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Abstract
Lately, possibilities of producing and spreading news pictures have increased explosively through online media. Concurrently, religion has become increasingly salient in politics and news. Both processes are connected to globalization. This study encompasses globalization, religion and online images and aims to convey how online world news slideshows represent religion, and more particularly how linguistic and visual parts of picture paragraphs are interrelated, as well as related to representations of different religions. Methodologically multimodal analysis and discourse analysis are combined, focusing on composition of images and (dis-)connection of images and texts. Theories on globalization and possibilities and particularities of online news (pictures) and slideshows, frame the analysis. Tendencies to templates for different religions are found. Many religions appear as aesthetic commodities in images, whereas Islam in texts “sells” images of violence/destruction. Image–text relations are thus crucial both in the creation of meaning and of commodities in online news image culture. Two main image–text types are identified: “Religion in text, (potential) violence/destruction/despair in picture” (Islam) and “Spirituality/worshipping/aestheticism” (other religions). The world news slideshows have crucial roles as containers for these polarized image–text types, where they are related to and defined by each other in the genre's (cl)aim to cover the whole world.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Anna Roosvall holds a PhD in Media and Communication Studies and is Associate Professor at the Department for Media Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden. Her research is centred on visual and linguistic aspects of (online) journalism and globalization, specifically concerning representations of culture, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, as well as issues of (climate) justice and solidarity. She takes part in several research projects, for instance on reporting about climate change and reporting about Roma people.
Notes
1. Fenton (Citation2010) lists three conceptual pairs relevant for understanding (ideas on) online news: multiplicity/polycentrality, speed/space, and interactivity/participation. Interactivity/participation is not relevant here since the slideshows almost exclusively include agency pictures (no citizen journalism) and lack commenting options (Roosvall Citation2014). Speed is significant only as a context factor, while aspects of space and multiplity/polycentrality are central to the ensuing analysis.
2. Clothes connected to officiating and devotion are those worn by priests, monks, etc. Culture-specific clothes that are not necessarily connected to officiating or devotion are not considered sufficient signs of formal religion.
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/world/, http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/bildspecial/ (all accessed 10 January 2008).
4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/may/02/photography, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/may/05/photography (both accessed 29 May 2008/6 October 2010), http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/bildspecial/, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/world/ (both accessed 28 May 2008). Two everyday slideshows from The Guardian were included since in the previous study on May Day slideshows The Guardian did not include a specific slideshow for May Day demonstrations. Therefore, a regular slideshow from 2 May containing some May Day images was included in that study. It is noteworthy that this slideshow has a lower probability of containing image-texts including religion than other everyday slideshows since it is slightly skewed towards May Day reporting. However since two “everyday” Guardian slideshows are included, there are still more everyday Guardian pictures, than everyday SvD pictures.
5. The image from Indonesia displays (politico-)religious ritual and attire, and thereby constitutes the only instance where formal Islam is explicitly included visually here.
6. The WP caption does not mention the Christ statue. This lack of religion in the text constitutes an exception in this category.
7. There are also images in each newspapers' year-reviews covering the Buddhist monks' protest in Burma, which partly present them as peaceful. These picture paragraphs could be framed as destructive, but are not. They are further distinguished from Islam representations through presence of religion in the images.