Methodologies for multimodal research
Guest editor Jana Holsanova
Special issue Visual communication August 2012: 11 (3)
"The latest Visual Communication special issue on 'Methodologies for Multimodal Research' opens up the field to an exciting range of methods and technologies and demonstrates the power of visual research across a wide range of contexts including health, news, and online advertising"
Carey Jewitt, editor Visual communication, Sage
Table of contentsThe current special issue is focusing on novel methods and tools for the analysis of visual communication and multimodality. It comprises a set of six papers and a book review and brings together international researchers from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, United States and Singapore representing various disciplines: communication and media studies, social semiotics, cognitive science, educational psychology, health studies and visual communication.The papers cover and integrate a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches to visual communication and multimodality and use an interdisciplinary framework and triangulation of methods. The methods include content analysis, social semiotic analysis, eye tracking measurements – in combination with think aloud protocols and retrospective interviews –, as well as iconology and psychophysiological real time measurements. The respective approaches are exemplified through detailed analyses of a variety of materials, including press photography, art, multimodal health education materials, Power Point presentations, Internet advertisements and TV media discussions.