METHODOLOGY AND METHODS OF ANALYSING MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE OF SOCIAL CRISIS

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive substantiation of the methodology and analytical framework for examining multimodal discourse of social crisis in the contemporary English-language media space. The aim of the study is to develop an integrated methodology for analysing the discursive practices of social cri- sis within multimodal media discourse, in particular by defining its principal methodological approaches and methods. The methodological foundation of the study consists in the integration of Critical Discourse Analysis, sociolinguistic, and multimodal approaches, which enables a multi-vectoral interpretation of communicative processes in the crisis media environment, the tracing of self-organisation mechanisms of discursive practices, the legitimation of ideological narratives, and the formation of the semantics of shock. The research material comprises English-language media discourse that reflects the cascading transformations of communicative space during social crises, in particular the refugee crisis. The article characterises the methodological approaches to the analysis of multimodal discourse of social crisis (Critical Discourse Analysis, sociolinguistic, and multimodal) and determines their analytical potential in studying the discursive practices of the crisis media space. The methods of analysis are systematised within each of the outlined approaches: socio-cognitive, discursive-structural, and contextual-pragmatic analysis as components of Critical Discourse Analysis; contextual and sociostylistic analysis within the sociolinguistic approach; intersemiotic, multimodal discourse analysis, and structural-visual analysis as constituents of the multimodal approach. The expediency of integrating the three approaches within a complex methodology for investigating the multimodal discourse of social crisis is substantiated, and its generalised scheme is presented. Conclusions. The combination of Critical Discourse Analysis, sociolin- guistic, and multimodal approaches forms the methodological basis of the study, which ensures a multi- dimensional examination of the discourse of social crisis as a dynamic, multi-layered, and multimodal system of meaning-making that not only reflects but also actively shapes social perceptions of crisis reality in the contemporary media space.