TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF HYBRIDITY IN PAKISTANI LIFESTYLE VLOGGING: A MULTIMODAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

The current study examines the creation of hybrid cultural identities among Pakistani lifestyle vloggers in a multimodal and longitudinal perspective. It examines the digital creators and the process of negotiating their identities and performing within various stages of content creation through visual analysis. The study takes a qualitative perspective that involves multimodal discourse analysis patterns including the semiotic theory of Kress and van Leeuwen. Followed by purposive sampling, data includes three vloggers at different stages of their careers to make it was evident that there was a temporal pattern to identity performance, who moved out of culturally affiliated domestic narratives to worldly inclined digital identities. Multimodal analysis reveals that vloggers combine the traditional aspects of aesthetics (including familial relations and local clothing) with the modern, internationally recognisable imagery (including branded products and advert-potional framing). These factors show that identity on digital media cannot be regarded as stable and is shifting with changes based on technological drifts and penetration, audience participation and monetisation dynamics. The study adds depth to a broader recognition of the cultural hybridity working in the digital environment of South Asia and finds out that lifestyle vlogging serves as the moving platform of self-representation and cultural negotiation.