Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore whether digital communication of by-laws to street traders in South Africa could be better facilitated by designing the information in a multimodal manner. Public policy in Johannesburg is often only communicated in the English language, using legal jargon and placing undue emphasis on the mode of text, demanding a high level of literacy of the reader. These design choices introduce unnecessary barriers that impact directly on the lives of street traders in Johannesburg. The lack of multilingual support in a country that suffers from persisting literacy issues raises the important question of how to improve communication strategies to meet the needs of citizens. Multimodal social semiotics is the framework that informed my approach to data collection and analysis for this Masters dissertation. The data for this qualitative research was collected through a review of literature, semi-structured interviews with three experts in the informal trade sector and a multimodal analysis of three digital artefacts.
With advancements being made in digital technologies and the continued rise in smartphone adoption, mobile-centric solutions demand further investigation as a vehicle for enabling more participatory, democratic and inclusive civic engagement. Specific digital affordances are made available by the remote accessibility of information possible through these highly interactive handheld devices. The findings made in this research highlight intersecting challenges of literacy and available legislative information, showing how the design of public policy for street trade in Johannesburg does not promote effective communication of by-laws to street traders, which can impact negatively on the economic agency of these individuals. Further insights derived from the literature, interviews and multimodal analyses suggest that more inclusive communication strategies are worth investigating. This helped guide a resulting prototype design, exploring the potential for using interactive digital multimodal communication to ensure accessible policy information is made available to individuals working in the informal sector and the wider public across South Africa. Multilingual support for policy-related information, which includes both textual and audio information, could promote policy awareness by utilising inclusive language practices that serve to strengthen democratic participation in society at large.
Keywords:
multimodality, multimodal social semiotics, multimodal design, digital communication, public policy communication.