Session Submission Summary

From a “Life Line” to a “Bridging Model” of Visual Research? Theoretical and Methodological Challenges of Visual Framing

Sat, May 24, 9:00 to 10:15, Seattle Sheraton, Leschi

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Due to its increasing relevance, Coleman (2010, p. 233) describes the visual framing approach as one of the “life lines” of visual research, as an „important new direction for theory building and future research“. The current state of research nevertheless shows that it is exactly this „theory building“, which confronts visual research with theoretical and methodological challenges. Thus, the contributions in the panel discuss contemporary perspectives of current research and explore in how far the theoretical approach of visual framing moves towards the direction of a “bridging model” for visual and multimodal media research. Presentation one “On the Importance of Visual Frames: Why Should We Care About Visual Frames?” will open the panel addressing the growing significance of the visual-framing approach for visual research, supporting the argument of “powerful images” in our modern media environments and their framing effects with current empirical results in the research field. In the second presentation the research question “Can Visual Framing Offer Insight Into Studying Visual Culture ‘Beyond the News’?” is examined. While in this analysis wider practices of visual framing are discussed – especially those which take place beyond traditional journalistic cultures – further implications of a more uncertain and fragmented mixture of production, dissemination and viewing experiences are reflected for visual framing research. The third contribution “Accentuate the Negative? The Importance of Valence in Visual Framing” will present findings and further challenges of research that analyzes framing effects of valenced, negative connoted visuals. Arguing that valence is an important framing mechanism of visuals, this presentation will cover the psychological reasons for the power of negative visuals to frame issues and assessments. On the basis of the presented research results, the power, the limitations, and also the current research challenges of negative framing effects are discoursed. Finally, the presentation on “Visual Framing Research «beyond» Visual Studies?”, starts with an overview of the contemporary state of research with special regards to the methodological and theoretical shortcomings of visual framing analysis – based on a systematic, meta-analytical literature review of papers/journal articles on visual framing. With this analytical background, the presentation will then focus on the challenges from both a theoretical and methodological perspective and will examine how future visual framing research could address these challenges and explore future prospects of approaches analyzing visual and multimodal frames.

Thus, the panel provides a forum to present different lines of current empirical and theoretical research on framing through visual information and will discuss central challenges which future visual framing research should overcome going forward.

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