Visualizing the unseen: Depicting the abstract in German media

Abstract

In my paper, I will combine two methods of media discourse analysis in order to achieve new insights into not only power relations inherent in texts, but also into the manner in which collective memory is constituted. Firstly, I will critically examine the social semiotic method of qualitative multimodal discourse analysis developed by Theo Van Leeuwen and Gunther Kress as a resource for describing how verbal semiotic modes, together with mixed linguistic/nonlinguistic modes, are used to establish and confirm power relations within pluricoded texts. Secondly, I will investigate the practicability of applying the concept of Key Visuals/Key Invisibles, postulated by Peter Ludes and Stefan Kramer, to multimodal compositions in order to gain a sociological and cultural understanding of the means by which certain content becomes part of collective memory and how it is manipulated. In this way, I hope to determine if an operationalization of Key Visual/Key Invisible is possible in order to view its associative potential as a semiotic resource. I will apply this methodological device to video sequences of German news releases reporting on bonus payments to top bank managers during the world economic crisis in 2008. Thereby, I will examine if the discourse generated by these reports is characterized by a highly negative representation of managers: the news releases seem to hold them responsible for the economic crisis instead of investigating its causes. I will analyze which devices are used in the accusation of the managers and will attempt to determine if there are Key Visuals/ Key Invisibles used to this end. If this is the case, I will analyze their use within the context of the truth imperative of journalistic reporting. In this section, I will focus on the connection between mediated content and the possibilities of depicting or recording the unseen processes of bonus payment. ©2012 QSR Volume VIII Issue 2.