Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations

Empirical studies on branding of higher education institutions have increasingly explored the notion of identity in the modern university context. The positive effects of brand communication, especially offline communication, may be well investigated, whereas few studies have analyzed how online...

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Main Authors: Wu, Ying Qi, Cheong, Cecilia Yin Mei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19930/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19930/1/54997-184487-1-PB.pdf
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author Wu, Ying Qi
Cheong, Cecilia Yin Mei
author_facet Wu, Ying Qi
Cheong, Cecilia Yin Mei
author_sort Wu, Ying Qi
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Empirical studies on branding of higher education institutions have increasingly explored the notion of identity in the modern university context. The positive effects of brand communication, especially offline communication, may be well investigated, whereas few studies have analyzed how online brand communication can be realized. This study examines an under-discovered visual source, namely pictures, that performs a pivotal function to display the visual identity of Chinese universities. This study investigates the multimodal discourse of the ‘About Us’ web genre which employs pictures to portray the universities’ brand identity, and examines their meaning potentials. Drawing upon the visual grammar framework of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), the sample for visual analysis in this study was collected from the ‘About Us’ webpages of nine elite Chinese universities (C9 League). Findings of the qualitative analysis indicate that pictures are ingeniously employed to display the virtual identity of the Chinese universities. The multifaceted brand identity of the universities may be projected through a heavy use of symbolic representations, along with a diversity of communication strategies to portray their representational meanings. The study provides information for universities to effectively use visual resources in constructing their brand identities and offering information to their target audience via the web-mediated multimodal discourses.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:199302022-09-28T16:07:32Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19930/ Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations Wu, Ying Qi Cheong, Cecilia Yin Mei Empirical studies on branding of higher education institutions have increasingly explored the notion of identity in the modern university context. The positive effects of brand communication, especially offline communication, may be well investigated, whereas few studies have analyzed how online brand communication can be realized. This study examines an under-discovered visual source, namely pictures, that performs a pivotal function to display the visual identity of Chinese universities. This study investigates the multimodal discourse of the ‘About Us’ web genre which employs pictures to portray the universities’ brand identity, and examines their meaning potentials. Drawing upon the visual grammar framework of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), the sample for visual analysis in this study was collected from the ‘About Us’ webpages of nine elite Chinese universities (C9 League). Findings of the qualitative analysis indicate that pictures are ingeniously employed to display the virtual identity of the Chinese universities. The multifaceted brand identity of the universities may be projected through a heavy use of symbolic representations, along with a diversity of communication strategies to portray their representational meanings. The study provides information for universities to effectively use visual resources in constructing their brand identities and offering information to their target audience via the web-mediated multimodal discourses. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19930/1/54997-184487-1-PB.pdf Wu, Ying Qi and Cheong, Cecilia Yin Mei (2022) Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations. GEMA ; Online Journal of Language Studies, 22 (2). pp. 236-260. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1518
spellingShingle Wu, Ying Qi
Cheong, Cecilia Yin Mei
Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations
title Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations
title_full Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations
title_fullStr Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations
title_full_unstemmed Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations
title_short Academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations
title_sort academic visual identity of higher education institutions : a multimodal communication through pictorial representations
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19930/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19930/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19930/1/54997-184487-1-PB.pdf