Interactive meaning of visual images in Da Nang city tourism discourses on some Vietnamese websites

Abstract

This article studies the interactive meaning of visual images in Danang tourism discourse from the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis. This research direction assumes that images, language, music... are all sources of meaning. The analytical data are images collected from a number of Vietnamese websites by three media subjects, including the local tourism management agency, the central media agency, and the travel agency. The content of this study is based on the image analysis framework of Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen. The results show that there is an imaginary interaction between the participants in the visual image and the viewers through the image research criteria such as the gaze, the size of frame and shooting angle of the participants (human, animal, place… etc.). These criteria show not only the connection, social distance and attitude of the participants in the images towards the viewers, but also the different intentions of the media subjects: The offer images in the tourism discourse invite not only viewers to participate in tourism activities but also expect viewers to witness the activities of the participants in the visual images; the shooting distance (size of frame) represents not only the social distance, but also the purpose of emphasizing the details of the participants or providing the entire context of the participants' appearance in the visual image; the shooting angle (horizontal and vertical) not only shows the attitude or power of the participants in the images to the viewers, but also to emphasize the special details of the participants in these images. Therefore, depending on their purposes, media subjects need to enhance visual images with different criteria about the gaze, the size of frame and shooting angle of participants in the images in the tourism discourses in Da Nang city on Vietnamese websites in order to improve communicational efficiency of these visual images about tourism in this city on those websites in the future.