Search

• 78% of digital, multimodal videos in the data-set use mediated focalisation. • Mediated focalisation symbolically unites viewer and video composer. • This framing technique reflects trends in online STEM-subject educational videos. • Suggestive of a new, more imitable and authentic way of performing professionalism. In 2019–2020, students of two English for Architects and Civil Engineers courses at a German university were tasked with creating a digital, multimodal video composition explaining a technical concept to a lay audience. The resultant multimodal artefacts, however, often did not exhibit typical semiotic patterns associated with explaining or describing in science-related disciplines. In particular, 78% of artefacts featured 'mediated focalisation', a framing technique used to align the composer with their audience and more commonly associated with fictional narrative or social media. The paper describes how this framing technique appeared in the artefacts and explores how and to what effect it was used. It will unpack the implications of using this technique for the performance of professionalism and 'authenticity' in architecture and STEM communication. A subsystem of mediated focalisation techniques and a new 'coding orientation' will be proposed, so that educators may better prepare students for these emergent shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]