The authors’ voice in health sciences written and video abstracts: How do modes combine to engage audiences?

Abstract

Video abstracts have emerged to supplement and support the information provided in written abstracts (Luzón & Pérez-Llantada, 2019). This new genre, characterised by the combined use of verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources, contributes to making content more accessible and visible to the audience (Plastina, 2017).  A key aspect in this respect is how authors use various communicative modes not only to disseminate content but also to establish interpersonal meaning with their audience. The purpose of this study is to explore how authors in the field of health science orchestrate varied modes to enhance their own voice and effectively engage their audiences through written and video abstracts. For this purpose, a dataset of 10 written abstracts and their corresponding video abstracts are analysed from a multimodal discourse perspective. The study reveals the way authors take stance verbally (e.g. inclusive we, hedges, boosters) and enact engagement multimodally (e.g. self-mention, animations, photographs, reference to visuals,), thus enriching the audience’s experience.