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Metaphorical and multimodal representation of autism in Chinese video public service announcements: Lonely twinkling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Metaphors are prevalent in the discourse of autism. Inappropriate use of metaphors might lead to stigmatization of the autistic group. Nevertheless, the multimodal representation of autism in metaphorical video PSAs remains underexplored, leaving the metaphorical portrayals of autistic community in the PSA discourse unclear. This study addresses the aforementioned issues by investigating the representation of autism in 39 Chinese metaphorical video PSAs. Findings showed that 1) the incidence and clinical characteristics were two clinical aspects of autism multimodally represented in PSAs; 2) symptoms of Difficulties in Social Communication were more frequently presented; 3) metaphorical representations of autism concerned several topics, including the autistic group, the lives of autistic children, treatment of autism, clinical characteristics, autism, and parents of autistic children; 4) the most frequent metaphor CHILDREN WITH AUTISM ARE STARS/CHILDREN OF STARS labelled the autistic children as stars, potentially contributing to stigmatization. Practical implications for designing metaphorical video PSAs about autism were provided.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)67-76
Number of pages10
JournalLanguage and Health
Volume1
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2023

Keywords

  • Autism
  • Metaphors
  • PSAs
  • Video ads

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