Identity construction of Thai university websites : a multimodal discourse analysis

Name: Benjawan Rungruangsuparat

keyword: Identity

LCSH: Universities and colleges -- Thailand

; Multimodal discourse analysis

LCSH: Web sites

; University websites

LCSH: Web site development

; Digital practices

LCSH: Discourse analysis

Abstract: University websites are practically an online space for people interaction and for framing self-presentation to others in digital age. This study aims to study how Thai universities present themselves through their websites in English and how multimodal texts are designed to interact with the online audiences as well as to construct university identity. Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006) and systemic functional perspective were employed as crucial tools for analyzing online texts. Also, social constructivism perspective on Community of Practice (Wenger, 2008) and frame analysis (Goffman, 1986) were applied to explore and interpret the construction of university identity. Totaling eight Thai university websites of both private and public universities in four different regions were continually investigated for twelve weeks from March 16th to June 1st 2016. The scope of data covered the English version of the main official homepages and the hyperlinked webpages of About, student life and news/events/activities under the main URL to find out its common and distinctive features. Verbal, visual and intertextual texts were simultaneously analyzed and interpreted to explore university identity. The study validity and reliability were supplemented by the co-rater technique and the questionnaires from the approachable university student volunteers. The results revealed that both verbal and visual texts were relied on together to frame historical narratives and images of Thai universities. The common features and website patterns were generally found the same. The contents of information were intervolving and relating to the significant practices in the community to present and construct the university identities including the global citizen, the digital player, the care giver, the professionalism and the value holder. Multi-facet identities were dynamic based on digital ways of life as well as concerned factors of globally academic organizations. This study argued that Thai universities used their websites as tools for both inner and outer interactions in the imagined community on the one hand. Constructed identity through online discourse of Thai higher education, on the other hand, was dialogic mediation to global arena of the prestigious educational institutions. Uniqueness of Thai university identity was also discussed for intercultural communication understanding. The findings emphasized that the university website template could be one of learning spaces for online activities that focused on the viewers’ orientation through institutional presentation of news, events, history and other information. By navigating online texts with multimodal instructions consisting of an English medium and visual illustration fundamentally found in the digital genre, the viewers learned meaningful topics of their interests. Yet, the institutional websites were designed to build up the images of Thai universities that preserved the local cultures as well as adapted global practices with their campus lives

Thammasat University. Thammasat University Library

Address: BANGKOK

Email: preserv@tu.ac.th

Name: Jantima Angkapanichkit

Role: advisor

Created: 2016

Modified: 2021-06-01

Issued: 2021-06-01

วิทยานิพนธ์/Thesis

application/pdf

DOI: 10.14457/TU.the.2016.515

eng

DegreeName: Doctor of Philosophy

Level: Doctoral Degree

Descipline: English Language Studies

Grantor: Thammasat University

©copyrights Thammasat University

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