Multimodality surrounds us every single day, we are continuously bombarded with multi modal text, filled with videos, graphics, letters, etc… Now even on airlines, we see beautiful examples of how Multimodality is prevalent in everyday life and in travel.
In the Bogost Rhetoric excerpt, it mentions how Aristotle did not define rhetoric as only verbal. “Effectively, rhetoric was extended to account for new modes of inscription – especially literary and artistic modes. Rhetoric in writing, painting, sculpture, and other media do not necessarily make the same direct appeals to persuasion as oratory.” (19) This is the first step toward people realizing Multimodality can be used effectively to portray a certain meaning and use “out of the box” modes to get across a message, and that is exactly what the United safety video is doing.
In this screenshot from the United safety video you hear the Swedish band start to play as the flight attendant begins talking about oxygen masks, then it pans over to three people wearing lederhosen, bopping to the music as they demonstrate how to correctly put on the masks. It is clearly portraying the message of how to put on your oxygen mask and what to do if your child or another child is in your row, however they are doing it in video form with someone talking and music in the background and in interesting costumes, this makes it more entertaining to watch while still providing the information.
The Bogost excerpt does not necessarily talk about travel or culture, however it does talk about digital rhetoric through online blogs, wikis, websites etc… And even though going online does not mean your traveling, there are many things online that can make it feel like you are going on a trip or traveling to a new place in the comfort of your own home. For example watching a youtube video about someones vacation, or reading an article with photos on a skydiving adventure or a “must see” tropical beach in Cancun, you can “travel” through Multimodality online. This relates to the United video because they are showing you all the places you could travel to on your next United flight within the safety video. You don’t have to actually leave to get more insight and information on new places, cultures, and experiences.
The picture above emphasizes my point about learning about the culture without actually having to go there. Here is another screenshot from the United video which shows the people of India throwing colored powder at each other as a big party. This brings across the message that they do this in India as a tradition or something fun to do, and it is something different that we do not do in America. Also, this scene like I said prior gave the feeling of them having a big party, and I think that brings a lot to the United video because they want flying with United to seem like an easy, even fun thing to do, and this scene definitely does that.
Overall I think that both the United airline video and the piece on rhetoric give us good insight on how you can use Multimodality and rhetoric to portray different messages in an out of the box way. An airline safety video does not have to be strictly facts and it can teach you more than just safety information. As well as the rhetoric piece they gave insight about how even back in Aristotle’s time Multimodality was an idea that was soon to come to life.
Citations:
Liv Talevi's Travel Blog 