Visual Discourse Analysis Research Articles

Media Representation of Male Protagonists in Thai Boy Love Commercials: A Visual Discourse Analysis

The media portrayal of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community may impact public understanding and attitudes towards this community, which has not been extensively studied. This article explores the media representation of gay men in commercials by presenting a visual discourse analysis of three Thai Boy Love commercials. Combining the visual representation framework of social actors and genre and functionality analysis, it examines (a) how the male protagonists are visually represented in relation to the audience from three symbolic dimensions and (b) how the salient patterns of presenting boy love commercials are integrated with the story’s narrative stages and genre functions. The findings suggest that the boys are primarily portrayed positively as inclusive, close, agentive and ordinary social members who feature soft masculinity. Nevertheless, such a generic and idealised representation romanticises gay relationships, diminishes the individuality of gay people and obscures the diversity within the gay community. The portrayal also prioritises the female gaze to cater to the core audience of heterosexual young women consumers. This article provides insights into the reciprocal relationship between public receptivity towards the LGBTQ community and their favourable visual representations in commercials.

Symbols of a new nation: Ghanaian artists’ expression of cultural identity after independence

ABSTRACT The paper discusses the way Ghanaian visual artists Atta Kwami, Kane Kwei, and Saka Acquaye, used the art to express and narrate the cultural identity during the one decade of independence of Ghana (1957). Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country which got independence from British colonialism. Besides, the nation wanted to promote the pan-Africanist dream of a new African people. But, the country faced a colonial and traditional dilemma. The research uses the archival method and visual discourse analysis as the main methodological instrument to examine the way artists used traditional symbols from African art, like Adinkra, to modern art by mixing plural personalities. The artworks they created were empowered themselves and allowed a collective story to be told of Ghanaian culture’s recovery, self-sufficiency, and the togetherness of the country. The study shows how these artists applied art as a significant catalyst in the process of nation-building and the creation of a new culture by getting rid of the misconceptions about the negative effects of colonialism on the cultural situation. Their art forms became semiotic kits for the beginning of cultural self-organization through the coherent state of Ghana.

Unearthing a hidden curriculum of gendered museum languages through critical feminist visual discourse analysis

ABSTRACT This article explores the hidden gendered curriculum concealed in the texts, exhibitions and other structural devices of museums and what they teach visitors to see and think. Grounded in conceptualisations of culture, representation, and language, past feminist studies of museums and applying feminist visual discourse analysis (FVDA) we found hiding in plain sight in public museums in Canada and England a diversity of ‘languages’ that subversively aggrandised masculine power and privilege and (re)inscribed negative or limited understandings to women which we argue as feminist adult educators have epistemic, identity and agency consequences. We also argue that whilst museums are trying to address often centuries old exclusionary gendered practices progress is slow because these practices are so embedded and unconscious and reflect pervasive social notions of ‘common sense’. Our study makes an important contribution to feminist museum studies by rendering visible a web of complex structural and textual gendered biases and to adult education. By adding museums to our curricula we can provide our students with a visual and immersive way to hone the critical visual literacy skills needed to understand more fully how both seen and unseen languages operate not just in the museum, but across society.

Curating culture: Instagram and the visual representation of heritage tourism in Surabaya

This study investigates how Instagram shapes public engagement with cultural heritage through a case study in Surabaya, Indonesia. Surabaya possesses diverse assets; however, its tourism potential remains underexplored compared with established destinations such as Yogyakarta. Instagram offers opportunities to study how Surabaya’s identity is visually constructed and promoted to visitors. Through hashtag #surabayaheritage, users practice certain perspectives on the city’s multifaceted history. This study aims to investigate how Instagram shapes public engagement with cultural heritage through a case study of Surabaya, Indonesia. Specifically, this research examines how Surabaya's identity is visually constructed through the hashtag #surabayaheritage on Instagram. Employing both qualitative content analysis and critical visual discourse, this study examined 100 top Instagram posts, revealing that heritage discourse dominated the posts, with Dutch colonial buildings being the primary photographic subjects. The research findings also emphasise that while the historical discourse emphasises architectural details and educational history, it marginalises other aspects of cultural heritage, especially those that do not originate from the colonial era. By applying visual discourse analysis, this aestheticised selective gaze indicates the productive power of Instagram conventions in framing heritage sites. Further research should incorporate non-Instagram perspectives and spatial analysis. As heritage tourism expands globally, critical examination of social media discourse provides vital insights into the risks and opportunities for inclusive and sustainable development, particularly for local communities.

