form individualized opinions about the participants
being depicted. The two sorts of angles that Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006)
considered were horizontal and vertical. The players are positioned as
parallel, aligned, or separated from one another by the horizontal angle, which
emphasizes either involvement or separation. An oblique horizontal angle indicates
detachment, whereas a frontal horizontal angle indicates involvement. The
vertical angle also reveals how participants' positions of power are
distributed. According to Martin (1968), a high angle indicates that the
subject is subordinate or unimportant, whereas a low angle indicates that the
subject is superior or exalted and triumphant. When the angle is established at
eye level and equality is proposed, there is no power relationship present.
Lastly, the interactional aspect of the multimodal text is
also influenced by the text's modality. In visual communication, the term
"modality" refers to the level of realism in the world
representation. Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) underline that defining realism
depends on what is deemed genuine based on some established criteria and its
expression based on the “correct”, the best, the (most) "natural" way
to reflect reality. Therefore, according to Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), the
modality judgments are "socially dependent on what is considered real (or
true, or sacred) in the social group for which the representation is primarily
intended". To achieve high modality in text, image makers must take into
consideration the following crucial components: colour, which can be expressed
through saturation, differentiation, and modulation; contextualization or the
expression of abstract; representation or the representation of pictorial
detail; depth or perspective; illumination or the play of light; and brightness,
or the lightness or darkness of the colour.
Compositional Semiotic
Function
The compositional semiotic function is connected to the
textual function that Halliday describes. It links the representational and
interactive meanings of images through the systems of information value,
salience, and framing. Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) emphasized that the
positioning of things (such as images and texts) bestows them with a certain
information value depending on the various zones like left and right, top and
bottom, and centre and margin. In a left and right structure, given information
is located in the left zone, whereas new information is located in the right
zone. If viewers are already aware of something, new information is provided;
otherwise, unknown information is presented.
On the other hand, the top and bottom structure, where the
top is ideal and the bottom is genuine, indicates what information is real and
ideal. In contrast to the real, specific, or useful, ideal information includes
the information's core or most important component. Additionally, the
information's core components are those that are found in the centre, while
those in the margins are auxiliary and reliant. "Salience" is another
instrument for assessing the compositional function of the text. Image makers decide
which features should have more salience to attract viewers' attention based on
aspects including their placement in the foreground or background, relative
size, and colour contrast, among others. The last consideration is framing,
which is the way that objects are linked and separated by imaginary or real
frame lines (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).
It might be difficult for regular news readers
and social media users to know which news sources to believe. The majority of
news stories' veracity is questionable, misleading readers and consumers.
More research demonstrates how the interaction of numerous semiotic resources
contributes to the construction of intended meanings at different levels, as
revealed in (Bedi, 2019). Since images are used to spread false information in
society, which has led to violence and misperceptions about or disliking governmental
policies, the researcher believes it is appropriate to investigate fake news on
social media handles.
4. Procedure
By developing the multimodal analysis paradigm
offered by the 2004 work of Kress & Leeuwen, this study assesses fake news
photographs. Multimodal analysis is used to investigate communication in
today's multimedia world. The Kress and Leeuwen-developed social semiotic
approach is based on Halliday's social semiotic theory. Every semiotic system
should assess the social connection between the speaker and the receiver; claim
to Guo & Feng (2017) in Kress & Leeuwen's (2004) theory of visual
grammar. Kress and Leeuwen, in their collaborative work "Reading Images -
The Grammar of Visual Design," devised a visual social semiotic approach
based on Halliday's systemic-functional linguistics to characterize the
meanings created by images combined with their words.
Five visual fake news stories that were chosen
for study in this research from a variety of social media sites are evaluated
using multimodal discourse analysis theories @afro_Debbie,
#tweetLikeABuharist, WTOE5NEWS.COM, and 9aijaloop.com, were
analyzed and examined as social media sources after the researcher randomly
chose the samples. The three linguistic Meta functions identified by Kress and
Leeuwen (1996) served as a guide in the selection and analysis of each sample
by the researcher.
5. Data Presentation & Analysis
In this section, the selected fake news items
have a variety of hidden meanings in their photographs, colours, layouts,
written words, etc. Because visual elements are more powerful than merely
verbal ones, an image can convey a wide range of information and even serve as
the focal point of attention. As a result, an image can communicate a message
much more effectively than words alone (Olowu and Akinkurolere, 2015).
Datum 1
This datum has the image of a man carrying a
lady clad in a blood-stained Nigerian flag. Drawing on the work of Van Leeuwen
(1996) and Machin and van Leeuwen (2005), the categories of visual participants
in this datum have one image of two people which is technically known as a dyad
image. This is because in visual composition, according to Machin (2007), a
dyad image is realized by shots that show two people. The image is intended to
seem off-frame, which means that it does not directly address the spectator and
makes no attempt to make eye contact with them. According to Kress and Van
Leeuwen (1996), this type of gaze gives the image a more symbolic quality that
forces the viewers to act as observers. This style of image is referred to as "Demanding".
