4.3 Methods of data production
4.3.8 Analysis of visuals
98
Presupposition Using words that take certain things for granted, as if there is no alternative.
Pronouns versus noun: the ‘us’ and ‘them’
division
Pronouns like ‘us’, ‘them ’and ‘we’ are used to align us alongside or against particular ideas.
Text producers can evoke their own ideas as being our ideas, or create a collective ‘other’
that is in opposition to these shared ideas.
Nomination or functionalisation Participants can be nominated in terms of whom they are or functionalised by being depicted in terms of what they do. Functionalisation connotes legitimacy.
Impersonalisation Impersonalisation is used to give extra weight to a particular sentence (e.g. “Business wants staff to stop striking”). It is not a particular person but a whole institution that requires something.
Agents are concealed.
Overlexicalization The availability of many words for one concept, and it indicates the prominence of the concept in a community's beliefs and intellectual interests.
Although the CDA protocol is extensive, it gives me an opportunity to interrogate aspects of gender representations portrayed in the four selected school textbooks. Each category is not going to be an independent theme but rather used interchangeably in analysis of my data. Each category has a specific gender focus, which means that the themes identified in my analysis will have a rich, nuanced interpretation and explanation. The above protocol together with Fairclough’s (2001) model will uncover the ideological and hegemonic discursive formations at work within texts.
99
representational complexities and illustrates the multi-semiotic nature of creating meaning (Iedema, 2003, p. 33). Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006, p. 177) further assert that images can communicate knowledge and do not have to be specialised in their representation:
Today learners are exposed to a number of images through textbooks that are sophisticated, eye catching that involve a complex interplay of written texts and images; these images are referred to as multi modal images; more so any text whose meanings are realized through more than one semiotic code is multimodal. Multimodal images don’t seek to see the picture as an illustration of the verbal text, thereby treating the verbal text as prior or more important, nor does it treat the visual and verbal text as entirely discrete elements.
This means that the written text does not have to be more important than the images; if it is considered more important, it leaves the images to serve a technical purpose. Written text and images can work together; they can be integrated to form a learning experience that does not favour the one over the other. Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006, p. 6) argue:
... an erroneous assumption exists that visual language only focuses on images. A graph with no explanatory text and figures along the axes are incomprehensible. Every infographic presentation needs explanatory text, words, and sentences to point the reader in the right direction. Without a caption, a photograph is nothing more than simply a picture without context.
Visual communication is integration of images and elements of images (visual elements) and words (verbal elements) in order to create a unit of communication. Images serve to allow the child to question, challenge, use their imagination and enjoy what visual imagery can bring to learning. For example, when analysing an image many questions arise, such as, Who is in the picture? What is the picture saying to you? Who took the picture? Why and when was the picture taken? Once a researcher has dealt with all those questions, an image provokes thinking on how the image is depicted: does it connect with what the text is saying, or is a picture used merely to decorate the text and make it learner-friendly? (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).
Analysing visual communication is therefore an important part of critical analysis: images are
“entirely within the realm of ideology, as means – always – for the emergence of ideological positions” (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 13). I base my analyses of the images on this premise.
In the process of using visual semiotics, I used connotation and denotation as methods to describe the meaning of the visual images analysed and interpreted using visual semiotics.
100
Denotation is the first level of signification (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). It means the permanent sense of a word excluding all subjective evaluations; it describes the literal or obvious meaning of the sign. Thus, denotation of the visual image refers to what all people see without association to their culture, ideology or society.
Connotation is a term used to explain the way signs work: “it describes the interaction that occurs when the sign meets the feelings or emotions of the users and the values of their culture”
(Machin & Mayr, 2012). It is, in this sense, influenced by the subjective factors that open up more interpretations of the text. Connotation is a reproduction of the message, whether linguistic or visual; it is also a product of mental abilities responsible for reading between the lines. Connotation therefore represents the various social overtones, cultural implications or emotional meanings associated with a sign.
In analysing and interpreting the visual data, I adapted the framework designed by Nene (2014).
Her framework takes into consideration various aspects of visual representation, which is useful for my study. Her framework has a specific gender focus.
What kind of source/visual is it?
Origin: where was the image taken?
Gender? Girls and boys were analysed on the activities, sports, preferences in different things to do and the different roles that were available to them. Physical features and appearance such as clothes and accessories were used to determine the different sexes.
Race (African, white, Indian or coloured, other)? Races were analysed on physical signifiers such as skin colour and hair texture as well as on what they were seen to be doing in terms of work, social activities such as sport or cultural activities, where they lived and what they did where they lived.
Why are they depicted in this manner? (Historically) What information about the image is shared?
What information is excluded?
What is the connotation of the image?
What is the denotation of the image?
101