Television news and the digital environment: A triadic multimodal approach for analysing moving image media
Television news and the digital environment: A triadic multimodal approach for analysing moving image media
Taking into account the image and narrative analysis akin to film studies, as well as discourse as per the long-standing tradition of print analysis, this article suggests a dedicated triadic multimodal methodological approach for television news analysis. The precise methodology for best practice qualitative text analysis is as yet poorly defined (Macnamara 2005, 16), but this article proposes a solution to that very concern. This article engages with the methodological challenges of studying television news, and critically reviews several established methods - semiotics, discourse analysis, and the context of media production - but calls for a more holistic approach that better integrates the multimodal nature of television news. I propose a method which allows a blend of the different tracks of television news, from audio and visual to the political economy of these texts. I do so with a view to providing tools for media and journalism students to carry out a beginner's analysis, but also for more established research to engage with the requirements of studying television news. I then provide an example of how this triadic method can be operationalised by analysing a television news broadcast in relation to the coverage of violence in the context of the 2014 South African election.
CITATION: Jones, Bernadine. Television news and the digital environment: A triadic multimodal approach for analysing moving image media . : Taylor & Francis Group , 2016. African Journalism Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, May 2016, pp. 116-137 - Available at: http://library.au.int/television-news-and-digital-environment-triadic-multimodal-approach-analysing-moving-image-media-0