COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITY WEBSITES IN PAKISTAN: A MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE EXAMINATION OF ONLINE ACADEMIC REPRESENTATION

Abstract

Websites are important communication tools regarding university credibility in academics, institutional identity, as well as values in the digital era. This paper looks at four Pakistani universities ( two public  Kinnaird College of Women,Punjab University, and two private universities  LUMS and the University of Lahore) in a Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) of how they construct their identities and perform these identities on their official websites. The article looks into textual, visual, and compositional aspects text such as layout, colour, images, and interactive objects by adopting a socio-semiotic position. As indicated by the discovery, we can conclude that public and private sector institutions differ in the way they digitally represent themselves: a priority of innovation, globality, and interactivity is observed in the case of private universities, whereas tradition, authority, and heritage are emphasised in the case of public universities. Despite all these disparities, significant multimodal elements are used intentionally in all the institutions in order to address perceptual issues, communicate with users, and convey academic ideas.