A Multimodal Analysis of Masculinity Portrayed in Digital Picture Books

Picture books as a discourse combine both verbal and visual in order to deliver the event of the story. This research is done by applying multimodal analysis in order to discover how attributes of masculinity are presented in picture books. The verbal text and visual illustration is analyzed in six picture books which are available in two websites: Storybooks Canada (www.storybookscanada.ca) and Monkey pen (www.monkeypen.com). The titles of the books are Tom the Banana Seller, Magozwe, Simbegwire, Bully Bill, The Homeless Monkey, and The Lunker. The visual analysis applied the narrative process of representational meaning by Kress and Van Leeuwen, while the verbal analysis applied the experiential functions of systemic functional linguistics experiential function by Halliday. The data used in this research were the illustration and narration text which contain attributes of masculinity. The methodology applied in this research is descriptive qualitative. Multimodal analysis is defined as an analysis technique that focuses on analyzing in more than one mode. The result of this research showed there are 31 illustrations and 39 narrations text that contain the attribute of masculinity. The dominant narrative process used to present the attribute of masculinity is the actional transactional process. While the dominant experiential functions used to present the attribute of masculinity is the material process. The verbal and visual elements available in picture books of Storybooks Canada and Monkey Pen websites are indeed in making meaning to deliver the attributes of masculinity in the events of the story. Therefore, the next researcher is expected to apply multimodal discourse analysis with other types of discourse and different approaches.