Perpetrators in multimodal media discourse: a case study of personalization in images from The Telegraph

Abstract

The article deals with the visual and linguistic representation of alleged perpetrators through personalization in news reporting from The Telegraph’s online media platform. The analysis shows how visual message, along with verbal labelling in the text, represent different groups of alleged perpetrators as more or less ‘dangerous’ in news reports. Agency is analyzed through a focus on the lens range and its influence on perceived social distance, the angle of the shot and its role in the understanding of social relations, as well as the direction of an alleged perpetrator’s gaze in images as a way of social interaction with the viewer. The photos of alleged perpetrators appear in The Telegraph with the aim of informing the public about the danger these individuals pose, as well as legitimizing the actions of law enforcement institutions. It appears that verbal and visual identification of these individuals is done with the intention of ‘excluding’ the most dangerous social actors, such as ‘murderers’, from ingroups.