Mediated discourse analysis

“Ohne Glutamat/Without MSG”: Shelf label design in a Thai supermarket

“…They also included specific anecdotes and statements made by the owner of the store about the use of languages on the labels. In combining the close study of shelf labels as multimodal objects with a broad materialistic and ethnographic approach to these signs, we have also aligned with a specific framework, that of geosemiotics (Scollon/Scollon 2003), which we describe briefly below.…”

“…Multimodal approaches to signs have, for example, sought to analyse their visual, textural, textual and linguistic aspects, in order to find out "what they can teach us about the social processes in which they are embedded" (Blommaert/Huang 2010, 13). In this study, we have chosen to adopt yet another perspective on signs in public space, that of geosemiotics, partly building on social semiotics and multimodal approaches to discourse, but also contributing its own original framework and empirical studies to the study of signs in space (de Saint-Georges 2004;Lou 2007;Scollon/Scollon 2003).…”

“…On the right are the details about the product price. Certain elements are also given salience due to their font size and type face, or in other words the modality of the inscriptions on the label (Kress/van Leeuwen 1996;Scollon/Scollon 2003). The large font size and bold type face visually highlight the price in comparison to the packet size above or the price per single unit immediately below.…”

“…The data are a set of photographs of shelf labels and the products they are tagged to, ethnographic observations and fieldnotes, as well as anecdotes and statements by the owner of the store. The use of Scollon and Scollon's (2003) analytical framework of geosemiotics reveals that in producing the inscriptions on the labels the owner draws on her knowledge of various semiotic systems strategically. The production of shelf labels can be seen as a complex activity that demands of the producer to possess the competencies to navigate an array of social discourses in order to cater to her clientele in the most relevant way.…”

“…Or, as Blommaert and Huang (2010, 3) note, Sociological, cultural, sociolinguistic, and political features of … space will determine how signs look and work in that space, and signs will contribute to the organization and regulation of that space by defining addressees and selecting audiences and by imposing particular restrictions, offering invitations, articulating norms of conduct and so on to these selected audiences. Scollon and Scollon (2004) also insist on the importance of looking at the Discourses that circulate in any one place and that make up that space as a unique nexus of discourses in tension.…”