Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Image Representation in MTNng Instagram Advert

Abstract

This paper attempts to shift the focus of clause as representation (Halliday and
Matheissen) to image as representation. Drawing from Guther Kress and Theo van
Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design (1996, 2001, & 2006), richly situated in
Hallidayan semiotic orientation, this article analyses MTNng Instagram
advertisements as multimodal resources. The data for the analysis are drawn from
the official Instagram page of MTNng - a telecommunication Network in Nigeria.
The advertisements were posted on February 6, 2020. The study specifically
examines the narrative and the conceptual processes as obtained in visual grammar.
The analysis shows that there is predominance of narrative and conceptual
processes. The narrative highlights the action and reaction carried out by the
represented participants and presents the advertisements, not as products or
services for sale, but as solutions to the common insufficiencies in our society. The
conceptual processes created access to the advertisements by triggering the
consumer behaviour and at the same time avoiding the appeal of direct contact; in
this way, creating a strong link between the images and the audience. These findings
suggest that the images of MTNng and Instagram advertisements are independently
structured as meaning making resources, not dependent on the verbal texts.

Keywords: Representation, image, multimodal analysis, advert, MTNng, Instagram