A Korean Sojourning Multilingual Child’s Diary as Translanguaging Spaces

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study delves into the diary entries of Jun, a second-grade Korean-English sojourner in the United States, to understand how his translanguaging practices contribute to his transnational identity formation. Through visual discourse analysis of nearly 100 diary entries that blend Korean and English texts with drawings, the study tracks the evolution of Jun’s bilingual narrative and identity expression. Interviews with Jun and his mother provide deeper insights into his linguistic development and the role of family in shaping his biliteracy. The findings reveal Jun’s strategic use of translanguaging as more than mere translation; it is an active construction of meaning and identity, demonstrating creativity and critical engagement with his environment. Jun’s diary becomes a translanguaging space where he navigates between languages and cultural norms, reflecting his position as a sojourner preparing for eventual reintegration into his homeland. The study emphasizes the significance of supporting sojourning children’s complex literate practices within home literacy environments, suggesting that educational systems should recognize and cultivate these translanguaging spaces for the benefit of multilingual children’s identity development and academic growth.

ALGORITHMS, AESTHETICS AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF CULTURAL CONSUMPTION ONLINE

This paper examines the development of digital subcultures and microtrends in a social media landscape increasingly driven by algorithms. We explore the increasing proliferation of subcultures defined by aesthetic categories which we refer to as “microtrends. In this paper we draw from a combined mixed-methods exploration– a visual discourse analysis taken in conjunction with critical technoculture analysis (CDTA) – of content shared to the popular hashtag #aesthetic across three different algorithmically driven social media platforms: TikTok, Instagram and Youtube. We aim to extend scholarship on digital subculture formation by examining the intersection of identity formation, algorithmic capitalism and user practices surrounding microtrends through the lens of user engagement and self identity guided by three central questions: (1) What tactics and practices constitute user participation in microtrends? (2) How does user engagement with microtrends function as an act of relational self expression? (3) What are user discourses surrounding microtrend participation? Three novel user practices are identified - aesthetic consistency, aesthetic anxiety, and aesthetic creation- which when taken together comprise of a process that we term “self-discretization” wherein users “do the work” of abstracting and fragmenting their identities for the sake of attaining visibility within a datafied digital environment. Ultimately this paper argues that in an increasingly algorithmic cultural landscape users begin to internalize not just the messaging, but also the logics of algorithmic capitalism and regimes of datafication.

A semiotic landscape analysis of the film posters: Parasite, Mother and Whiplash

The aim of this study is to discuss the film posters of Parasite, Mother and Whiplash through semiotic landscape. The analyses have been based on Halliday’s Functional Grammar (1985) and, Kress and van Leeuwen’s Visual grammar (2020). The film Parasite has been analysed within the actional and classificational processes, whereas the film Mother has been examined within the reactional and analytical processes and the film Whiplash has been investigated through the speech and mental processes, and the symbolic processes. The film posters have been also discussed in terms of the descriptive and connotative meanings, as well as the significance of colours in conveying emotions and cultural meanings. Besides, the widespread use of disguised symbols has been identified in film posters. This study sheds light on the influence of visual discourse analysis on film posters, emphasizing the study of semiotics and visual communication in a media-dominated society.

