VISUAL, DIGITAL, AND CRITICAL LITERACY IN STREAMING FILM POSTERS: A MULTIMODAL PERSPECTIVE ON NETFLIX ORIGINALS

Abstract

Promotional posters on video on demand platforms are often viewed casually, as if they were nothing more than decorative previews of a film. Looking at such posters only at the level of what they literally depict may limit viewer’s understanding of how meaning is constructed and how commercial interests are embedded within them. This article examines how three promotional poster variants for the Netflix original film Leave the World Behind (2023) function as multimodal texts that demand visual, digital, and critical literacy. The analysis draws on Kress and van Leeuwen’s multimodal social semiotics, focusing on the representational, interactive, and compositional metafunctions, and connects these categories to research on algorithmic curation and critical media literacy. The findings show that each poster variant constructs a distinct visual argument about the same film text: one foregrounds symbolic environmental anomaly, one foregrounds star power and social division, and one foregrounds literary prestige. These differences are not accidental but correspond to platform strategies of personalization and A/B testing. The study therefore argues that streaming thumbnails should be treated as persuasive semiotic systems rather than neutral illustrations, and that interpreting them requires an integrated literacy that combines visual decoding, digital awareness, and critical reflection.