Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Tuberculosis Posters in Indonesia
Abstract
This study examines how Indonesian tuberculosis (TB) posters construct health messages through multimodal resources. It analyzes five public health posters using Kress and van Leeuwen's visual grammar to explore representational, interactive, and compositional meanings. A qualitative Multimodal Discourse Analysis was applied to posters on TB symptoms, drug-resistant TB, treatment side effects, healthy lifestyles, and cough etiquette. The findings show that representational meanings depict TB through symptoms, treatment risks, and preventive practices using both narrative and conceptual processes. Interactive meanings are mainly realized through offer images, eye-level perspectives, medium social distance, and low-modality illustrations that make health information accessible, while the drug-resistant TB poster creates greater urgency through a more confrontational design. Compositionally, titles, icon clusters, color salience, and segmented framing organize information into clear and memorable messages. The study concludes that Indonesian TB posters function as effective multimodal tools that strengthen public understanding, treatment awareness, preventive behavior, and institutional trust.
Keywords
multimodal discourse analysis, tuberculosis posters, public health communication, visual grammar
References
Al-Subhi, A. S. (2025). Interactional multimodal metadiscourse in public health posters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pragmatics & Society, 16(2), 255–281.
Caruso, E., Parmer, J., Allen, L., Maiuri, A., Mangan, J. M., Bouwkamp, B., & DeLuca, N. (2024). Think. Test. Treat TB campaign and tuberculosis awareness among diverse audiences. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DeSanto, D., Mthembu, S., Khumalo, N., Ndlovu, T., & Smith, P. (2023). A qualitative exploration into the presence of TB stigmatization across three districts in South Africa. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 1–10.
Engebretsen, M. (2023). Visual storytelling and trust in digital health communication. In M. Engebretsen & H. Kennedy (Eds.), Data visualization in society (pp. 115–130). Amsterdam University Press.
Ezirim, C., & Aworo-Okoroh, J. (2023). Multimodal analysis of selected health awareness materials: A visual grammar approach. South Asian Research Journal of Arts, Language and Literature, 5(4), 97–107.
Fitriyani, N., Utami, S., & Lestari, P. (2017). Lek Tebe: Media robotik untuk meningkatkan kesadaran tuberkulosis. Jurnal Kesehatan Masyarakat, 13(2), 145–152.
Gill, K. A., & Lennon, H. (2022). Conformity through fear: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of COVID-19 information adverts. CADAAD Journal, 14(1), 22–44.
González-Chacón, M., Vergara-Heidke, A., & Marroquín-Velásquez, L. (2023). Carteles preventivos de la salud costarricense más allá de lo verbal: Un análisis multimodal. Káñina, 47(1), 95–126.
Iedema, R. (2003). Multimodality, resemiotization: Extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication, 2(1), 29–57.
Ingolo, H. A., & Ong'onda, A. N. (2024). Health communication: A multimodal discourse analysis of selected Corona Virus posters in Kenya. African Journal of Empirical Research, 5(4), 1531–1545.
Kementerian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia. (2025). Gerakan Indonesia Akhiri TBC dengan Komitmen dan Aksi Nyata (GIATKAN). Ayo Sehat Kemkes.
Khusna, W. L., Malik, N. J. M. T., & Hardjatno, T. (2022). The ideational meaning of COVID-19 health promotion posters: Multimodal discourse. Diksi, 30(1), 57–65.
Kosman, M. (2024). Multimodal representations of immigrants and illiberal aspects of Polish migration discourse. Journal of Multimodal Communication Studies, 11(1), 45–60.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Liu, S. (2019). Multimodal discourse analysis of the interactive meaning of public service advertisement. Journal of Advances in Linguistics, 10, 1523–1534.
Mesinioti, P. (2025). Multimodal discourse analysis in health communication: Sketching out the field. Qualitative Health Communication, 4(1), 2–16.
Mordecai, C. (2023). #anxiety: A multimodal discourse analysis of narrations of anxiety on TikTok. Computers and Composition, 67, Article 102763.
Moura, A. A. A., & Dias, S. E. (2024). Social representations of tuberculosis by people with the disease. Revista Gaúcha de Enfermagem, 45, e20230159.
Mubarat, H., Rahma, A., & Wijaya, S. (2023). Typography, color, and viewer attention in public health poster design. Journal of Visual Communication Design, 8(2), 89–102.
Muganda, G. F. (2024). A multimodal discourse analysis of COVID-19 posters in Tanzania: The case of the University of Dar es Salaam. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 42(1), 75–88.
Nim Arinaminpathy, Bastard, M., Floyd, K., & Lönnroth, K. (2024). TB incidence estimates for the Sustainable Development Goal and End TB Strategy 2025 milestone and 2030 targets assessment: Data sources, analytical methods and process. World Health Organization.
Ope-Davies, T., & Shodipe, M. (2023). A multimodal discourse study of selected COVID-19 online public health campaign texts in Nigeria. Discourse & Society, 34(1), 96–119.
Oyebode, O., & Unuabonah, F. O. (2013). Coping with HIV/AIDS: A multimodal discourse analysis of selected HIV/AIDS posters in south-western Nigeria. Discourse & Society, 24(6), 810–827.
Padilla, R. P., & Padilla, J. M. (2023). Visual grammar and audience engagement in vaccine promotion posters. Journal of Health Communication Research, 15(3), 201–215.
Panna, S., & Tongpoon-Patanasorn, A. (2025). A multimodal discourse analysis of health communication posters: A case study of U.S. educational institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Language, Religion and Culture, 14(2), 1–23.
Saidu, A., & Rajandran, K. (2024). A multimodal analysis of Nigerian public health awareness posters. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 42(2), 110–125.
Tafrijiyah, N., & Andriani, D. (2025). Multimodal discourse analysis of social and cultural values in Bahasa Inggris: English for Change. Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics, 10(1), 15–30.
Valdivino, M., de Vaulgrenant, A., & Horstman, K. (2025). A discourse analysis of social inequities, gender, and stigma in tuberculosis policies of seven countries from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. Global Health Action, 18(1), Article 2547150.
World Health Organization. (2025). Global tuberculosis report 2025. World Health Organization.
Yin, L., & Hassan, H. (2021). Multimodal discourse analysis of the movie poster Little Big Soldier. International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, 7(3), 101–105.
Yu, B. (2019). Multimodal discourse analysis of posters. In Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Arts, Social Sciences, Economics and Education (pp. 407–411).
Zhang, P. (2023). Visual grammar in multimodal discourse: A case study of Nezha's poster images. Athena Transactions in Social Sciences and Humanities, 1, 85–96.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2026 Gema Fikriansyah, Dwi Anggoro Hadiutomo
The author(s) retain full copyright of this work. The copyright holder grants the journal the right of first publication and the right to distribute the work under the terms of the selected open-access license.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
All published content in Takuana: Jurnal Pendidikan, Sains, dan Humaniora is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY NC SA 4.0). This license allows others to share, copy, redistribute, and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes, as long as proper credit is given to the original author(s) and source, and any derivative works are distributed under the same license.
Attribution must include a clear citation of the original work and a statement indicating whether any changes were made. Commercial use is not permitted under this license and there is no additional legal or technological restrictions may be applied. For more information about the license terms and permissible use, please refer to the full license text available here.
