COMM2910:

Communication
Research Methods
S E M I N A R: V I S U A L A P P R OAC H E S T O M E D I A & C O M M U N I C AT I O N
19/03/2020
O ffi c e h o u r s : T h u r s d a y 3 - 4 p m
Objectives
oWhy we study visual meaning
oApproaches and methods
oVisual Analysis Practice
 Why study visual meaning?
Visual images are very powerful in that they have a long, enduring effect (van Leeuwen, 2014).
Visuals have ideological potential (On gender, race, class, stereotypes,etc.)
“ideology is most effective when its workings are least visible” (Fairclough,1989:85)
Meanings can be communicated ‘under the radar’.
Visuals can communicate discourses
Discourse: “ways of seeing the world” (Sunderland, 2004:6).
Societal beliefs, norms and practices are shaped by discourses, and discourses are multimodal.
Contemporary communication is multimodal and increasingly so (van Leeuween, 2014)
Media texts are no different
Important points to note about
visuals
Images originally believed to mirror reality but in practice may not (can be staged)
Images are seen to have truth value/evidential quality (Price, 2004); we believe what they
show us as the truth.
Images are polysemic
Meanings are derived based on an interpreter's cultural knowledge although conventional visual
codes/ meanings also exist
 Different approaches
• Semiotics (Barthes, 1964/1977)
– focus on text and its internal structures (codes)

• Rhetoric (Finnegan, 2008)

– focus on relationship between texts and publics (persuasion)

• Cultural Studies (Hall, 1997)

– focus on context(s) pertaining to social life of texts (power)

Social Semiotics (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006)

– focus on how texts ‘act’ in society (resources)
What can you study?
Production (image-makers, industries, genres)
The image itself (visual content/text)
Circulation (platforms, technologies)
Audiencing (visual reception/renegotiation)
What about recontextualization? (uses, transformations)

The method to adopt depends on research and data sample

Key stages of visual analysis
1) Descriptive

Identify and outline major visual patterns and features contained in the textual data.

2) Interpretive

Examine how given meanings become established by situating an analysis of visual cues in contextual evidence rooted in
history, production, circulation, use, reception, etc.

3) Critical

Relate key visual patterns and features to the economies, politics and overall power relations (or at least socio-economic
or socio-historical dimensions) that appear to frame and shape the images and practices under study.
TASK
Find an image from popular culture (can be from Instagram, advertising, news, etc.) and apply
the method of visual discourse analysis on it.  What do the different approaches tell us about
the meaning of the image and the choices made by its creator? Be prepared to share and
discuss your chosen image in virtual seminar groups this week.
 Visual analysis
Denotation: description of what is pictured.
Connotation: meaning of what is pictured, also in relation to broader ideas in the world.
Who is photographed?
Angle (low, high, eye level-can answer questions on power relations)
Distance ( Close/ medium or long shot- can answer questions on social relationship)
Do the subjects look directly at us (gaze)?
What insights into the personality are offered?
Does the shot appear posed for the camera?
What kind of behaviour is depicted (facial expression, gesture, etc.)?
Does the photograph elicit an emotional reaction from us? If so, how?
Does the photo work compositionally to draw our eyes to a particular feature or person through size, colour or other emphasis?
What/ who is excluded?
References
Van Leeuwen, T. (2014). Critical Discourse Analysis and Multimodality. In Hart, C., & Cap, Piotr.
(2014). Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. London; New York: E. Arnold.
Sunderland, J., 2004. Gendered discourses. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Price, D, (2004) Chapter 1: Thinking about Photography. FROM: Wells, Liz, Photography: A critical
introduction , 3rd edition. pp.11-63. London: Routledge.
http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/
http://lib.leeds.ac.uk/record=b3442914~S5
http://lib.leeds.ac.uk/record=b3577809~S5
http://lib.leeds.ac.uk/record=b2679986~S5
Next week
Content Analysis
Lecture: Monday 25th March
Seminar: Thursday 28th March
Read:
Bryman, Alan, (2015) Chapter 13. FROM: Bryman, Alan, Social Research Methods , 5th ed.
pp.288-310. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Graham, T., D. Jackson, and S. Wright. 2016. We need to get together and make ourselves heard:
everyday online spaces as incubators of political action. Information, Communication & Society
19(10): 1373–89.