Visual Rhetoric Analysis Of Mainstream Media In The COVID-19

At the end of 2019,a large-scale outbreak of new coronavirus infection has changed people’s way of life for a long time.This article takes the comics on the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic published in the comic weekly supplement,Satire and Humor of People’s Daily from February 2020 to December 2022 as the research object,and analyzes the visual discourse presentation in epidemic prevention propaganda combined with comic samples to clarify The characteristics of comic texts in the period of the new crown epidemic,from which we can see the focus of expression,form of expression and social functions achieved by mainstream media in the visual presentation carrier of comics.The study uses content analysis,discourse analysis and other methods to explore the visual rhetorical characteristics of the samples.Firstly,through the establishment of categories for data statistics,this paper sorts out the changes in the content expression of epidemic prevention comics in the context of time and the basic differences in the visual forms of news comics at home and abroad;secondly,uses the method of visual discourse analysis to analyze symbols and metaphors in comics.,imagery,etc.,to extract the cultural significance of the new crown epidemic prevention theme propaganda;finally,summarize the main social functions of the domestic epidemic prevention cartoon propaganda.The study found that,since the weekly comic newspaper "Satire and Humor" was first published,there has been a transformation in the expression of content and themes.During the COVID-19 epidemic period,the comic samples followed the outbreak narrative law and released visual texts of different numbers and themes at different times.As a multi-modal discourse,its content has the advantages of large quantity,fast update,and wide themes compared with language texts.Specifically,"Satire and Humor" expresses the propaganda discourse in line with the context of epidemic prevention through the ink comic style with Chinese characteristics and the sense of innovation of the times,the use of more colors and the poster-like text layout that highlights the main body.In terms of symbols and rhetorical features,typical medical symbols,war metaphors,family imagery,etc.are often used,rooted in Chinese culture for localized expression.With the help of visual rhetorical styles with Chinese characteristics,the domestic anti-epidemic cartoons in "Satire and Humor" present a completely different visual picture from foreign cartoons,and have the social functions of guiding positive emotions,disciplining social behavior,and strengthening social mobilization.The intelligent transformation of the publication itself also promotes the preservation of social memory through the storage and sharing of electronic content.