Traditional origins of populist political discourse in Türkiye: a visual discourse analysis on Erdoğan’s Instagram posts

ABSTRACT Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is recognized as one of the world’s populist politicians who are steadily increasing in number around the world. During Erdoğan’s 22 years in power, Türkiye first experienced a period of significant economic and democratic growth, which was then significantly reversed with the 2016 coup attempt and the presidential government system that Türkiye adopted based on a referendum. Simultaneously with this regression in Türkiye, the content and opportunities offered by social media applications have improved. Appropriately, politicians attach more importance to these platforms for political communication. Although the number of studies in the field of political communication is increasing, visual political communication is not being widely researched. Erdoğan’s Instagram posts are important examples of his populist political understanding within the scope of visual political communication. Hence, in this study, 242 image posts shared by Erdoğan via his Instagram account in 2022, which constitute a total of 685 photos due to Instagram’s feature of sharing multiple photos per post, were analyzed. It was found that Erdoğan made significant use of Instagram visuals in constructing his image as “one of the people” and as a tool to maintain his claim to masses that he was “one of them.”

Gender Bias Analysis and Right to Fight for Gender Equality in Education through the Children's Book “I AM KARTINI”

This study employs visual discourse analysis to reveal the visual elements within the children's book "I AM KARTINI." Its primary objective is to assess how the book conveys the interplay between gender and the pursuit of gender equality, particularly concerning education. The analysis reveals a both the promotion of Gender Equality and the presence of Gender Inequality. "I AM KARTINI" strongly advocates for Gender Equality, emphasizing the critical importance of granting women equal access to education. The book communicates the idea that numerous women recognize education's pivotal role in their lives and society as a whole, championing women's inherent right to the same opportunities enjoyed by men. However, the analysis also uncovers instances of Gender Inequality depicted in the book, connecting patriarchal culture within the Indonesian educational system. The book portrays stereotypes that restrict women to domestic roles, primarily centered on family and household responsibilities. This research highlights the critical importance of examining how gender is represented in children's literature. "I AM KARTINI" serves as a powerful instrument in this endeavor, advocating for gender equality while also highlighting the ongoing challenges related to gender bias and inequality within the Indonesian educational landscape. These findings emphasise the urgent need to recognize and address these issues to foster an inclusive educational environment where every individual has an equal opportunity to thrive.

Visual styles, hidden discourses

This article reports the findings of a study aimed at exploring the visual discourses at a Chilean education university. First, building on the classic ‘hidden curriculum’ and ‘school art style’ literature, it justifies the need to discuss how higher education institutions model the ways through which teachers-to-be comprehend and use visual resources. Second, the article presents the results of a critical visual methodology performed in the oldest education university in Chile. Through a visual discourse analysis of the experience of walking around the campus, it elaborates on the university’s visual styles comprising the themes, technologies and locations of artefacts. Third, it discusses the relationships between courtyard and hallway images loaded with critical motivations and classroom images portraying stereotyped and anachronistic views of childhood. The article concludes by urging to incorporate quality visual pedagogy orientations in teacher education.

Heir to the throne: photography and the rise to presidency by politicians in Zimbabwe and South Africa

Photographs are rarely given much academic attention, especially, in Africa. This is against the popular use of photography in political communication. Against this background, this study examines the use of photographs in communicating political power in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study will analyse photographs that circulated on Twitter on the week when Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South African assumed the power as Presidents of their respective countries in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Through the use of visual discourse analysis, as an analysis method, findings demonstrate that Mnangagwa and Ramaphosa were visually framed as the rightful heirs to the throne. The study further found that visual memories are used to ‘argue’ and make sense of the present. However, photography further evoked sad memories of the past that often characterise Mnangagwa and Ramaphosa’s political image and these are the ghosts of Gukurahundi and Marikana massacres, respectively.

