MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIA
In the paper, on the basis of a multimodal critical discourse analysis of political posters and social media posts, the authors outline the complex interplay of multimodal means serving to convey a political leader’s charisma. The paper aims to advance a set of historically conventionalized feature...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Alfred Nobel University Publisher
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Alfred Nobel University Journal of Philology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://phil.duan.edu.ua/images/PDF/2023/2_2/12.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797374878423187456 |
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| author | Larysa I. Taranenko Mariia K. Boichenko |
| author_facet | Larysa I. Taranenko Mariia K. Boichenko |
| author_sort | Larysa I. Taranenko |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the paper, on the basis of a multimodal critical discourse analysis of political posters and social
media posts, the authors outline the complex interplay of multimodal means serving to convey a political leader’s charisma. The paper aims to advance a set of historically conventionalized features typical of
the charismatic personality (such as intelligence, self-confidence, persistence, ability to inspire, sociability,
dominance, narcissism, and vision), present the updated definition of this notion, and substantiate theoretical and methodological grounds for the study of the interplay of multimodal means portraying a charismatic
political leader that assist in conveying a political speaker’s charisma creation through its graphical image,
namely political posters and social media posts.
The results of the study reveal that charisma is a complex communicative and cognitive phenomenon
reflecting person’s beliefs about certain innate, obtained or promoted by media, internal or external subliminal traits of a leader. These beliefs are shaped in the recipients’ consciousness during interactive communication on the basis of the leader’s strategy, techniques, and methods used in oral or written communication, as well as a set of linguistic and extralinguistic means associated with the speaker’s ability to satisfy certain needs of the community. As a study material the authors opted for the images of Boris Johnson,
a politician already acknowledged as a charismatic one by international audiences, who has been a prominent political figure for almost a decade and has recently come to the forefront of political and diplomatic
support of Ukraine in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.
The carried out analysis proves the highly informative as well as subliminal potential of multimodal visual pictographic means aimed at creating a charismatic image of a public person. The authors outline
a set of verbal (elliptical sentences, catchy slogans in imperative mood, assonance, alliteration, the use of
first person plural pronoun “We”, the lexical unit together, etc.) and visual-graphical means (font of the
message, symbolic colour scheme, clothes style, body posture, gestures, oculesic features, etc.), whose interaction is aimed at triggering cognitive processes in the recipient’s mind in perceiving a charismatic image of the politician.
Boris Johnson’s charisma is confirmed by the survey conducted among British and Ukrainian respondents as well as by his subscribers’ reactions, comments and likes following his posts on social media. The carried out analysis allows summarising the markers of a politician’s charisma portrayed on social media as follows: the number of comments and likes for their posts; informality while addressing the
Prime Minister by his first name “Boris” and presence of a “popular name” “BoJo”; high degree of the followers’ messages expressiveness actualised through verbal means (significant amount of exclamatory sentences, interjections, evaluative epithets and idiomatic expressions), as well as graphical-visual means, in
particular through the usage of graphic emoticons (emojis), serving to intensify the overall expressiveness
of a message.
The conclusion is that social media graphical images are aimed at conveying charismatic political
leaders’ vision, offering their followers support and promise of a better future, portraying them as approachable, down-to-earth, considerate but at the same time serious leaders, ready to work to endure a
better future.
