A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of the Online Brand Identity Construction of National Museums

Universal Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities | Vol 5, Issue 1

Table 3. Multimodal realizations of the compositionalmeaning on the museums’ websites

Compositional Meaning		BM Homepage	NMC Homepage
Information value	Center/margin	prominent relics placed in the central core area, photos of exhibits or posters of special exhibitions placed at the center (indicating “real”) to convey the core content (“what can be seen now”)	main images (cultural relics & the latest special exhibitions) placed in the middle (the realm of “real”), conveying the core message “cultural experiences not to be missed at this moment”
	Left/right	search bar placed in the upper right corner (“end point” of Western reading habits), conforming to user habits	the button linked to the English webpage placed in the upper right corner to facilitate English viewers’ search
	Top/bottom	the logo & navigation bar put on the top (the leading area, indicating “ideal”) to symbolize brand authority; practical content (opening hours, contact information, etc.) put at the bottom (indicating “new”), as supplementary information	the name, logo & navigation bar occupy the top section (“ideal”), symbolizing national authority and cultural sovereignty; “new” information put at the bottom, including copyright information, contact information & other practical content
	Salience	Foreground/background	photos set against black or white color, with the picture of the museum as background	photos & posters in rich colors, titles highlighted by red color against white background, with margin in dark red color
		Relative size	pictures > titles > texts	pictures > titles > secondary information
Tonal contrast		the positions of images with a clear contrast in color	the use of red color to highlight important content in line with Chinese users’ perception
Framing		sections separated by dividing lines orleft blank, reflecting the functional classification	sections separated by alternating white or grey blocks as the background for clear classification