Wordless Picturebooks as Resources for the Construction of the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies. The Case of Migrants, by Issa Watanabe

AbstractThis article presents the study of Migrants (2019), a wordless picturebook by Peruvian author Issa Watanabe, developed to answer the following research question: To what extent can this visual text become a resource for the learning of multiliteracies? A visual discourse analysis of the narrative was performed, focusing on the identification of key meanings and semiotic resources used in their visual construction. Our findings unveil the prominent role of semiotic resources such as anthropomorphism, vectors, colours, position and unboundedness of the page frame, in the visual realization of key meanings such as diversity, journeys, death, and empathy. Upon these findings, we present Migrants as an extraordinary literary text to initiate children in learning the visual mode, one of the multiple modes currently used in the representation of meaning. We discuss our findings with reference to the main question leading the study, the pedagogical conceptualizations endorsed by the multiliteracies theoretical framework and other relevant research. While the study suggests that wordless picturebooks are called to play a prominent role in the construction of the multiliteracies pedagogical agenda, it furthermore points to the potential of the pedagogy of multiliteracies in the conceptualization of literary pedagogy itself.

Fish stories between past and future: competing and complementary heritage imaginaries in the Northeast Adriatic

The article addresses the topic of coastal transformations through the lens of the critical heritage approach. It focuses on fish as a vehicle to assess how heritage as a particular type of imaginary and discourse conveys the social, cultural, political and economic transformations of the area. The two fish chosen to represent the heritage imaginaries in the Northeast Adriatic Bay of Piran are the wild mullet and farmed seabass. Both species are seen as local but each in its particular way. Mullet has acquired a local status by appearing annually in the Bay of Piran where local traditions developed around its catch. Farmed seabass became local through the process of domestication after it traversed large distances across the land to arrive in the Bay’s meshed cages. Through detailed ethnographies and textual and visual discourse analysis, the authors find an array of competing and complementary heritage imaginaries surrounding both fish. These imaginaries highlight frictions as a central part of the present-day life on the coast as well as unease about the future, and can be discerned in the tense relation between fishing and mariculture, the competing ideologies of the local, national and the global and the disappearance of previous ways of life in the face of rapid coastal transformation.

“Today, We Are All Ukrainians”—Visual Responses in Georgian Cities to Russia’s War in Ukraine

This article explores visual responses in Georgian cities, during April and May 2022, to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Combining visual discourse analysis of “zeitgeist cultural objects” with insights from interviews, an “inventory of socio-semiotic relations” is created to provide a glimpse of ways that Georgian “bi-vocal” identity plays out in the context of a very real nearby crisis. While the items explored cannot account for the full range of views in the society at that specific point in time, they instead offer insights into Georgian perceptions of the war in the light of their nation’s own unique cultural context and relationship with Russia.

Post-brelfie: the limits of intersubjectivity & intersectionality in spring 2020 virtual lactation selfie culture

ABSTRACT In 2015, brelfies, digital self-portraits taken by breastfeeding mothers, began to emerge on social media platforms. In the spring of 2020, two virtual lactation events emerged as new sites of brelfie culture: laczoom and the #dropemoutchallenge. I define these two events as evidence of a new wave in brelfie culture, what I call “post-brelfie” cultures. “post-brelfie” cultures are determined by two primary differentiating tenets from brelfie culture: 1) Post-brelfie events occur on video-based new media platforms, as opposed to through digital photography-based ones, which inhibit this trend’s potential for both self and community empowerment. 2) Post-brelfies are a product of their socio-temporal moment: the novel coronavirus pandemic and its publicly mandated stay-at-home orders. Through a hybrid methodology combining cross-platform analysis, grounded theory, and contextual visual discourse analysis, the findings of this study assert that not only has brelfie culture thus far failed to realize its feminist and public health goals, but also that such aims have been further devalued under pandemic circumstances in which digital inequities have further siloed online communities, leading to the transmission of negative affects in these networks. Such affects are further exasperated by postfeminism and neoliberalism and serve to undermine the aims of intersectional feminism.

Mainstreaming the Radical Right?