The results of the performed study can provide grounds for interdisciplinary research of both oral
and written charismatic communication within the cognitive approach framework considering verbal, nonverbal and paralingual means’ (physiological, psychological, social, etc.) interplay that allows the audience
to perceive a speaker as a charismatic one. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:11:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ee9bb265a33946a9a215024989bfd094 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2523-4463 2523-4749 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:11:09Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Alfred Nobel University Publisher |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Alfred Nobel University Journal of Philology |
| spelling | doaj.art-ee9bb265a33946a9a215024989bfd0942023-12-27T12:59:46ZengAlfred Nobel University PublisherAlfred Nobel University Journal of Philology2523-44632523-47492023-12-01226/2 Special Issue19220910.32342/2523-4463-2023-2-26/2-12MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIALarysa I. Taranenko0Mariia K. Boichenko1National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”In the paper, on the basis of a multimodal critical discourse analysis of political posters and social media posts, the authors outline the complex interplay of multimodal means serving to convey a political leader’s charisma. The paper aims to advance a set of historically conventionalized features typical of the charismatic personality (such as intelligence, self-confidence, persistence, ability to inspire, sociability, dominance, narcissism, and vision), present the updated definition of this notion, and substantiate theoretical and methodological grounds for the study of the interplay of multimodal means portraying a charismatic political leader that assist in conveying a political speaker’s charisma creation through its graphical image, namely political posters and social media posts. The results of the study reveal that charisma is a complex communicative and cognitive phenomenon reflecting person’s beliefs about certain innate, obtained or promoted by media, internal or external subliminal traits of a leader. These beliefs are shaped in the recipients’ consciousness during interactive communication on the basis of the leader’s strategy, techniques, and methods used in oral or written communication, as well as a set of linguistic and extralinguistic means associated with the speaker’s ability to satisfy certain needs of the community. As a study material the authors opted for the images of Boris Johnson, a politician already acknowledged as a charismatic one by international audiences, who has been a prominent political figure for almost a decade and has recently come to the forefront of political and diplomatic support of Ukraine in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. The carried out analysis proves the highly informative as well as subliminal potential of multimodal visual pictographic means aimed at creating a charismatic image of a public person. The authors outline a set of verbal (elliptical sentences, catchy slogans in imperative mood, assonance, alliteration, the use of first person plural pronoun “We”, the lexical unit together, etc.) and visual-graphical means (font of the message, symbolic colour scheme, clothes style, body posture, gestures, oculesic features, etc.), whose interaction is aimed at triggering cognitive processes in the recipient’s mind in perceiving a charismatic image of the politician. Boris Johnson’s charisma is confirmed by the survey conducted among British and Ukrainian respondents as well as by his subscribers’ reactions, comments and likes following his posts on social media. The carried out analysis allows summarising the markers of a politician’s charisma portrayed on social media as follows: the number of comments and likes for their posts; informality while addressing the Prime Minister by his first name “Boris” and presence of a “popular name” “BoJo”; high degree of the followers’ messages expressiveness actualised through verbal means (significant amount of exclamatory sentences, interjections, evaluative epithets and idiomatic expressions), as well as graphical-visual means, in particular through the usage of graphic emoticons (emojis), serving to intensify the overall expressiveness of a message. The conclusion is that social media graphical images are aimed at conveying charismatic political leaders’ vision, offering their followers support and promise of a better future, portraying them as approachable, down-to-earth, considerate but at the same time serious leaders, ready to work to endure a better future. The results of the performed study can provide grounds for interdisciplinary research of both oral and written charismatic communication within the cognitive approach framework considering verbal, nonverbal and paralingual means’ (physiological, psychological, social, etc.) interplay that allows the audience to perceive a speaker as a charismatic one. https://phil.duan.edu.ua/images/PDF/2023/2_2/12.pdfcharismacharismatic leadercommunicationinteractionmultimodal critical discourse analysismultimodal meansverbal and non-verbal means |
| spellingShingle | Larysa I. Taranenko Mariia K. Boichenko MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIA Alfred Nobel University Journal of Philology charisma charismatic leader communication interaction multimodal critical discourse analysis multimodal means verbal and non-verbal means |
| title | MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIA |
| title_full | MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIA |
| title_fullStr | MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIA |
| title_full_unstemmed | MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIA |
| title_short | MULTIMODAL MEANS OF BORIS JOHNSON’S REPRESENTATION AS A CHARISMATIC LEADER ON SOCIAL MEDIA |
| title_sort | multimodal means of boris johnson s representation as a charismatic leader on social media |
| topic | charisma charismatic leader communication interaction multimodal critical discourse analysis multimodal means verbal and non-verbal means |
| url | https://phil.duan.edu.ua/images/PDF/2023/2_2/12.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT larysaitaranenko multimodalmeansofborisjohnsonsrepresentationasacharismaticleaderonsocialmedia AT mariiakboichenko multimodalmeansofborisjohnsonsrepresentationasacharismaticleaderonsocialmedia |