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: http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/evening-standard-crowd.htm

A New Era of Digitally Doctored Images

Source: http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/evening-standard-crowd.htm

Compositional Interpretation1. 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 InterpretationMoving Images

1. Screen ratio

2. Screen frame – open or closed

3. Screen plane

4. Shot distance

5. Focus

6. Angle

Compositional InterpretationMoving 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

Content Analysis of ImagesCategories 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

Content Analysis of ImagesHow photos were coded:1. World location2. Unit of article organization (region, nation-state,

ethnic group, other)…1. Camera gaze of person photographed2. Westerners in photo3. Skin color4. Dress style (“western” or local)5. Male nudity6. Female nudity7. Technological type present (simple handmade

tools, machinery)

What exactly do frequencies mean? Does more often mean more important?

What about 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 as codes

Denotation (a baby, base-level meaning) vs. connotation (higher-level meaning, i.e. innocence)

Semiology/Semiotics

Two main research issues:

1. Analysis of signs in systems of relations through which they get their meaning

2. How a particular sign system divides up the world (and what are the social implications)

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 totalit?

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