Understanding thumbnails: discursive and visual analysis on youtube

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1807-9288.2025.e108612

Keywords:

thumbnails, Systemic-Functional Linguistics, Visual Design Grammar, Multimodality

Abstract

Technological advances have led to the emergence of social media and digital video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, giving rise to new textual genres adapted to the online environment. Among them, thumbnails stand out as strategic visual elements designed to attract viewers’ attention and increase video visibility. Together with video titles, thumbnails display distinctive linguistic and visual features, enhanced by editing tools and graphic design technologies, making them central to YouTube’s communicative dynamics. This study aims to analyze the compositional and discursive aspects of the thumbnail genre, with emphasis on its persuasive potential. The research is theoretically grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics, Visual Design Grammar, Internet Linguistics, Multimodality, and Generic Structure Potential. The corpus consists of 45 thumbnails and titles collected in May 2025 from YouTube’s “trending” section. The analysis investigates how these elements function as multimodal genres, identifies predominant linguistic and visual patterns, and explores their communicative function. Findings indicate a prevalence of titles with specific linguistic constructions across different video categories, combined with thumbnails featuring centralized images and strong color contrast, maximizing visibility and click appeal. Emotional appeals and multimodal resources reinforcing bait strategies—such as promises of novelty, exclusivity, and curiosity – were also frequently observed.

Author Biographies

Ulisses Tadeu Vaz de Oliveira, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul

Ulisses Oliveira pós-doutorado no Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM) - Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Doutor em Linguística Aplicada e Estudos da Linguagem pela PUC-São Paulo. Trabalha na UFMS (Brasil) ensinando inglês e linguística (graduação e pós-graduação). Pesquisa: (a) TIC (aprendizado misto e em tandem); (b) Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional - estudos integrados de literatura e linguística (transitividade, persuasão e ideologia); e (c) Filologia Portuguesa e literatura comparada.

Geovana Pin Serion, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul

Tem experiência na área de Letras, com ênfase em Línguas Estrangeiras Modernas. Participou do evento Integra UFMS de 2023 apresentando seu trabalho de pesquisa do programa PIBIC intitulado "O SUBESQUEMA [V_QUE] NA REDE CONSTRUCIONAL DOS CONECTORES CONDICIONAIS NOS SÉCULOS XVI E XVII". Foi bolsista PIBIC pela FUNDECT orientada pelo professor Ulisses Vaz de Oliveira com o projeto de pesquisa "ANÁLISE LINGUÍSTICA E IMPACTOS SOCIAIS DOS CLICKBAITS: UMA INVESTIGAÇÃO SOBRE ESTRATÉGIAS DE ENGAJAMENTO DIGITAL", e está no último semestre do curso de Letras Português/Inglês na UFMS.

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Published

2026-01-07

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 2 (2025): Literatura digital na América Latina

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2025 Ulisses Tadeu Vaz De Oliveira, Geovana Pin Serion

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