semiotic study of social distance and contact in Natalie Tjota's American pictorial story

The study investigates the social semiotics of contact employed by Natalie Tjota in her pictorial story "Berry Bunny Learns about COVID-19" which is taken from the internet website of the New York City School Library System. That is achieved by following Kress and van Leeuween (2006). It aims at discovering the effect of social distance on human behavior. Besides, it tests the impact of social distance on mood and emotions. In accordance with these aims, it hypothesizes that social distance can play an important role in conveying information, creating certain moods, and even influencing the decisions people make. The findings of the analysis validate the hypotheses of the study.