Multimedia and multimodal narratives
in the field of migration and refugees

According to the IOM, the number of international migrants in the world is around 272 million, two-thirds of whom are migrant workers. This reality already surpasses projections made for the year 2050, which predicted 230 million international migrants worldwide. The phenomenon of human migration is undeniably a complex contemporary issue. Many factors, motivations, and elements of different kinds (emotional, social, economic, political, environmental, etc.) act within the chaotic system of the world. This complexity is perceived when we observe the growing number of research studies dedicated to investigating international migration. The overall objective of this project is to analyze constitutive phenomena of multimedia and multimodal narratives about migration and refuge. To this end, we intend to (a) create a database of narratives in audiovisual language that thematize migration and refuge as human experiences; (b) identify phenomena of a pedagogical, semiotic, linguistic-discursive, and ideological nature inherent to the respective set of narratives; (c) to analyze the common experiences (re)lived and (re)told by the participants; (d) to recognize the digital languages and technologies used by the participants in their daily lives; (e) to build an open and free online environment to host and disseminate the narrative bank; (f) to identify difficulties and obstacles faced by participants in the use of digital languages and technologies; (g) to analyze, from different theoretical and methodological perspectives, strategies used by participants to deal with and/or overcome problems; (h) to promote spaces for meta-reflection on the participants' experiences in the process. The narratives will be generated in various digital media (audio recordings, videos, photographs, etc.) considering their multiplicity of semiotic modes (verbal, visual, sound, etc.). One of the specific objectives of the project is the construction of a narrative repository, an open and free online environment to host and disseminate the sets of multimedia and multimodal narratives.

 

Coordinators:

Ronaldo Corrêa Gomes Junior (Federal University of Minas Gerais)

Sandra Maria Silva Cavalcante (Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais)