Three Dimensionality

Abstract

Visual critics interested in news primarily analyze still photographs in print media. Thus, the questions of how images in television news are contextualized, complemented, displaced, explained, or contradicted by the auditory channel and linguistic messages on the screen have not been studied extensively. Based on an exploratory content analysis of CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, the author categorizes the interplay between the three modes of information transmission in the broadcast news: moving footage (iconic messages), on-screen textual elements (linguistic messages), and voiceover (audio messages). The analysis identifies six organizing categories: (1) polysemy reduction, (2) meaning attainment through audio, (3) reinforcement, (4) contextualization and acquiring meaning, (5) contradiction, and (6) slogano-symbolism. These categories provide an interpretative framework for visual analyses of television news and offer new directions for research.

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