Eliciting solidarity in an emergency appeal
An illustrative analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v11i1.26638Keywords:
fundraising, intersemiotic complementarity, multimodal discourse, systemic functional theoryAbstract
Fundraising letters mailed by not-for-profit organizations aim at convincing potential donors of the worthiness of the cause that they seek to support, and influence readers to contribute a donation. Their persuasive appeal derives from a complex interplay of verbal text, images (when a photograph is included), as well as a range of typographic features, combined in a visual design by means of layout. Drawing on an analysis of the fundraising letter that Oxfam Australia emailed their supporters in the wake of the Pakistani floods, this study seeks to highlight the ways in which both the verbal and visual modes, while utilizing the distinctive meaning-making features of their respective semiotic systems, work in intersemiotic complementarity to elicit solidarity from the targeted audience and entice donations.
References
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Martinec, R. and Salway, A. (2005). A system for image–text relations in new (and old) media. Visual Communication 4 (3): 337–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357205055928
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Royce, T. D. (2006). Analysing multimodal intertextuality: An illustrative analysis. In M. Amano (Ed.) Multimodality: Towards the Most Efficient Communication by Humans, 101–114. Nagoya: Graduate School of Letters, Nagoya University.
Royce, T. D. (2007). Intersemiotic complementarity: A framework for multimodal discourse analysis. In T. D. Royce and W. Bowcher (Eds) New Directions in the Analysis of Multimodal Discourse, 63–109. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.
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Singapore Red Cross (2010). Pakistan floods: The deluge of disaster – Facts & figures as of 15 September 2010. In ReliefWeb, OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). Retrieved on 15 January 2015 from http://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-floodsthe-deluge-disaster-facts-figures-15-september-2010
Smith, G. E. and Berger, P. D. (1996). The impact of direct marketing appeals on charitable marketing effectiveness. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 24 (3): 219–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0092070396243003
Upton, T. A. (2002). Understanding direct mail letters as a genre. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 7 (1): 65–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.7.1.04upt
van Leeuwen, T. (2003). A multimodal perspective on composition. In T. Ensink and C. Sauer (Eds) Framing and Perspectivising in Discourse, 23–61. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.111.03lee
Weyant, J. M. and Smith, S. L. (1987). Getting more by asking for less: The effects of request size on donations of charity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 17 (4): 392–400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00320.x
White, P. R. R. (2006). Evaluative semantics and ideological positioning in journalistic discourse: A new framework for analysis. In I. Lassen, J. Strunck, and T. Vestergaard (Eds) Mediating Ideology in Text and Image: Ten Critical Studies, 37–67. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.18.05whi
Bathgate, M. (2011). Annual Report. Oxfam Australia.
Bhatia, V. K. (1998). Generic patterns in fundraising discourse. New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising 22: 95–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pf.2207
Caffarel, A. and Rechniewski, E. (2009). A systemic functional approach to analysing and interpreting ideology: An illustration from French editorials. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 22: 27–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.14198/raei.2009.22.03
Chen, L. (2005). Transitivity in media texts: Negative verbal process sub-functions and narrator bias. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 43 (1): 33–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/iral.2005.43.1.33
Connor, U. and Gladkov, K. (2004). Rhetorical appeals in fundraising direct mail letters. In U. Connor and T. A. Upton (Eds) Discourse in the Professions: Perspectives from Corpus Linguistics, 257–286. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/scl.16.11con
Crismore, A. (2004). Pronouns and metadiscourse as interpersonal rhetorical devices in fundraising letters: A corpus linguistic analysis. In U. Connor and T. A. Upton (Eds) Discourse in the Professions: Perspectives from Corpus Linguistics, 307–330. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/scl.16.13cri
Desmet, P. and Feinberg, F. M. (2003). Ask and ye shall receive: The effect of the appeals scale on consumers’ donation behavior. Journal of Economic Psychology 24 (3): 349–376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4870(02)00166-6
Farmer, B. (2011). Oxfam investigating embezzlement of donations to Pakistan flood disaster. The Telegraph. Retrieved on 15 January 2015 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8559847/Oxfam-investigating-embezzlement-of-donations-to-Pakistan-flood-disaster.html
Fraser, C., Hite, R. E. and Sauer, P. L. (1988). Increasing contributions in solicitation campaigns: The use of large and small anchorpoints. Journal of Consumer Research 15 (2): 284–287. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209166
Goering, E. M. (2004). Framing matters: Communicating relationships through metaphor in fundraising texts. In U. Connor and T. A. Upton (Eds) Discourse in the Professions: Perspectives from Corpus Linguistics, 287–306. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/scl.16.12goe
Goering, E., Connor, U. M., Nagelhout, E. and Steinberg, R. (2011). Persuasion in fundraising letters: An interdisciplinary study. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 40 (2): 228–246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0899764009339216
Halliday, M. A. K. (1992). Some lexicogrammatical features of the zero population growth text. In W. C. Mann and S. A. Thompson (Eds) Discourse Description: Diverse Linguistic Analyses of a Fund-Raising Text, 327–358. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.16.13hal
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edition). London: Edward Arnold.
