A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Short-Form Fast-Food Advertising: Presupposition and Video Transitions in American and British Instagram Reels
Keywords:
Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), Presupposition Triggers, Social SemioticsAbstract
This study examines verbal and visual semiotic resources in short-form fast-food advertising on Instagram Reels using Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA). The dataset consists of 10 videos (5 American and 5 British) published by McDonald’s between 2023 and 2025. A convergent mixed-method design integrates quantitative frequency analysis with qualitative multimodal interpretation. Verbal resources were analyzed through presupposition triggers, while visual resources were examined through video transitions and social semiotics.
The results show that the conciseness function occurs most frequently (39%), with existential presuppositions accounting for the largest proportion (45%), followed by factive presuppositions (27%). Analysis of 371 shot transitions reveals that standard cuts dominate editing practices (57%), followed by overlays (19%) and split screens (7%). Social semiotic patterns indicate frequent use of frontal angles and demand images to enhance viewer engagement. Overall, the findings suggest that short-form fast-food advertisements rely on concise presuppositional structures and rapid shot transitions to construct persuasive product-focused narratives in highly compressed digital formats.
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