Going Glocal, Multimodally Speaking

This paper aims to illustrate instances of glocalization in a multimodal format. The multimodal configuration of websites advertising products in the worldwide food and beverage sector will be explored within an SFL framework. The main purpose is to compare and contrast the realization, actualized in the semiotic interplay, of similar/different customizing policies adopted by global brands represented on line. The “semiotic landscape” (i.e., the space allocated to multimodal representation of culture-specific values, in Kress and van Leeuwen’s terms) of the selected ads will be seen here as a repository of visual, acoustic, verbal cues signalling how the “global” meets the “local”. The hypertextual configuration of the selected texts will be described within the overall methodological framework indicated in Kress and van Leeuwen’s canonical work on multimodal representation (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002) and on the basis of Lemke’s guidelines (Lemke 2002) on the interpretation of hypertexts. Within this general SFL framework, this paper will expand in particular on the notion of Iedema’s “resemiotization” as a dynamic multimodal tool (Iedema 2003) and will extend its meaning potential to the treatment of colour, in line with the application of the sensory coding orientations which regulate promotional texts.