Communication happens through many different modes, not just text or reading. For example, a professor’s lecture differs from their written notes, just as a group chat differs from an in-person meeting. Understanding these modes is the first step to navigating a multimodal world.

When a given text makes use of more than one mode, the text can be characterized as multimodal. Most texts are multimodal – we make sense out of their messages through decoding the different modes of communication that they employ.

Figure 1. A multimodal world includes visual, linguistic, aural, spatial, and gestural communication.

What is the Relationship Between Modes and Media?

A mode is a way of communicating, while a medium is the channel used to convey that communication. For example, communicating in the linguistic mode might use the medium of print, while the aural mode might use a podcast. Both print and podcasts are types of media.

When analyzing or creating multimedia texts (artifacts that use multiple modes of communication), it’s important to recognize how different modes operate together and which mode dominates in a given medium. For instance, both photographs and films use the visual mode, but they differ in how they convey meaning. Photographs focus on the arrangement of objects in a still image, while films rely on the spatial mode, using the movement of bodies and objects through space to tell a story. While photographs can sometimes emphasize spatial relationships, the visual mode dominates. In contrast, in films, the spatial mode often takes precedence. Understanding which modes dominate within a medium can help you craft stronger claims and choose persuasive evidence for your multimodal arguments.

Visual

The visual mode refers to anything people see, such as images, colors, shapes, or the arrangement of objects. It helps communicate ideas and emotions through what is visible.

It is sometimes possible to find compositions that almost, if not completely, rely on a single mode.

Example: Symbols

For instance, the “No Guns” symbol has no alphabetic text and no sound. Like many signs, it relies for its meaning on visual information. However, we might be able to say that the sign uses the spatial mode as well, since the gun appears behind the red bar that signals “no” or “not allowed.” So while the visual dominates in signs, even this composition is not “purely” visual.

Figure 2. A “no guns” symbol.

Aural

The aural mode is focused on sound including, but not limited to, music, sound effects, ambient noises, silence, tone of voice in spoken language, volume of sound, emphasis, and accent. ^[2]

An example of an aural mode— one that depends almost exclusively on sound—might be the recording of a public speech that is delivered orally to a live audience, a radio address, or a podcast.

Gestural

The gestural mode refers to the way movement is interpreted. Facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and interaction between people are all gestural modes. This has always been important in face-to-face conversations and in theater, but it has become more apparent on the web lately with the wide use of YouTube and other video players.

The gestural mode works with linguistic, visual, aural, and sometimes even spatial modes in order to create more detail and communicate better to the reader or consumer of the gestural text.

Linguistic (or Alphabetic)

The linguistic mode refers to written or spoken words. The mode includes word choice, the delivery of written or spoken text, the organization of words into sentences and paragraphs, and the development and coherence of words and ideas.

The linguistic mode is not always the most important mode; this depends on the other modes at play in the text, the type of text, and other factors. Linguistic is probably the most widely used mode because it can be both read and heard on both paper or audio. The linguistic mode is the best way to express details and lists.

Spatial

The spatial mode, as the name implies, refers to the arrangement of elements in space. It involves the organization of items and the physical closeness between people and objects.

Examples

A good example of the spatial mode might be the different ways in which chairs and desks are arranged in a classroom.

Here is a “traditional” classroom: Individual desks are arranged in orderly rows, facing the front of the room to make the teacher who would stand before the chalkboard the center of attention. The teacher also stands at a distance from the students; the students who sit in the back could hardly even see the board!

Figure 3. A traditional classroom setting with orderly class rows.

By contrast, in this advertisement for “collaborative classrooms,” we see the chairs and desks clustered in small groups so that students can work together on projects. The classroom is also de-centered, which suggests that the teacher and students are working together as partners rather than in a hierarchical manner. All of the people are in close proximity to one another.

Figure 4. A classroom where students interact with each other in different groups.

Think about how a teacher communicates her ideas about learning through the way in which they arrange their classroom. In that sense, the arrangement of desks and chairs can be “read” as a message about teaching and learning.