Complementarity of communicative modes on meaning making in Tanzania’s digital telecom marketing: A social semiotic multimodal perspective

Abstract

This article examines the complementarity of the communicative modes for making meaning in digital telecom advertisements. Using a social semiotic multimodal approach in its data analysis, we utilise the metafunction and composition frameworks for the interpretation and discussion. The study shows that advert makers incorporate various modes which represent real-life objects and experiences to promote products and services. The modes establish and reinforce marketing and social relationships between makers and potential customers. In the adverts, visual modes are often elaborated on through texts. In composition, the study shows that advertisers utilise various patterns in organising the modes. The makers also use various compositional properties to indicate the prominence of the modes. In addition, they deploy discrete frames to separate units of information. As such, the combination of all these modes as an integrated system in the digital telecom advertisements enables the makers to negotiate meaning with consumers.