To elicit more empathy from viewers, it is consequently advised that the image
is reflecting or concerned about what might be done. The man carrying a lady
clad in a blood-stained Nigerian flag is the datum's complementary element, and
the image itself is employed to convey a cogent message. It is intended to
incite and negatively persuade the audience to concur that a soldier shot and
killed a demonstrator of the #EndSARS movement. There
is no caption or other textual description accompanying the image.
Datum 2
Professor Attahiru Jega, the former Independent Electoral Commission (INEC)
is confidently seated in the centre of the image, implying that nothing will
prevent Atiku from winning the 2019 elections if the current INEC chairman
follows in his footsteps and conducts free and fair elections. Professor Jega
takes up the entire image's maximum size, per the salience feature. The
picture's background is all white. The image's colour scheme may appear hazy
and ambiguous (Disconnection), with one direction aimed towards the viewer and
the other at Atiku Abubakar, the presidential contender. Professor Jega is
trying to convey to the audience that there is a secret hope for a free and
fair election. Jega wants Atiku to know that if he wins the election, he should
consider him. The audience will agree with the message being conveyed
by the meaning-makers of the image adhere to that it was captured during
an interview session.
The interactive part of the image features text
that is written in the style of a newspaper caption. Professor Jega is seated
wearing traditional white clothing, and the text has been set in a white/bold colour.
Professor Jega's name is listed above his photograph, suggesting that the
caption belongs to him. The fake Twitter handle of the image-makers is
displayed in blue font with a hashtag (#). The counter message by INEC was
represented by the red stamp in upper case at the foreground of the photograph
to demonstrate that the message was fake.
Datum 3
This datum indicates a large number of
participants as well as other highly active ones. A dead body is being carried
by the participants in a coffin that is covered in white fabric. It is possible
to observe the trees and flowers in the background that mirror those in the
Presidential Villa. The caption in the image reads - "Breaking News:
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is Dead". All of these participants
are "Demanding" because none of them is gazing into the frame.
Here, we may conclude that the participants are set up to both invite the
viewers to join in on the time of sadness through their sad attitude and
to make the viewers observant toward believing that the president did pass
away. This kind of gaze, in the opinion of Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996, p.
124), lends the image a more symbolic dimension that compels the viewers to
take on the role of observers. The coffin's bareness and the white fabric are
taken to imply that the deceased was a Muslim. The camera shot of how everyone
is engaged demonstrates that the death was not of an ordinary personality.
In addition, because of the concept of
complementarity, the passing of such a significant figure unites individuals
from various walks of life, as shown by the images that are projected by the
image makers. As can be seen from the text that accompanied the image, fake
news photos are always intended to lead viewers to believe the veracity of the
information they present.
Datum 4
This datum is a news headline that was labelled
as fake by both the Vatican and the White House, yet had more than a billion
views in America and other countries in just twenty-four hours. The caption
"Pope Francis shocks the world, endorses Donald Trump for president"
appears with photographs of the pope and the former US president Donald Trump.
According to Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006)
model, Donald Trump is shown on the right side of the picture as (New), and the
Pope is shown on the left. Salience feature places provided information in the
left zone (where the Pope appeared) and new information in the right zone
(where Donald Trump appeared).
The two leaders' faces are shown side by side
in the image, each sporting an arrestingly large smile. The colour is in harmony with the written text in the two pictures.
Donald Trump appears to be hopeful, and this hope reflects his self-confidence.
There is a satisfying smile on the faces of
both leaders, which is another indication of self-confidence. The white colour which is a bright, strong,
and energetic colour that is a customary Pope's dress in every formal event
immediately grabs the attention of viewers. Here, the Pope is dressed in White
on purpose so that viewers will strongly believe that the Pope has officially
endorsed Donald Trump.
Furthermore, as noted by Kress and Van Leeuwen
(1996), the participants' expressions of happiness and the fact that they are
positioned to look into the frame make the picture "an offering
image", which calls for the caption to allow the viewers to share in
the joy of the situation at hand. The image depicts a moment that gave Donald
Trump's presidential campaign complete satisfaction and awe. The viewers'
response is triggered by the reactors' facial expressions.
