Credibility in corporate testimonial videos: Addressed from a combined interactional and multimodal semiotic perspective

Abstract

The article reports a study of corporate testimonial videos from a Danish tech SME. The aim of the study is to show how combining Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis (EMCA) and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) may provide new insight into the persuasive appeal of corporate testimonial videos. The study uses EMCA to demonstrate how participants interactionally construct a position of credibility and authenticity from which to deliver the recommendation. It uses MCDA to show how the interaction is integrated into a larger set of multimodally constructed meanings with a specific strategic communicative purpose, specifically how visual and editorial choices contribute to the credibility of the videos by creating a sense that viewers are watching a spontaneous (online) conversation rather than a staged corporate video. The article concludes that the videos construct credibility by providing access to a curated backstage region which viewers are invited to understand as ‘authentic’ and ‘unedited’.