ABSTRACT
Social media news does not just inform people of what is going on but performs a wide range of communicative functions. Such multifunctionality has been fully manifested in news reports during the COVID-19 pandemic. To map out the multiple functions of social media news, the present study adopts a multimodal discourse analysis approach and draws on the theory of register typology to explicate the news’ social semiotic activities and the multimodal realisation of these activities. The analysis of 232 news videos shows that apart from the reporting activity, social media news also conducts sharing, expounding and recommending activities, with their realisations shown by a personalised and emotional style in language and the depiction of the actions and emotions of a wide range of social actors in images. The multiple activities and discursive features serve the social, political and educational functions in managing the public health crisis and are shaped by the affordance of social media on the one hand and the social-cultural context in China on the other hand.
