Who is the Responsible Corporation? A multimodal analysis of power in CSR videos of multinational companies
运用巴特勒的述行性理论，通过批判符号学多模态分析，揭示跨国公司CSR视频如何通过语言和视觉构建负责任企业的三种主体形象（英雄、传教士、建筑师），并指出CSR传播实为一种政治项目，掩盖权力关系并强化商业意识形态。
Drawing on Judith Butler’s understanding of performativity, this study aims to explore how power embeds in CSR videos of multinational companies. It adopts a critical semiotics multimodal analysis to show how a particular kind of responsible corporation is constituted by the language, both verbal and visual, that those CSR videos speak. Our findings show in-depth the multimodal construction of three subjects of a responsible corporation: hero, missionary and architect. We advance the constitutive turn in CSR communication by conceptualizing CSR communication as a political project which (1) subjectifies the corporation through the articulation of a relationship that subordinates CSR beneficiaries and the audience and (2) iterates the business ideology. We discuss how multimodality contributes to masking power, and conclude with guidelines for alternative multimodal CSR communication.