Linguistic and cultural features of Philippine COVID-19 infographics

• Main Author: Ugalingan, Gina B.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Communication in public health—Philippines; Health risk communication—Philippines; COVID-19 (Disease)—Information services; Linguistic analysis (Linguistics); Health Communication
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11114
• Institution: De La Salle University

Different fields have provided empirical evidence that infographics are very useful in sharing complex information to the public. Covid-19 infographics as mode of communicating health information to the public are examples of linguistic landscape. For infographics to serve their purpose, studies showed that content and design should be organized and well-planned (Balkac & Ergun, 2018; Caron et al., 2018; Yarbrough, 2019). This paper aims to identify the linguistic and cultural features of thirty-one (31) Covid-19 infographics found on official government websites and official social media platforms of the Philippines. Based on the results, Philippine infographics’ organizational patterns employed numbers, arrows, bullet form images, and boxes to illustrate order, sequence and coherence. Another is that Philippine infographics’ diction utilized the first and second pronouns on health advisories, while the third person point of view was evident on business protocols. Lastly are the cultural features of Philippine infographics which reflect that socioeconomic gap is present based on the language accessibility. The study recommends that health infographics should provide concise information by ensuring effective, organized and well-planned content. Also, the Philippine government should provide more access by utilizing both Filipino and English languages in all the Covid-19 infographics. Key Words: Covid-19; semiotics; multimodality; linguistic landscape; infographics