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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 17:1 (2018) ► pp.46–69

Semiotic engineering in Singapore

National Courtesy Campaign posters in aid of nation-building

| National Institute of Education
| National Institute of Education

National campaigns are an extension of governance that aim to subliminally (re)align a society to a country’s nation-building objectives or ideals. They are carefully curated government projects that are heavily invested in the dissemination and reinforcement of nation-building ideologies. This paper has focused its research on the National Courtesy Campaign, which was launched at a time when the ‘Asian values’ discourse dominated much of Singapore’s statal narratives. Although not overtly marketed as part of the ‘Asianizing’ Singapore movement, posters of the National Courtesy Campaign were found to be sites in which ideologies that informed the ‘Asianizing’ Singapore movement were reproduced. This paper explores the micro-communication strategies employed for the dissemination of these nation-building ideologies.

Keywords: semiotic engineering, nation-building ideology, ideology dissemination, national campaigns, micro-communication strategies
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.2Why Singapore?
    • 1.3The national courtesy campaign
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Campaign posters as ideological sites
    • 2.2The interactional aspects of a poster
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Data analysis and discussion
    • 4.11984
    • 4.21985
    • 4.31986
      • Set 1
      • Set 2
      • Set 3
      • Set 4
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 3 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.16029.yeo
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