Visual narratives of disaster: a study of communication pragmatics and multimodality in the discourse of the sumatran flash floods

Abstract The hydrometeorological disaster that struck Sumatra, Indonesia in late November 2025 exposed not only ecological vulnerability but also a communication crisis. Amid the collapse of infrastructure, social media emerged as the primary arena for documenting loss, negotiating truth, and mobilizing aid. This study investigates how citizens employed digital platforms to construct meaning and to engage in resistance through multimodal communication. Drawing on speech act theory (Austin, J. L. 1962. How to do things with words . Oxford University Press; Searle, J. R. 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language . Cambridge University Press) and the grammar of visual design (Kress, G. & T. van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading images: The grammar of visual design , 2nd edn. Routledge), this research adopts a descriptive qualitative approach to analyze multimodal cybertexts from Instagram, TikTok and websites. The analysis identifies three dominant multimodal pragmatic patterns: forensic assertiveness, in which photographs and satellite imagery serve as visual “evidence” to contest official narratives and expose deforestation; emotional expressiveness, where religious resignation gradually transforms into political anger over perceived neglect and inequality in disaster response; and resistance directively, where citizens employ pseudo-directive and satirical formats. The research finds that modern disaster communication is no longer linear or state-driven; instead, it is dialogical, multimodal, and algorithmically mediated, where meaning, emotion, and power come together. This research contributes to advancing eco-pragmatics and digital discourse studies in understanding citizen agency within networked crisis communication.