The main question of this study was: How and in what way can a multimodal semiotic visual analysis model be developed and used for contributing to the analysis and understanding of the manner in which the Men’s Health (South Africa) magazine – as a case study – represents and constructs masculinities in South Africa? The following three subsidiary research questions were formulated to address this topic: • What is the literature revealing with reference to the media as producers of meaning in relation to masculinity and visual texts? • How and in which way can a semiotic visual analysis multimodal model be developed with the purpose of contributing to the analysis of visual texts? • What is the outcome of the visual analysis multimodal model with reference to the case study about the representation and construction of masculinities in visual texts in MH? The first aim of this research was to establish an overview of masculinities and to explore the visual representation of masculinity with reference to mediation, reality, and ideology in the media. With reference to the media as producers of meaning in relation to masculinity and visual texts, a semiotic visual analysis and social semiotics were used to unpack culture as a site of the production of meanings. The media is one of the main sources from which men receive their entertainment and information about the world. In this sense, the media makes sense of the world. Mass media plays a key role in discourse and constructing the relationships between reality and ideology. During this construction, the media reflects on existing opinions and attitudes in society. A quantitative content analysis and a qualitative semiotic multimodal visual analysis were conducted on 27 visual texts purposively selected from MH to include editions from July 2010 to June 2011. This population covered 12 front covers, 12 editorials and three flip covers. The developed visual multimodal model was tested qualitatively on nine visual texts since these texts included the front covers, flip covers and editorials of the three editions with flip covers. v A second major aim of the study was to establish the way in which a semiotic visual analysis multimodal model needed to be developed and used for analysing visual texts, as well as for analysing the visual texts according to the multimodal model in order to understand how the multimodality and social semiotic resources were applied in MH to represent and construct masculinities. The rationale for the development and design of this model was based on the premise that a basic understanding of semiotics and visual language was needed. Without such an understanding, the vast amounts of visual messages that confront the reader would remain incomprehensible. Consequently, a productive dialogue in relation to visual communication cannot take place. The multimodal model developed in this thesis highlights visual text layout, in conjunction with language-in-use, that does not occur in isolation and that is deeply reliant on other forms of making meaning. The heptagon multimodal model consists of concept maps of the six functions of the designed hexagon model. This multimodality approach includes analysing simultaneously occurring semiotics and their various roles in conjunction with detailed, all-inclusive discourses. In the quantitative content analysis and the qualitative multimodal semiotic analysis, the six components of the developed heptagon model (visual grammar, positioning, typography, colour, modality, and iconography) are illustrated. The quantitative research supported the main research design, i.e. the qualitative multimodal semiotic analysis. It is envisaged that the development and construction of a multimodal semiotic model will make a contribution to the scholarly field of semiotic analysis. By discussing the fluidity of the variations of masculinities and male identities, by giving a brief overview of the role of the media in constructing masculinities, and by focusing on the discourses that took place in MH, the researcher creates an awareness of the inherited patriarchal masculinities by recommending envisioned masculinities to be inclusive as a component of the solution. This approach is illustrated by the use and findings of the multimodal semiotic visual analysis. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et. Phil

Denna uppsats ämnar till att skapa insikt och kunskap kring turistiska diskurser rörande natur, genom att undersöka vilka bilder och representationer kring natur i de svenska nationalparkerna som framhävs i turistbroschyrer, hur människa-natur-relationer framställs men även vilka implikationer det kan framkalla. Med ett avgränsat fokus på nio nationalparker som uppfyller kriterierna av fjällkaraktär eller inbegriper renskötande samebyar. Genom en visuell diskursanalys som metod har turistbroschyrernas bilder, texter och kartor analyserats med applicering av Foucaults diskursperspektiv där makt, kunskap och sanning är centrala begrepp. Resultatet denna studie påvisar är att de diskursiva formationerna består av tre huvuddrag gällande naturen. Den framställs som något exotisk, externt, sublimt, orörd och förhistorisk, men även som en tillgänglig och romantiserad plats för just turisten ifråga samtidigt som naturen porträtteras som något speciellt för Sverige vilket då också symboliserar dess identitet. Turisten porträtteras även som tillfällig besökare, vars relation till naturen särskiljs från samers, vilka istället framställs som ”naturliga” sevärdheter för turisten. Allt som allt resulterar denna studie i ett igenfyllande av en kunskapslucka gällande olika praktikers framställande av representationer kring svenska nationalparker, samtidigt som den påvisar liknande representationer som tidigare studier resulterat i. / This essay aims to create insight and knowledge about tourist discourses regarding nature, by examining which images and representations about nature in the Swedish national parks that are highlighted in tourist brochures, how human-nature relations are produced, but also what implications it can induce. With a delimited focus on nine national parks that meet the criteria of mountain nature or include reindeer herding Sami villages. Through a visual discourse analysis as a method, the pictures, texts, and maps of the tourist brochures have been analyzed with the application of Foucault's discourse perspective where power, knowledge, and truth are central concepts. The result of this study is that the discursive formations consist of three main features of nature. It is presented as something exotic, externally, sublime, untouched, and prehistoric, but also as an accessible and romanticized place for the tourist, and at the same time as something special for Sweden, which symbolizes its identity. The tourist is portrayed as a temporary visitor, whose relation to nature is distinguished from Sami people, who instead are presented as "natural" attractions for the tourist. All in all, this study results in a refilling of a knowledge gap regarding the presentation of representations by various practitioners about Swedish national parks, while at the same time demonstrating similar representations that previous studies have resulted in.