Abstract In Germany, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate against the government's measures to handle the covid-19 pandemic. These protests started in the spring of 2020. What makes these protests puzzling is their unusual heterogeneous political composition and ambiguous symbolism. This article argues that protesters used the pandemic (and calls for “freedom” from restrictions) to bridge left- and right-wing movement frames. Importantly, though, the amplification of radical right strands of populist discourse played a central role in this frame-bridging. These arguments are supported by a visual discourse analysis using photographs of demonstrators and protest materials (N = 212) taken at the Berlin “Querdenken” demonstration on 29 September 2020. The implications of these findings for the mainstreaming of right-wing politics are then discussed.

Thinking queer with Vietnamese EFL textbooks

ABSTRACT Queer is an inclusive term that embraces Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+), among other sexual identities. Thinking queer examines how fixed meanings or knowledge, or a particular image or identity, can be challenged, unfixed, unlearned, inquired, and placed into new learnings and understandings. In this paper, we think queer together with terms, images, and dialogs in Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. We adapted the Critical Visual Discourse Analysis (CVDA) and methods of critique to guide our thinking with the two questions: 1) How are gender roles represented in Vietnamese EFL textbooks? and 2) Are there queer terms, images, dialogs represented in Vietnamese EFL textbooks? If so, how are they depicted? The findings revealed biases in gender roles and invisibility of queer representations. We conclude by offering pedagogical implications for future studies.

From the “Lager Lovelies” to “The Feminist”: Tennent’s Lager Marketing, 1960–1997

This article traces the marketing of Scottish brewer Tennent Caledonian’s “Lager Lovelies” beer cans, which featured sexualized photographs of women, from the initial production of the cans in the 1960s to the rebranding of Tennent’s Lager in 1997. The article considers the development of the cans and situates the marketing in the social and historical context. Oral history interviews with former models, industry employees, and people who remember the cans provide insights into people’s attitudes toward the marketing. The images on the cans are examined using visual discourse analysis, which shows that the marketing was derivative of the pervasive sexual objectification of women’s bodies in media and pornography. The marketing of the cans to White heterosexual men is located within twentieth-century capitalism and patriarchal structures that enabled Tennent’s to commodify and objectify women and eroticize an everyday activity like drinking lager. The article considers the end of the Lager Lovelies cans in the early 1990s and the subsequent attempt to reposition Tennent’s Lager in 1997 as a desirable alcoholic drink for younger generations.

Two days, twenty outfits: Coachella attendees’ visual presentation of self and experience on Instagram

This study uses a visual discourse analysis to explore the self-construction of presence and experience at events such as a music festival, theoretically guided by presentation of self and how users curate this via multimodal, visual-focussed social media posts. Real-time, location-based, public posts from events act as a new form of visually-embedded culture in how individuals present themselves and their experiences. An analysis of 200 location-tagged Instagram posts from attendees at the 2017 Coachella music festival reveals attendees care less about sharing photos of the music and more about curating a visual sense of taste, embrace and place. This focus on self-presentation is explored through themes such as seeing more full-body images than selfies in order to emphasise festival fashion, use of the ‘plandid’ (planned candid) to add a sense of spontaneity, and use of chronological and geographic tags to establish physical presence in time and place.

Resistance in Murals: Critical Discourse Analysis of the Local Movement in Rejecting the Establishment of a Cement Factory in Rembang

This research examines the discourse on rejecting the establishment of the Semen Indonesia factory in Rembang. Taking the murals in Tegaldowo Village, Rembang, as the object study, this study discussed the production of knowledge about the rejection of the factory establishment and power relations in such conflict over the factory establishment. This study applies a visual discourse analysis model developed by Gillian Rose, which includes several essential elements in the text: key themes, justification strategies and their effects, contradictions, positions of the subjects, and location and time of production. This research finds that the movement against the establishment of a cement factory, in addition to going through legal channels, was carried out through cultural media, including by forming discourses that strengthened this rejection. The justification for refusing the establishment is generally based on both traditional and modern ecological discourses. The subjects presented in the text represent the polarization of interests and groups within the local communities, between groups that are pro and contra to the construction of the cement factory, as well as justifying that the cement factory establishment causes such polarization.