Sabine Tan was until recently a Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University, Australia. She has a background in critical multimodal discourse analysis, social semiotics, and visual communication. She has applied multidisciplinary perspectives for the analysis of institutional discourses involving traditional and new media, and worked on interdisciplinary projects involving the development of interactive software for the multimodal analysis of images, videos and 360-degree videos for research and educational purposes.Marissa K. L. E is currently a Lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, critical multimodal discourse analysis and conceptual metaphor theory. She has published and presented in the areas of social semiotics, multimodal discourse analysis, multiliteracies and the use of multimodality for educational purposes.

• Table of contentsList of figuresList of tablesList of contributorsIntroduction1. Discourses, modes, media and meaning in an era of pandemic: A multimodal discourse analysis approachSabine Tan and Marissa K. L. EPart I. Use of semiotic modes/resources in COVID-19 discourses2. ‘Stay at home’: Speech acts in Arab political cartoons on COVID-19 pandemicAhmed Abdel-Raheem3. Communication as ‘Graphic Medicine’: A multimodal social semiotic approachMarissa K. L. E and Sabine TanPart II. Use of media/media technologies in COVID-19 discourses4. Design considerations for digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Losses and gainsFei Victor Lim and Weimin Toh5. Phraseology and imagery in UK public health agency COVID-19 tweetsDavid Oakey, Christian Jones and Kay L. O'HalloranPart III. Communicative functions/strategies of COVID-19 discourses6. Australian universities engaging international students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of multimodal public communications with studentsZuocheng Zhang, Toni Dobinson and Wei Wang7. "We are in this together": Cultural branding and affective activations in a pandemic context Carl Jon Way Ng 8. Defamiliarise to engage the public: A multimodal study of a science video about COVID-19 on Chinese social mediaZhang Yiqiong, Tan Rongle, Marissa K. L. E and Sabine Tan9. Beyond Reporting: The communicative functions of social media news during the COVID-19 PandemicYuanzheng Wu and Dezheng (William) Feng10. Exploring strategies of multimodal crisis and risk communication in the business and economic discourses of global pandemic newsCarmen Daniela Maier and Silvia RavazzaniPart IV. Wider communicative meanings/purposes of COVID-19 discourses11. “Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Make Memes”: A multimodal discourse analysis of UK internet memes during the COVID-19 pandemicAvery Anapol12. Everyday acts of social-semiotic inquiry: Insights into emerging practices from the research collective PanMeMic Elisabetta Adami and Emilia DjonovIndex

Sabine Tan was until recently a Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University, Australia. She has a background in critical multimodal discourse analysis, social semiotics, and visual communication. She has applied multidisciplinary perspectives for the analysis of institutional discourses involving traditional and new media, and worked on interdisciplinary projects involving the development of interactive software for the multimodal analysis of images, videos and 360-degree videos for research and educational purposes.Marissa K. L. E is currently a Lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, critical multimodal discourse analysis and conceptual metaphor theory. She has published and presented in the areas of social semiotics, multimodal discourse analysis, multiliteracies and the use of multimodality for educational purposes.

• Table of contentsList of figuresList of tablesList of contributorsIntroduction1. Discourses, modes, media and meaning in an era of pandemic: A multimodal discourse analysis approachSabine Tan and Marissa K. L. EPart I. Use of semiotic modes/resources in COVID-19 discourses2. ‘Stay at home’: Speech acts in Arab political cartoons on COVID-19 pandemicAhmed Abdel-Raheem3. Communication as ‘Graphic Medicine’: A multimodal social semiotic approachMarissa K. L. E and Sabine TanPart II. Use of media/media technologies in COVID-19 discourses4. Design considerations for digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Losses and gainsFei Victor Lim and Weimin Toh5. Phraseology and imagery in UK public health agency COVID-19 tweetsDavid Oakey, Christian Jones and Kay L. O'HalloranPart III. Communicative functions/strategies of COVID-19 discourses6. Australian universities engaging international students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of multimodal public communications with studentsZuocheng Zhang, Toni Dobinson and Wei Wang7. "We are in this together": Cultural branding and affective activations in a pandemic context Carl Jon Way Ng 8. Defamiliarise to engage the public: A multimodal study of a science video about COVID-19 on Chinese social mediaZhang Yiqiong, Tan Rongle, Marissa K. L. E and Sabine Tan9. Beyond Reporting: The communicative functions of social media news during the COVID-19 PandemicYuanzheng Wu and Dezheng (William) Feng10. Exploring strategies of multimodal crisis and risk communication in the business and economic discourses of global pandemic newsCarmen Daniela Maier and Silvia RavazzaniPart IV. Wider communicative meanings/purposes of COVID-19 discourses11. “Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Make Memes”: A multimodal discourse analysis of UK internet memes during the COVID-19 pandemicAvery Anapol12. Everyday acts of social-semiotic inquiry: Insights into emerging practices from the research collective PanMeMic Elisabetta Adami and Emilia DjonovIndex