Representing Women’s Readiness for Marriage on TikTok: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of @nmaliccaa

Abstract

The growing emphasis on personal autonomy and individual preparedness has reshaped how women’s readiness for marriage is discussed in contemporary digital culture. TikTok provides a multimodal communication space in which ideas about marriage are constructed through the interaction of language, on-screen text, audio, and visual expressions. This study examines how women’s readiness for marriage is represented in TikTok content published by @nmaliccaa (Nashatra Malicca). It focuses on two videos addressing women’s financial independence and the considerations involved in selecting a life partner. Employing a qualitative approach within a constructivist-interpretive paradigm, this study applies multimodal discourse analysis, drawing primarily on Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar framework. Data are collected through non-participant digital observation and documentation, including audiovisual recordings, screenshots, and verbal transcripts. The analysis identifies four semiotic modes: verbal language, on-screen text, audio, and visual-gestural elements. It then examines how these modes reinforce, complement, or contrast with one another in constructing representations of marital readiness. The visual analysis considers representational, interactive, and compositional meanings, while verbal and audio elements are interpreted according to their observable characteristics. By focusing on two videos from a single creator, this study aims to contribute to multimodal communication research by explaining how women’s financial autonomy and partner-selection considerations are represented as dimensions of readiness for marriage in Indonesian digital culture.