Visual Rhetoric Analysis of Covid-19 Health Protocol in Indonesia

Abstract

For more than a year, residents in Indonesia have experienced difficult situations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, life did not run normally, and change was inevitable. One of the change most felt was the establishment of the Covid-19 health protocol consisting of 5M, 3T, and lockdown. These health protocol campaigns could be found all around us, everything became signs that have been communicated and perceived through language. Langue, a social product that is closely related to the speech communities in Indonesia. This langue leads to parole, how speech acts are used in their daily practice. This study examines on how does langue manifest to parole and how does the langue-parole of Covid-19 health protocol encounter with intersectionality. The object of study is visual rhetoric stored in online news and on social media from March 2020 until July 2021. The research method used here is mixing method which complies three specific sites, they are the site of production, site of the image, and site of audience. This study uses theories of visual rhetoric, speech code, and langue-parole. The results are that health protocol socialization as visual rhetoric being utilized to persuade the public to obey the rule, visual rhetoric defines the language as a system because it also explains the proof of logos, ethos, and pathos. Langue has also transformed during pandemic when speech communities make a strategy to code-switch their language. Meanwhile parole defines the language in practice, parole can be culturally distinctive or socially adapted.