Social media discourses as multimodal assemblages

Abstract

Situated within the overarching communicative practices shaped by multicultural discourses, this paper explores the interplay between linguistic and visual materialities of social media discourses to advance a social semiotic approach to contemporary communicative practices. We argue that social media users exercise agency in constructing distinctive patterns of meaning-making through language(s) and other semiotic modes, often expanding their multimodal potential rather than adhering to pre-existing systems. Our analysis reveals that social media discourses operate as assemblages of multisemiotic repertoires, privileging the visualization and generativity of meaning through integrating multiple resources. We contend that social media as a digital landscape provides a dynamic space for users to mobilize diverse semiotic resources, functioning as visually rich and socially embedded assemblages. We conclude that social media is intricately tied to its users’ sociocultural knowledge and histories, collectively fostering and shaping the assemblages under contemporary communicative discourses.