Thesis (MA (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / According to Nattrass (2007:138), the denial and questioning of the science of HIV/AIDS at government level by, amongst others, Thabo Mbeki (former State President) and Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (former Minister of Health) resulted in an estimated 343 000 preventable AIDS deaths in South Africa by 2007. Such governmental discourse of AIDS denialism has been the target of criticism in the media and by activist groups such as the Treatment Action Campaign. This study investigates the nature of this criticism, specifically considering the critical use of metaphor in visual texts such as the political cartoons of Jonathan Shapiro, who works under the pen name of “Zapiro”. The purpose is to determine whether the nature of the criticism in visual newspaper texts differs from that of corresponding verbal newspaper texts, possibly providing means of criticism not available to the verbal mode alone. A corpus of texts published between August 1999 and December 2007 that topicalise HIV/AIDS was investigated. This includes 119 cartoons by Zapiro, and 91 verbal articles in the weekly newspaper Mail & Guardian. The main theoretical approach used in the analyses is Conceptual Metaphor Theory, developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1981), and its extension to poetic metaphor, developed by Lakoff and Turner (1989). Because of the socio-political nature of the problem of HIV/AIDS, the study also draws on Critical Discourse Analysis, including complementary concepts from Systemic Functional Linguistics. The study reveals that visual and verbal texts make use of similar sets of conventional conceptual metaphors at similar frequencies, which confirms the predictions of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The study further reveals that the cartoons enrich these metaphors through four specific mechanisms of poetic metaphor, which the verbal articles do not. This indicates a significant difference between the two types of texts. Furthermore, it is found that the use of such poetic metaphors directly contributes to the critical power of the political cartoons. The study indicates that multi-modality in cartoons, which triggers single metaphoric mappings, adds a dimension to the critical function of the text that is absent in the verbal equivalent. The finding that the visual texts enable a form of cognition that is not available to verbal texts, poses one of the most significant avenues for future research. Thus, cartoons apparently achieve a type of criticism that is not found, and may not be possible, in the verbal texts alone. This makes the political cartoon a text type with an important and unique ability to articulate political criticism.

The main question of this study was: How and in what way can a multimodal semiotic visual analysis model be developed and used for contributing to the analysis and understanding of the manner in which the Men’s Health (South Africa) magazine – as a case study – represents and constructs masculinities in South Africa? The following three subsidiary research questions were formulated to address this topic: • What is the literature revealing with reference to the media as producers of meaning in relation to masculinity and visual texts? • How and in which way can a semiotic visual analysis multimodal model be developed with the purpose of contributing to the analysis of visual texts? • What is the outcome of the visual analysis multimodal model with reference to the case study about the representation and construction of masculinities in visual texts in MH? The first aim of this research was to establish an overview of masculinities and to explore the visual representation of masculinity with reference to mediation, reality, and ideology in the media. With reference to the media as producers of meaning in relation to masculinity and visual texts, a semiotic visual analysis and social semiotics were used to unpack culture as a site of the production of meanings. The media is one of the main sources from which men receive their entertainment and information about the world. In this sense, the media makes sense of the world. Mass media plays a key role in discourse and constructing the relationships between reality and ideology. During this construction, the media reflects on existing opinions and attitudes in society. A quantitative content analysis and a qualitative semiotic multimodal visual analysis were conducted on 27 visual texts purposively selected from MH to include editions from July 2010 to June 2011. This population covered 12 front covers, 12 editorials and three flip covers. The developed visual multimodal model was tested qualitatively on nine visual texts since these texts included the front covers, flip covers and editorials of the three editions with flip covers. v A second major aim of the study was to establish the way in which a semiotic visual analysis multimodal model needed to be developed and used for analysing visual texts, as well as for analysing the visual texts according to the multimodal model in order to understand how the multimodality and social semiotic resources were applied in MH to represent and construct masculinities. The rationale for the development and design of this model was based on the premise that a basic understanding of semiotics and visual language was needed. Without such an understanding, the vast amounts of visual messages that confront the reader would remain incomprehensible. Consequently, a productive dialogue in relation to visual communication cannot take place. The multimodal model developed in this thesis highlights visual text layout, in conjunction with language-in-use, that does not occur in isolation and that is deeply reliant on other forms of making meaning. The heptagon multimodal model consists of concept maps of the six functions of the designed hexagon model. This multimodality approach includes analysing simultaneously occurring semiotics and their various roles in conjunction with detailed, all-inclusive discourses. In the quantitative content analysis and the qualitative multimodal semiotic analysis, the six components of the developed heptagon model (visual grammar, positioning, typography, colour, modality, and iconography) are illustrated. The quantitative research supported the main research design, i.e. the qualitative multimodal semiotic analysis. It is envisaged that the development and construction of a multimodal semiotic model will make a contribution to the scholarly field of semiotic analysis. By discussing the fluidity of the variations of masculinities and male identities, by giving a brief overview of the role of the media in constructing masculinities, and by focusing on the discourses that took place in MH, the researcher creates an awareness of the inherited patriarchal masculinities by recommending envisioned masculinities to be inclusive as a component of the solution. This approach is illustrated by the use and findings of the multimodal semiotic visual analysis. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et. Phil