The Representation of Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump in the US 2016 Presidential Campaign Advertisements: A Multimodal Study

Abstract

Multimodality is becoming the norm of everyday communication especially in advertising. This study tackles multimodality in political discourse especially in the context of electoral campaign advertising. During 2016 US presidential election, campaign ads of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump utilized multimodal discourse in the form of video ads. This study aims to understand the representation of Clinton and Trump as portrayed through different semiotic modes and to uncover how the multimodal discourse is used to reflect the ideologies of the two candidates. It also aims to facilitate the understanding of how different semiotic resources complement each other to form a meaningful whole. To test the hypothesis that Hillary appeals to logic while Trump targets emotions, this study adopts an eclectic approach employing Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) framework of visual grammar, van Leeuwen’s (1999) model for sound, Martin and White’s (2005) appraisal framework (judgement and appreciation), and critical discourse analysis (CDA), mainly van Dijk (1998) ideological square, to carry out an analysis of the semiotic choices made in six campaign ads to understand the way in which different semiotic modes work together to form a meaningful whole. The analysis of the data shows a general consistency of the different semiotic modes. It also reveals the representation of Clinton as a diligent, open, and compassionate person and the representation of Trump as a successful businessman with good managerial skills. It concludes that positive ‘self’ representation is often related to ideas of accepting others, rejection of racism, and economic prosperity and that negative ‘other’ representation is usually related to the ideas of dishonesty, disrespect, and bullying. The study also uncovers, through visual and verbal evidence, Hillary’s appeal to logic and Trump’s targeting of emotions.