MULTIMODAL CASCADE: COGNITIVE-PRAGMATIC MODEL OF MEANING-MAKING IN NEWS VIDEO DISCOURSE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/folium/2026.9.19Keywords:
cognitive pragmatics, force dynamic, immigration, meaning-making, multimodal cascade, multimodal communication, news video discourseAbstract
This article introduces the concept of the multimodal cascade as a cognitive-pragmatic model of meaning-making in news video discourse. The proposed model addresses the lack of an analytical framework capable of explaining the dynamic processes of meaning-making that unfold over the temporal progression of multimodal news narratives. The study aims to provide a theoretical foundation for the multimodal cascade by identifying its structural components, basic properties, and regularities. The methodological framework integrates Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, Talmy’s Force Dynamics theory, and a cognitive-pragmatic approach. The multimodal cascade is characterized by four properties: temporality, recursivity, cumulativity, and the capacity to reconfigure causality and agency. The model comprises three interrelated analytical dimensions – temporal organization, multimodal interaction, and force dynamics, whose integrated analysis explains the mechanisms underlying the redistribution of agency and causality. Critical Discourse Analysis explains the interpretation of how these processes acquire ideological legitimacy. The empirical material consists of 28 CBS News videos (2025–2026) covering immigration enforcement in the USA. The findings demonstrate that the multimodal cascade operates through four successive phases: event trigger, agency attribution, consequence expansion, and interpretive stabilization. The transition between phases is determined by shifts in the cognitive-pragmatic function of the multimodal configuration. Each successive phase reconfigures agency and force relations by retrospectively reinterpreting the outcomes of the preceding stage. Corpus analysis confirms the invariance of the functional structure of the multimodal cascade regardless of variations in the semiotic resources employed. Verbal, visual, and auditory resources form multimodal configurations in which each mode complements, specifies, or reinforces the others. Their temporally organized interaction ensures the progressive reconfiguration of force relations and the construction of a normative interpretation of the reported event. The proposed model extends existing approaches to the process-oriented explanation of the meaning-making mechanisms in video discourse.
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