A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of TED-Ed Medical Popular Science Videos

In medical popular science communication, the dissemination of knowledge more and more employs multimodal discourse instead of just relying on textual descriptions and verbal explanations. However, the research in medical popular science videos has long been overlooked. This research selects the medical science video series titled Know Your Body from TED-Ed platform as the research subject, which has 12 episodes. These videos cover a wide range of topics with strong scientific validity, encompassing multiple disciplines such as physiology, immunology and disease prevention. They are presented in a multimodal manner, combining animation, narration, text, and sound effects, and are typical representatives of TED-Ed’s multimodal science communication. Based on Zhang Delu’s multimodal discourse analysis theory, this research uses the Elan software to analyze the multimodal discourse construction of these videos. The study finds that the relationship between animation, language, and images is mainly complementary, with language conveying core information and images serving as supplements or emphasis. Complementary-non-enhancement relationship and non-complementary relationship are not common in these videos. They usually play a transitional role, helping audience to make associations and think more comprehensively. The research findings can give theoretical and practical guidance in making multimodal videos for medical science popularization.