Lesson 1: Multimodal Text

Learning Outcomes: The students are expected to:

1. Evaluate multimodal texts critically to enhance receptive (listening, reading, viewing) skills.
2. Convey ideas through oral, audio-visual, ad/or web-based presentations for different target
audiences in local and global settings using appropriate registers.
3. Adopt awareness of audience and context in presenting ideas.

Multimodal is a dynamic convergence of two or more communication modes within the same
text. All modes are attended to as part of meaning-making (The New London Group, 1996).
Examples: image, gesture, music, spoken language, and written language

What is a multimodal text?

A multimodal text combines two or more semiotic systems like picture book, in which the
textual and visual elements are arranged on individual pages that contribute to an overall set of bound
pages; webpage, in which elements such as sound effects, oral language, written language, music and
still or moving images are combined; and live performance, in which gesture, music, and space are the
main elements.

It can be delivered via different media or technologies like paper (books, comics, posters),
digital (slide presentations, e-books, blogs, e-posters, web pages, and social media, through to
animation, film and video games), live (a performance or an event) and transmedia (story that is told
using multiple delivery channels through a combination of media platforms, for example: book, comic,
magazine, film, web series, and video game).

According to The New London Group (1996), there are five semiotic systems to make meanings
in a multimodal text:

 Written or Linguistic meaning: for spoken and written language through the use of vocabulary,
generic structure and grammar.
  Audio meaning: for music, sound effects, noises, ambient noise, and silence, through use of
volume, pitch and rhythm.
 Visual meaning: for still and moving images through the use of color, saliency, page layouts,
vectors, viewpoint, screen formats, visual symbols; shot framing, subject distance and angle;
camera movement, subject movement.
 Gestural meaning: for movement of body, hands and eyes; facial expression, demeanors, and
body language, and use of rhythm, speed, stillness and angles.
 Spatial meaning: for environmental and architectural spaces and use of proximity, direction,
layout, position of and organization of objects in space.

Multimodality is substantial in constructing activities that go beyond print-based literacies

(Harste, 2010). It recognizes that the digital media affordances make modes other than text increasingly
valuable (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009). It also provides opportunities for students to bring existing literacies
into the classroom (Mills, 2010; Curwood & Cowell, 2011).

The following screenshots are examples of multimodal text about food, fitness and photos.
These are presented as a web site using Wipasnapa. The task had a dual learning focus on food and
fitness, along with photography and strategic use of images to convey meaning. The completed project
included user generated (original) video and audio content, photographs and print.
Cultural Sensitivity in a Multimodal text

Culture
Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. It includes areas such as politics, history, faith,
mentality, behaviour and lifestyle. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity
led to failure:

-Sony Corporation promoted a Black-against-white ad

in their multi-vignette PlayStation Portable campaign
in 2006. The ad featured a strong-looking white
woman, dressed in all white, clawing and dominating
a subordinate Black woman. The ad was constructed
to promote their new ceramic white PSP. It depicted
racism for the black.

- When colouring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft coloured eight of them in different
shades of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir
was shown as non-Indian, and the product was promptly banned in India. Microsoft was left to recall all
200,000 copies of the offending Windows 95 operating system software to try and heal the diplomatic
wounds. It cost them millions.

- The fast food giant McDonald's spent thousands on a new TV ad to target the Chinese consumer. The
ad showed a Chinese man kneeling before a McDonald's vendor and begging him to accept his expired
discount coupon. The ad was pulled due to a lack of cultural sensitivity on McDonald's behalf. The ad
caused uproar over the fact that begging is considered a shameful act in Chinese culture.
- A nice example of how pictures don't translate well across cultures is the time staff at the African port
of Stevadores saw the 'internationally recognised' symbol for "fragile" (i.e. broken wine glass) and
presumed it was a box of broken glass. Rather than waste space they threw all the boxes into the sea.

- When the US firm Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the
US, i.e. with a picture of a baby on the label. Sales flopped and they soon realised that in Africa,
companies typically place pictures of contents on their labels.

- Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in South East Asia by emphasizing that it "whitens your teeth."
They found out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth which they find attractive.

- The film "Hollywood Buddha" showed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity by causing outrage and
protest on the streets of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Burma when the designer of the film's poster decided
to show the lead actor sitting on the Buddha's head, an act of clear degradation against something holy.

- The concept of Big Brother was somehow taken to the Middle East. The show was pulled of the air
after its first few episodes due to public protests and pressure from religious bodies stating the show's
mixed sex format was against Islamic principles.

- A golf ball manufacturing company packaged golf balls in packs of four for convenient purchase in
Japan. Unfortunately, the number 4 is equivalent to the number 13 due it sounding like the word
"death". The company had to repackage the product.

Language
The business world is littered with poor translations that have caused great embarrassment to
their perpetrators due to their lack of cultural sensitivity. The following are some of the choicest
examples:

- IKEA once tried to sell a workbench called FARTFULL - not a hugely popular product for obvious
reasons.

- Both Clairol and the Irish alcoholic drink Irish Mist did not properly consider the German language
when they launched their products there. Clairol's hair-curling iron "Mist Stick" and the drink "Irish Mist"
both flopped - why? 'Mist' translates in German as "manure".

- The Japanese seem to have a particular flair for naming products. The country has given us gems such
as "homo soap", "coolpis", "Germ bread" and "Shito Mix".

- A new facial cream with the name "Joni" was proposed for marketing in India. They changed the name
since the word translated in Hindi meant "female genitals."

- Coors had its slogan, "Turn it loose," translated into Spanish, where it became "Suffer from diarrhoea."
 All the examples cited above could easily have been avoided by conducting some basic research
in respect to checking the concept, design, shape, colour, packaging, message or name in the target
culture. In the majority of cases it is simply assumed that 'if it is OK for us it is OK for them'. If businesses
want to succeed internationally, cultural sensitivity must be at the heart of everything they do; from
their personal interaction and relationships with clients to the products/services they develop.

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/blog/category/culture/cultural-sensitibity.html