Talking about something real: the concept of truth in multimodal non-fiction books for young people

Abstract

Within social semiotics we discuss how different semiotic resources alone or in multimodal texts are used to communicate truth. This is one of the parts of the multimodal theory that are least developed and discussed. The discussion on truth within social semiotics is mainly focused on the relationship between a corresponding type of truth that is common in natural science and a more everyday perception of truth. This can give an incomplete and stereotypical image of how truth is portrayed. This essay attempts to nuance the picture by suggesting that our theoretical conceptions of how we portray truth visually can be nuanced and developed by combining the theory of multimodality with categories of truth taken from the general philosophy of science. This approach will be illustrated by examples from Norwegian non-fiction books aimed at young people.

Keywords:

• Truth types
• social semiotics
• non-fiction
• visual
• multimodality
• young people