Holsanova, J., Rahm, H. and Holmqvist, K. (2006). Entry points and reading paths on newspaper spreads: Comparing a semiotic analysis with eye-tracking measurements. Visual Communication 5 (1): 65–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357206061005
Knox, J. (2007). Visual–verbal communication on online newspaper home pages. Visual Communication 6 (1): 19–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357207071464
Knox, J. (2009). Punctuating the home page: Image as language in an online newspaper. Discourse & Communication 3 (2): 145–172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750481309102450
Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd edition). London and New York: Routledge.
Manno, G. (2000). L'appel à l'aide humanitaire: Un genre directif émotionnel. In C. Plantin, M. Doury, and V. Traverso (Eds) Les Émotions dans les Interactions, 279–294. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon.
Martin, J. R. (1992) Macro-proposals: Meaning by degree. In W. C. Mann and S. A. Thompson (Eds) Discourse Description: Diverse Linguistic Analyses of a Fund-Raising Text, 359–395. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.16.14mar
Martin, J. R. (2001). Fair trade: Negotiating meaning in multimodal texts. In P. Coppock (Ed.) The Semiotics of Writing: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Technology of Writing, 311–338. Turnhout: Brepols.
Martin, J. R. and Rose, D. (2003) Working with Discourse: Meaning Beyond the Clause. London and New York: Continuum.
Martinec, R. and Salway, A. (2005). A system for image–text relations in new (and old) media. Visual Communication 4 (3): 337–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357205055928
O'Rourke, K. (2011). A silver lining. In M. Bathgate (Ed.) Oxfam News, 10–11. Carlton: Oxfam Australia.
Olsen, M., Keevers M. L., Paul, J., and Covington, S. (2001). E-relationship development strategy for the nonprofit fundraising professional. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 6 (4): 364–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.161
Orgad, S. (2013). Visualizers of solidarity: Organizational politics in humanitarian and internationsl development NGOs. Visual Communication 12 (3): 295–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357213483057
Orgad, S. and Vella, C. (2012). Who Cares? Challenges and Opportunities in Communicating Distant Suffering: A View from the Development and Humanitarian Sector. London: Polis.
Royce, T. D. (1998). Synergy on the page: Exploring intersemiotic complementarity in page-based multimodal text. JASFL Occasional Papers 1(1): 25–49.
Royce, T. D. (2006). Analysing multimodal intertextuality: An illustrative analysis. In M. Amano (Ed.) Multimodality: Towards the Most Efficient Communication by Humans, 101–114. Nagoya: Graduate School of Letters, Nagoya University.
Royce, T. D. (2007). Intersemiotic complementarity: A framework for multimodal discourse analysis. In T. D. Royce and W. Bowcher (Eds) New Directions in the Analysis of Multimodal Discourse, 63–109. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.
Shang, J. and Croson, R. (2009). A field experiment in charitable contribution: The impact of social information on the voluntary provision of public goods. The Economic Journal 119: 1422–1439. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02267.x
Singapore Red Cross (2010). Pakistan floods: The deluge of disaster – Facts & figures as of 15 September 2010. In ReliefWeb, OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). Retrieved on 15 January 2015 from http://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-floodsthe-deluge-disaster-facts-figures-15-september-2010
Smith, G. E. and Berger, P. D. (1996). The impact of direct marketing appeals on charitable marketing effectiveness. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 24 (3): 219–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0092070396243003
Upton, T. A. (2002). Understanding direct mail letters as a genre. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 7 (1): 65–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.7.1.04upt
van Leeuwen, T. (2003). A multimodal perspective on composition. In T. Ensink and C. Sauer (Eds) Framing and Perspectivising in Discourse, 23–61. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.111.03lee
Weyant, J. M. and Smith, S. L. (1987). Getting more by asking for less: The effects of request size on donations of charity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 17 (4): 392–400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00320.x
White, P. R. R. (2006). Evaluative semantics and ideological positioning in journalistic discourse: A new framework for analysis. In I. Lassen, J. Strunck, and T. Vestergaard (Eds) Mediating Ideology in Text and Image: Ten Critical Studies, 37–67. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.18.05whi
Published
2016-05-26
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Lipovsky, C. (2016). Eliciting solidarity in an emergency appeal: An illustrative analysis. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 11(1), 133-154. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v11i1.26638
