A Multimodal Semiotic Analysis of Social Factors in Tuberculosis Campaigns in South Africa, the United Kingdom and India

Abstract

In this article we show how social factors and multimodal semiotic analyses of three recent tuberculosis campaigns in the global North-South including South Africa, India and the United Kingdom use edutainment to communicate health promotion messages. TB statistics are increasing daily, yet TB is still a silent epidemic that often goes unnoticed in relation to HIV and diabetes. Health campaign messages need to cater for specific audiences in specific countries to be effective in persuading people to notice the symptoms of TB. In this article, the methodology we use is the multimodal visual semiotic model for the study of health communication, which emphasises the use of social semiotics in health promotional campaigns. Social factors are core when developing health promotion campaigns. The social factors that are present in these campaigns include attitudes and beliefs, socioeconomic factors, culture, demographics, skills and education, and, importantly, the audiences’ culture. Multimodality including, colour, iconography, modality, typography, visual grammar and positioning were analysed in relation to the social factors listed above. The findings indicate how social factors together with the elements of the multimodal semiotic analysis educate and entertain audiences with visual images to communicate persuasive health messages.

Keywords:

• health campaigns
• edutainment
• TB
• social factors
• social semiotics
• multimodality