Multimodal social semiotic analysis of Delhi rape conviction news in 2013 in CNN IBN website^*

* CNN IBN was an Indian English-language news television, which is currently known as CNN News18. Earlier, CNN provided international news to the channel while Indian Broadcasting Network (IBN) contributed local Indian news reports. In 2014, Reliance Industries, India, acquired the Network 18 and the channel has been rebranded as CNN-News 18.

ABSTRACT

Performative acts of reading in websites are defined by interactivity which constitutes a site of action and signs in cyberspace. The interactive potential in websites is further augmented through multimodal representations of content. Multimodality hinges on synaesthetic combinations of multiple modes such as orality, writing, visuality and sound. This paper seeks to examine the multimodal representations of discourses surrounding the news of death sentence awarded to four convicts involved in Delhi gang rape and murder of Nirbhaya in CNN IBN news website. Furthermore, it adopts an approach to locate affective forces that characterise the multimodal text concerning the macro-theme of the news through mediated discourses of affect.

KEYWORDS:

• Multimodality
• affect
• hypermodality
• Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics
• Delhi gang rape case

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

M. Shuaib Mohamed Haneef, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication, Pondicherry University, India. His areas of interest include digital media and culture studies, interactivity and agency, intersection of digital technologies, space and affect, convergence and journalism and game studies. He is currently working on a major research project funded by UGC titled ‘Social media ethics: A socio-technical approach to the making of ethics among children and the youth in Pondicherry and Tamilnadu’, India. He was the recipient of Asia Culture Fellow of Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea, during October-December 2016.

ORCID

M. Shuaib Mohamed Haneef http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8755-6911

Notes

* CNN IBN was an Indian English-language news television, which is currently known as CNN News18. Earlier, CNN provided international news to the channel while Indian Broadcasting Network (IBN) contributed local Indian news reports. In 2014, Reliance Industries, India, acquired the Network 18 and the channel has been rebranded as CNN-News 18.

1 The 2012 Delhi gang rape involved rape of a 23-year- old female paramedical student Jyoti Singh who later succumbed to fatal injuries. As per media laws, the disclosure of victim’s name and identity is an offence. Therefore, the victim was named ‘Nirbhaya’ which refers to fearlessness. The life and struggle of Nirbhaya became a symbol of struggle against rape and other sexual violence inflicted on women in India. Later on, the victim’s mother herself disclosed her daughter’s name.