This study examines the promotional posters of the American Horror Story
television series that aired from 2011 to 2024 using Multimodal Discourse
Analysis (MDA) in representational meaning based on the theory of Kress and
Van Leeuween. The purpose of this study is to determine how linguistic and
visual elements are represented in the promotional posters of the American Horror
Story TV series, also to understand the visual elements and linguistic elements
that build the representational meaning of the promotional posters of the
American Horror Story TV series. The approach used in this study is descriptive
qualitative. The data taken are promotional posters of twelve seasons of the
American Horror Story TV series from the Internet Movie Poster Awards website.
To collect data, the researcher used the observation method. Therefore, the
researcher looked for data that was in accordance with the theory categorization
and downloaded it from the internet. The total data used was 12 posters. The
results of this study found that the visual elements in the posters build
representational meaning through various semiotic sources including images,
colors, symbols, and layouts. While linguistic elements contribute to the creation
of meaning using headlines, titles, font styles, sizes, and references. Posters can be
analyzed to see how these elements build representational meaning through
participant analysis, processes, and circumstances. This research found that from
12 promotional posters for the TV series American Horror Story contained 17
participants consisting of 11 human figures and 6 non-human figures, as well as
12 activity performance processes supported by circumstances that corresponded
to the storyline in each season of the poster.