Datum 5
In this datum, the image of Mr Dokubo Asari, a
Niger Delta activist, is displayed in the centre of the image. Mr. Dokubo is
centrally located in the picture and takes up a significant amount of space
(Maximum) according to the salience feature. With regard to the framing
element, the figure appears to be in (a relationship) with the other components
of the photo. With two forefingers, he gestures to two photos of President
Buhari, one of which depicts a fit and active Buhari at his inauguration in
2015 to draw the audience's attention while the other shows the president
looking lighter and slimmer as a result of recent health issues. His
expressions, with little anger, suggest that something bad would happen if
Nigerians did not act. His outfit is intriguing because it appears to be
intended to look northern in some way to draw attention. His clothing
complements the colour of the background.
When it comes to the multimodal analysis,
Dokubo Asari is not only the agent for alleged fake news, but also the person
in the picture who may be used to persuade Nigerians to accept that President
Buhari is a clone, as his photo suggests. The photo mentions President Buhari's
name, as the nomination feature suggests. Additionally, the text is printed in
black to match the eye-catching components. To persuade people that it is true
that President Buhari is a clone, the caption "Current Nigerian President
Buhari is Clone" is printed over the images and attributed to Mr Asari
Dokubo.
The text written in red allows viewers to
distinguish between the two images of President Buhari, which may make it
easier to accept that what the image producers are claiming is real. The actor
is the participant who generates vectors, and the objective is the person who
receives them, according to Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006). In this case, a
narrative action is produced. An eye line or gaze that creates a vector
produces a reactionary tale. Here, the goal transforms into a phenomenon, and
the actor takes on the role of the reactor.
6. Discussion of Findings
The study employs the Visual Grammar framework
proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) to interpret fake news images as
texts. The findings discovered the multimodal qualities of fake news images and
explained their meaning potential by using the three semiotic functions–
representational, interactional, and compositional.
The people depicted as the major social actors
in the fake news photographs under analysis are distinct from one another, and
thus make it clear that they carry out various social roles. This would fall
under the functionalization and identification category according to van
`Leeuwen's (2008) classification of social actors because it discusses social
players in terms of their identity or activity.
Furthermore, because the texts under analysis
are represented texts, which means that they are individualized and portrayed
as persons (van Leuween, 2008), and they are collectivized, the personality
identities are emphasized. In this sense, it is evident that in the five
images, the characters are the text's protagonists, making them the focus of
the information.
Additionally, the personalities portrayed seem
to be engaged in the scenes where they are demanding or offering to the
audience directly (see Datum 1, 2, and 4) or when they appear to be engaged in
an activity, in which there is interaction with the other social actors
portrayed. In contrast to how it is shown in the other texts, Datum 1 appears
passive because it does not address the viewers directly but rather demands
from them.
Nomination is a category that uses names to
allude to the distinctive identities of social players. The personalities
exhibited may without a doubt be easily recognized with their names by looking
at their faces, even if the names of the personalities were visible in the
images as seen in (Datum 2, 3 4, and 5). It is clear that the bodies of the
various social players are cropped out of the images; hence, there is not a
single image in which the actors’ entire bodies are visible. Typically, the top
portion of the body, particularly the face, is highlighted in pictures, as it
is in the texts under analysis.
The many social players shown do not appear to
be cut off from people when social distance is taken into account. In (Datum 1,
3, 4, and 5), close-up views are used to highlight the person’s uniqueness; it
appears in the foreground and is portrayed as approaching the viewer. The most
essential goals of the fake news images are to invite cooperation and
persuasion in the social relationships between the personalities and the
viewers. The primary aspect to take into account when analyzing social
interaction is whether or not the social actors are looking at the audience.
Therefore, by addressing the spectator directly, we are encouraged to
participate in the action as it is happening.
The key parallels and divergences in the
studied data are displayed in the following table. This is a straightforward
method to see the key traits of the analyzed fake news photographs and what
they share in terms of how the images are presented:
Table 1: Comparison of five fake news images
|
|
Persons as |
2 Persons |
Persons |
Persons |
Persons in |
Persons |
|
Datum 1 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
|
Datum 2 |
X |
X |
X |
|
|
|
|
Datum 3 |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
Datum 4 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
Datum 5 |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
7. Conclusion
This study examined five images that were used
to influence viewers and spread misinformation on social media platforms to
divide and mislead the public. Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar,
and Van Leeuwen's (2008) examination of social actors, and critical discourse
analysis have all been utilized to dissect the images. The results of the
research demonstrated that the participants were depicted as active people with
different status. They can persuade individuals to agree with the messages since
they are social actors. The written language of the analyzed fake news images
demonstrated the traits of social media discourse, whose main goals are to
spread information, interact with others around the world, and persuade people
to agree with the topic at hand: use of news captions, positive language,
questions, and short phrases are the main features of the fake news discovered.
In this regard, the various depictions and the actors' visual portrayals allude
to the idea of fake news's detrimental impacts on society and how they obstruct
socioeconomic growth.
8. References
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