Verbivocovisuality and Technographism in Technodiscursive Practices

The Construction of Meaning on Instagram

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze the construction of meaning in Instagram posts through the use of technographism (a verbo- iconic composite characteristic of native digital productions). Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Mitchell, Santaella, Brait, Paula, and Paveau, it discusses the integration of verbal, visual, and auditory dimensions into a material visual enunciation that redefines modes of textual production in the digital environment. Using a qualitative methodology and a descriptive-interpretative approach, ten posts were selected and analyzed. These posts were related to the racist attacks suffered by the football player Vinícius Júnior and were affiliated through the activist hashtag #racistasnãopassarão, focusing on the technolinguistic resources employed in the discursive construction of anti-racist cyberactivism. The results revealed the frequent use of practices such as textual incrustation, image manipulation, and sound insertion, producing a plurisemiotic discourse that enhances both the meaning effects and the persuasive power of the analyzed publications. The study shows that technographism, by articulating linguistic and technological aspects, reveals the plasticity of digital productions and challenges analytical perspectives based on the separation of semiotic codes. By considering the verbivocovisual tridimensionality of utterances, the research proposes an integrated perception of technolinguistic materialities. It concludes that technographism has become a central technodiscursive practice on the social network Instagram, contributing to the construction of new meaning effects and to the strengthening of social movements such as anti-racist cyberactivism within the digital ecosystem.