Hartmut Stöckl is Full Professor of English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Salzburg, Austria.

Helen Caple is Senior Lecturer of Communications at Journalism at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Jana Pflaeging is Research Assistant of English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Salzburg, Austria.

Contents

1 Shifts towards image-centricity in
contemporary multimodal practices: An introduction

Hartmut Stöckl, Helen Caple & Jana Pflaeging

Part 1 Advances in theory

2 Image-centricity - When visuals take center stage:

Analyses and interpretations of a current (news) media practice

Hartmut Stöckl

3 Intertextual reference in image-centric discourse:

Analytical model, classification, and case study

Nina-Maria Klug

4 The new visuality of writing

Theo van Leeuwen

Commentary:
The critical role of analysis in moving from conjecture to theory

John A. Bateman

Part 2 Historical developments in image-centric practices

5 On the emergence of image-centric
popular science stories in National Geographic

Jana Pflaeging

6 Previewing news stories:

How contextual cohesion contributes to the creation of news stories

Sameera Durrani

Commentary: Image-centricity and change in journalistic cultures

Martin Luginbühl

Part 3 The relative status of image and language

7 Image-centric practices on Instagram: Subtle shifts in 'footing'

Helen Caple

8 Emoji-text relations on Instagram: Empirical corpus studies
on multimodal uses of the iconographetic mode

Christina Siever & Torsten Siever

9 "And then he said... no one has more respect for women than I do":

Intermodal relations and intersubjectivity in image macros

Michele Zappavigna

Commentary:
Reflections on the relative status of image and language

Carey Jewitt

Part 4 Image-centric practices as global design strategies

10 Multimodal mobile news: Design and images in tablet-platform apps

John S. Knox

11 Images as ideology in terrorist-related communications

Peter Wignell, Sabine Tan, Kay L. O'Halloran,
Rebecca Lange, Kevin Chai & Michael Wiebrands

12 Putting the data center stage:
Graphs, charts and maps in the news media

Martin Engebretsen

Commentary: Image-centric practices as global design strategies

Teal Triggs

Index

This innovative collection builds on current multimodal research to showcase image-centric practices in contemporary media, unpacking the increasing extent to which the visual plays a principal role in modern day communication. The volume begins by providing a concise overview of the history and development of multimodal research with respect to image-centricity, with successive chapters looking at how image-centricity emerges over time, unfolds in relation to language and other features in global design strategies. Bringing together contributions from both established and emerging researchers in multimodality and social semiotics, the book presents case studies on a variety of image-centric genres and domains, including magazines, advertising discourse, multimedia storytelling, and social media platforms. The aims of the book are, to interrogate the new multimodal genres, relations, forms of analysis, and methods of production that emerge from a greater reliance on visual components. Refining and broadening current understandings of image-centricity in today's media sphere, this collection will be of particular interest to scholars and students in multimodality, social semiotics, applied linguistics, language and media, and discourse analysis.