A multimodal approach to analysing online social media

This was a presentation of a multimodal analysis of social media text, highlighting some of the benefits and challenges of this methodological approach. In particular, I presented how I had used a multimodal approach to examine the style of user-generated texts on Pinterest and Twitter. Investigating all resources available for meaning making in the online environments, this presentation provided a social semiotic multimodal microanalysis of a sample of texts and their modal components. The aim was to explore people’s style work on Pinterest and Twitter and to address the question of how style is materialised through semiotic choices (and constraints placed on these) in these social media platforms. I discussed how the affordances and limitations of Pinterest and Twitter as platforms together with the social environment of use, and the users’ interests, shape semiotic style choices.