Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
AS CONSTRUCTED BY
TEXT- IMAGE SYNERGY IN
A CORPORATE WEBSITE
Hala Tawfik Sorour maklad
Associate Professor of Linguistics,
Department of Languages
SADAT ACADEMY FOR MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
OUTLINE
On Corporate website
Purpose
Defining Terms
Questions of the Study
Corpus
Framework of Analysis
Results: Ethos Dimensions and Appeals
Concluding remarks, pedagogical implications
and limitations.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
ON CORPORATE
WEBSITE
Corporate Ethos
Ethos refers to the persona, or projected
character of a communicator (Higgins &
Walker, 2012, p.197);
It invites the audience to grant credibility and
trustworthiness to the corporate, and gives
authority on the basis of ones perceived
competence, virtue, and goodwill
(Hartelius & Browning , 2008, p.29).
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Dimensions of Ethos
The Ethos model adopted is based on
Isaksson and Jrgensens Ethos Model
(2010), McCroskey and Youngs source
credibility dimensions (1981), and
McCroskey and Tevens analysis of
goodwill construct (1999).
Given the dynamic nature of ethos, the
study investigates Ethos of the retail
Bank along three dimensions:
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
First: Competence
Conveyed through two appeals with
the communicative purpose of SelfPromoting:
Knowledge: showing professional
knowledge of efficient know-how;
Capabilities/Resources: reflecting
abilities and attributes.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Second: Trustworthiness
Communicated through three appeals
serving the purpose of Self-Portraying:
Prowess: signifying special expertise in
the practicalities of banking business.
Integrity: displaying the Bank honesty.
Boldness: showing the Bank tenacity
and firmness in its dealings.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Third: Caring
Manifested through three appeals with the purpose of
showing Altruism:
Generating Gain: presenting products and services
that bring financial and non-financial gains to
customers;
Addressing Needs: presenting products and
services that soothe concerns and answer needs of
customers.
Bringing Joy: displaying the Banks ability to create
joy and pleasure for customers.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Text-Image Synergy
Text: verbal part only;
Image: visual element only, i.e.
pictures;
Synergy: the interaction or
cooperation of the two modes to
produce a combined effect
greater than the sum of their
separate effects
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Methodology: Corpus
Corpus
All the website pages are made of
only two semiotic resources: Image
and Text.
Both Image and Text are displayed in
a SHOWCASE a framed window
- situated at the center of the PAGE.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Corpus
Divided into:
1- Four moving showcases on the
Corporate Home Page (CHP)
2- Twenty-six moving and still
showcases on Corporate
Underlying Pages (CUP).
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Corporate Homepage
Four moving showcases: Personal Banking, Fidele
Club, Private Banking, and Corporate Banking.
Two types of text in the showcase:
1. Main heading, H1, highlighting the provided
service.
2. Sub-Heading, H2, a caption.
Text-Image Synergy can be formulated as:
{[H1 + H2] + I} = Representation
. [H1 + H2] is the Given, while I is the New.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
CHP
CUP
Grammar-based Approaches to
Text-Image Relations
Clause Transitivity (Halliday and Matthiessen,
2004/2014): correspondence between visual
transitivity and grammatical transitivity (Kress
and van Leeuwen, 2006);
Logico-Semantic Relations:(Halliday and
Matthiessen, 2014): text and image could be
complementing or completing one another,
under clause-combining relationships:
Projection and Expansion (Halliday and
Matthiessen, 2014, pp. 443-444).
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Framework of Analysis
Drawing on taxonomies of Martinec and
Salway (2005), and Kong (2006), the
study adopted three analytical procedures:
Text-Image Status, i.e. Relative
Importance of text and image.
Logico-Semantic Relations;
Metaphorical nature of Text and Image
mixtures (verbo-pictorial metaphor).
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Third: Metaphorical
Nature
Results: Dimensions of
Ethos
Addressing Needs
Constructed in 11 blends presenting Loan
Programs, Bancassurance, Travel Insurance
Program and Business Cards, and Trade Finance;
Each Text-Image synergy highlights a different
kind of financial program to satisfy
customers need for both financial and
emotional support.
Examples of Representation formulas are:
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Bringing Gain
Through 7 showcases, presenting
Accounts and Savings, CAE Bank appeals to
customers through generating not only
financial gain but also other types of
gain brought virtually and
metaphorically.
Example of representations constructed by
Text Image synergy tend to be as follows:
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
AS4 {I: Xylophone with wooden bars on which interest rates along with upward arrows are engraved, and its special
sticks (represents) + H1: Saving Accounts (where) H2: The More You Play The More You Gain} = Increase of Income +
Virtual Melody
Bringing Joy
Through 2 showcases, CAE
attempts to create pleasure to
clients through Fidele Club
services established for
distinguished clients to offer them a
world of privileges tailored to suit
their needs and lifestyle, as put by
the bank.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Capabilities/Resources
Represented in five showcases
showing the Bank capable way
of performing, praising and
recommending its products and
services;
This is manifested in the following
showcase
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Knowledge
CB2: {I: Part of a freight vessel +
[H1: Egypt-Import-Export Website
(is) H2: Your Gateway to a World Of
Business Opportunities]} =
Knowledge Provider
Knowledge
Unequal status where part of the Image freight vessel is related to the text
to classify the Image as Subordinate to the Text.
Expansion/Elaboration as the Text Your Gateway to a World of Opportunities
explains the Image. The Bank is self-presented as a knowledgeable source
that can offer all the trade information required by a business.
Third Dimension:
Trustworthiness
Prowess/Special
Expertise
Boldness
Integrity
CUP/FC2: {I: red antique couch in a
green landscape + [H1: Eligibility +
H2: Credit Agricole Egypt]} =
Integrity.
Concluding Remarks
Thanks to the dominant Ethos Dimension of Caring
(66.7%), CAE presents itself as a GUARDIAN
or PROTECTOR whose primary aim is to address
the needs of the customer and look after their
interests, bringing both gain and joy to them.
This is manifested and reiterated in the verbopictorial metaphors, which, if combined, reveal
a pattern for the conceptual metaphor:
CAE BANK IS THE CUSTOMER GUARDIAN
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Pedagogical Implications
Functional use of Text-Image synergies in
rhetoric and business discourse has to be
addressed and discussed in communication
and localisation courses.
Web communicators and localizers need to be
more aware of the functions of interdependent
complementary relation between image and
text in constructing corporate ethos.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015
Limitations
Findings of the study needs to be verified
through:
(a)unveiling the attitude of potential
customers towards the image-text
synergy and the projected corporate
ethos;
(b)conducting a quantitative study that
includes a larger number of showcases.
APETAU Fifth Internatioal
Conference, Amman, Nov. 14-16,
2015