INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods

Outline 1) The status of images in society 2) Compositional interpretation – some vocabulary 3) Content Analysis of Images 4) Semiotic Analysis

Seeing is Believing?

Source: org/media/evening- standard-crowd.htm A New Era of Digitally Doctored Images

Source: org/media/evening- standard-crowd.htm

Photoshopped Bodies See (under portfolio)

Compositional Interpretation 1. content – what is the image of? Religious, historical, literary themes/events 2. color – hue, saturation, value/brightness 3. spatial organization – perspective, point of view, eye level 4. light source

Compositional Interpretation Moving Images 1. Screen ratio 2. Screen frame – open or closed 3. Screen plane 4. Shot distance 5. Focus 6. Angle

Compositional Interpretation Moving Images 1. Revolving: Pan, Tilt 2. Tracking, Crane 3. Zoom Editing 1. Continuity cut (classic Hollywood) 2. Jump cuts (MTV)

Text Units: Clearly distinguishable units: word, sentence, proposition vs. Image Units: Units within a static image are unclear. Moving images are relatively continuous. Content Analysis of Images

Categories must be: 1. Exhaustive 2. Exclusive 3. Enlightening This is not the same as the iterative, emergent coding we’ve been practicing.

(Lutz and Collins 1993) Content Analysis of Images

Code categories: 1. World location (codes: Asia, Africa, etc.) 2. Unit of article organization (region, nation-state, ethnic group, other) … 1. Camera gaze of person photographed 2. Westerners in photo (codes: yes or no) 3. Skin color 4. Dress style (codes: “western” or local) 5. Male nudity (codes: yes or no) 6. Female nudity 7. Technological type present (codes: simple handmade tools, machinery)

 What exactly do these frequencies mean?  Does more often mean more important? How do we get at important omissions?  Good coding schemes need extensive piloting, trial and error  Binary nature of codes Shortcomings of Content Analysis

Semiology/Semiotics 1. Language is relational not referential 2. Signifier, signified, referent Furthermore – icon, index, symbol 3. Studying how signs come together and work to encode social meanings Denotation (a baby, base-level meaning) vs. connotation (higher-level meaning, i.e. innocence)

Semiotics: Method 1. denotational phase, list all elements in the image and any accompanying text 2. ask what does each element connote? 3. how do the elements relate to each other in the totality? 4. what cultural knowledges are required in order to read the material? (connection to wider systems of meaning) [source: Bauer and Gaskell]

Semiotics: Advertisements

Semiotics: Example

 Implicit presumption about readers as ‘cultural dupes’  Elaborate, perhaps overly complex terminology  Lack of concern with surrounding social practices – but see ‘social semiotics’ Shortcomings of Semiotics

Summary  Content analysis on large quantities of text/imagery (news media)  Semiotics on persuasive/rhetorical texts/imagery (advertisements)  Semiotics requires substantial cultural knowledge  How do we handle what is notably absent, concealed?

Visual Methodologies, Gillian Rose – highly recommended Williamson, Decoding Advertisements Lutz and Collins, Reading National Geographic Saussure, Pierce, and/or Barthes Further Reading