Multimodal Voice and Media Convergence in Les Misérables (2019): A Social Semiotic Analysis of Intra-Diegetic Digital Recordings

This study examines Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables (2019) through the lens of social semiotics and multimodal analysis, focusing on how digital recordings such as handheld phones, drones, memory cards, and social media footage construct voice, agency, and ethical engagement within the film’s narrative. Employing close textual and multimodal analysis of eleven key scenes, the research treats recorded footage as semiotic texts that integrate linguistic, visual, auditory, gestural, and technological modes. Findings reveal that digital media function as active participants in the diegesis rather than passive recording devices, enabling marginalized characters to assert authority, negotiate narrative control, and challenge institutional power. The study further demonstrates that the intra-diegetic circulation of footage reshapes storytelling by transforming recordings from observation into evidence, leverage, accusation, and potential accountability. In this process, voice is shown to be distributed across speech, image, gesture, framing, and technological mediation rather than being limited to verbal expression. By situating these dynamics within frameworks of media convergence, Digital Humanities, and multimodal social semiotics, the paper highlights the interplay of technology, narrative, and social accountability. It argues that Les Misérables presents digital media as ethically charged semiotic agents that reconfigure contemporary cinematic representations of agency, resistance, and justice.