A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of the Online Brand Identity Construction of National Museums

The national museum of a country, as a cultural symbol of the nation, plays an important role in cultural communication at home and abroad. This study explores the online brand identity construction of two national museums—the British Museum and the National Museum of China—to inform cultural brands of the discursive strategies to distinguish themselves from others and communicate with their audiences effectively. Informed by multimodal critical discourse analysis, this paper analyzes the websites of the two museums and their social media posts, depicts their brand identity prisms, and evaluates the effectiveness of their online communication. The results show that both museums use multimodal and hypertextual resources to create unique and congruent brand images in website design and social media interaction with their target audiences, fulfilling the institutional functions of museums as the symbol of national culture or world civilization. They express differential personalities and cultural values to reinforce their brand identities in different sociocultural and political contexts. The findings may provide insight into the use of multimodality in online communication for cultural institutions to enhance their brand images and promote cultural exchanges.