Bateman’s Genre and Multimodal Framework -- DA #1

Content Structure

Within the series of four images, the first image contains a clear image of a woman using a skincare product on her face, with a correlated headline reading, “the next gen of acne treatments is here.” While the headline and photograph appear to be simple, it foreshadows the content the following images will have. The sequential images each have a title of a skincare treatment and three related descriptions. The post's caption generalizes the content as “the biggest breakthroughs in the acne space right now.” The illocutionary act aims to be a valuable tool for the audience as well as persuade them to read more. The perlocutionary force thus convinces the user to undergo the action of pressing the link in their Instagram biography to read more content by the writers, driving traffic to their magazine.

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Genre Structure 

The genre structure of the content can be labeled as either a simple Instagram post or a promotional advertisement for a magazine brand. This post acts as a shortened version of a full-length article on their website to provide their audience with a sample of their content. This series of images illocutionary act demonstrates the company’s brand image and initiatives by acting both as a social media post and an advertisement. 

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Rhetorical Structure 

The content begins with a straightforward headline yet quickly catches the audience's attention. Similarly, the caption begins with the statement “I’ve got good news for anyone and everyone trying to get rid of pimples and their aftermath…” to serve as a preface for the rest of the content and to draw the viewer in even more through foreshadowing, thus the perlocutionary force of the caption itself. The three images following all essentially act as evidence to support the claim stated in the main headline. 

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Linguistic Structure

The language used appeals most likely to women between the ages of fifteen and thirty, based on the technical communication utilized that only those familiar with skincare products would understand. When selecting which text to include from the full article, the author selected keywords such as “alleviates redness,” “acne scars,” and “pimples.” These words specifically target common skincare conditions prevalent across the intended demographic audience. 

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Layout Structure

In the first image, the headline is directly placed underneath the woman using a facial product with her hands stretched towards the camera. This provides a visual illustration to tie along with the text below it. Overall, the main image has a clean and simple look to emulate the same feel of cleansing your face. The next three images follow an identical structural format. Each image has a black background as well as three sets of prominent pink title text and white description text. The title text is aligned in the upper left-hand corner with the descriptions surrounding the remaining three corners. This layout is easy to read and does not overwhelm the viewer with a large block of text. 

 

Navigation Sequence 

When the user opens the post, they are then prompted to scroll through the series of images until they reach the end. Once they are intrigued by the first image, they will likely have the desire to read further and receive the answers for ‘the next generation of acne treatments’ that the headline claims to have. After they have completed this sequence, the caption offers further navigation to the link in their account biography for the user to consume more of the written piece. 

Reflection

Prior to selecting my text, my research revolved around depictions of women in advertisements. While women have historically been portrayed negatively in advertisements, I was eager to find contemporary examples of how this toxic representation is still apparent today. 

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Before exploring a variety of advertisements, I first wanted to indulge myself in articles discussing the non-explicit ways in which women are still portrayed sexually, inferior to men, and held to unrealistic standards in marketing. One common topic I noticed across these compositions was how “wellness advertisements” and products supposedly meant to benefit women are often disguised in this way to distract from their harmful effects on self-image. I began my search for these ‘portrayals in disguise’ by scanning the Instagram feeds of popular brands catered to females. Once I came across my selected post on Cosmopolitan’s account, I was aware that their intention was most likely for informative purposes. With that being said, I still was interested in analyzing the discourse advertisers use when creating these informational posts and how they may differ from those created with negative intent. My analysis was thus conducted on the basis of exploring the different layers of the multimodal text to decipher the true intention of the post.

 

I created my webpage with an emphasis on the extensive components attached to discourse analysis as well as a neutral-colored theme. I wanted to highlight the complexity of discourse analysis, as this relates to the topic of language disguising deeper meanings. I am eager to continue my research into deciphering the meaning of various formats beyond simple text.