A COMPARATIVE MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PUNJAB COLLEGE ACTIVISM: FRAMING, PROTEST NARRATIVES, AND INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE ON INSTAGRAM

Abstract

This research is a case study that focuses on how student activists and institutional forces used social media to construct public narratives during the Punjab College incident (2024). Drawing on Framing Theory (Goffman, 1974); Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996), it analyzes ten activist posts and two posts of official statements from two social media platforms: X and Instagram. Activists referred to emotionally charged language, protest imagery, and hashtags for framing the incident as systemic injustice and evoking solidarity. Institutional responses, in contrast, utilized formal branding, denial, and procedural language in order to construct the event as misinformation and to facilitate reputation management. The findings are a clear indication of how powerful multimodal protest is in opposing institutional authority and how transparent and empathetic communication by educational institutions is significant. This research helps to develop an understanding of digital activism and institutional discourse in a Pakistani context.