Introduction to Multimodal Analysis

by David Machin

Overview

Introduction to Multimodal Analysis is a unique and accessible textbook that clearly and critically explains this groundbreaking approach to visual analysis. Each chapter outlines the tools for analysis and takes the reader through examples of analysis, providing a model that can then be followed. All visual media compositions, such as photographs, advertisements, newspapers and websites, are carefully designed. A photograph of a soldier, an advertisement for a car, a magazine cover or the opening titles to a news programme are thought out to create the appropriate effect. Designers use semiotic tools such as colour, framing, focus, positioning of elements and font style to communicate with the viewer. These choices make up a visual language that we can analyse. Multimodal analysis looks at the separate components of this language to build up a toolkit for analysing the grammar of visual design. The book includes an assessment of the claim that there is a visual grammar and important differences between images and language and the way they create meaning are identified. Including images throughout and a colour plate section, Introduction to Multimodal Analysis is an
essential resource for students studying multimodality within visual communication in media and cultural studies, critical discourse analysis, journalism studies or linguistics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350019362
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/22/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	277,360
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

David Machin is Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, and has previously taught multimodality for four years at the Centre of Language and Communication at Cardiff University.
David Machin, Department of Media and Communication Studies, Örebro Unversity, Sweden. His books include Global Media Discourse (2007), Introduction to Multimodal Analysis (2007), Analysing Popular Music (2010) and The Language of Crime and Deviance (2012). He is co-editor of the journal Social Semiotics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Visual Grammar and the Meaning of Metaphorial Associations
2. Iconography: the 'hidden meaning' of images
3. Modality: concealing and exaggeration in images
4. The Meaning of Colour in Visual Design
5. The Meaning of Typography
6. Representation of Social Actors in the Image
7. Composition and Page Layout
8. Is There A Visual Grammar: Some Differences Between Language and Pictures
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

“This second edition of 'Introduction to Multimodal Analysis' constitutes once again a persuasive invitation to scrutinize 'the way things look' as powerful expressions and instruments of culture. Authors Machin and Ledin provide scholars from a variety of backgrounds with a thoroughly updated tool to systematically and critically interrogate the numerous choices and decisions that go in designing the visual and multimodal aspects of artefacts in society.” —Luc Pauwels, Professor of Visual Research Methods, University of Antwerp, Belgium

“With a fully updated table of contents, the second edition of Introduction of Multimodal Analysis offers a contemporary perspective on the multiple ways in which communication 'works' in everyday life. Drawing from classic and cutting-edge scholarship on multimodality, the book is an accessible and rigorous guide to analyzing colour, typography, images, texture, composition, and diagrams. A must-have for students and researchers of culture, media, communication, and design.” —Giorgia Aiello, Associate Professor of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

From the Publisher