Multimodal framing devices in European online news

Abstract

This paper presents a multimodal, cross-cultural analysis of the most salient framing devices in on-line news about the US Embassy relocation to Jerusalem and subsequent revolts in Gaza Strip in May 2018. Drawing from a socio-cognitive and critical approach to discourse analysis, a sample of newsbites published in different online mainstream European newspapers were analysed. Findings unveil a distinctive set of multimodal devices grouped around four categories -subject choice, composition, distance and point of view, that appear indistinctively in both visual and textual modes. These are used by newsmakers to create and manage communities of shared values about the issues reported. Also, interesting differences among newspapers were found in the context of European media discourse when dealing with these events.