关键词: 抗疫纪录片; 抗疫精神; 评价理论; 态度意义; 多模态建构; 融媒体

Abstract:

Recently, the mainstream media in China have launched several anti-COVID-19 documentaries that have been playing a very important role in transmitting positive Chinese stories, building up an anti-COVID-19 spirit, constructing a national discourse, and shaping national image. Therefore, relevant research on these anti-COVID-19 documentaries has gained more attention in academic circles. However, the existing research is mainly confined to the discipline of communication studies, with scant cross-disciplinary empirical research of the intrinsic discourse mechanisms of the construction and communication of an anti-COVID-19 spirit. To address this research gap, this research attempts to construct a working framework based on the analytical framework of the attitude subsystem (affect, judgment, and appreciation) of appraisal theory and the multimodal realization framework of attitudinal meaning to analyze the verbal resources and multimodal visual resources of The Frontline: China’s Fight against COVID-19, an English-language documentary launched by China Global Television Network. The main findings show that the documentary presents an aesthetic spirit of heroism, optimism, collectivism, and idealism. The judgment attitudinal attribute dominates the verbal resources, and affect appears the most frequently in the video resources, which echoes documentaries’ dual functions of cultivating ideal acceptance and sparking emotional resonance. In the era of media convergence, the transmission tactics of the documentary feature “affect-based” empathy communication and “all-media” targeted communication, serving as a conducive move in China’s international discourse formulation and national image shaping.

Keywords: anti-COVID-19 documentaries; anti-COVID-19 spirit; appraisal theory; attitudinal meaning; multimodal construction; media convergence