Frames in the Convergent Multimodal Discourse on the John/Ivan Demjanjuk Trial: Methodical Framework and Analytical Process

• In Event: Advances in Framing Research: Content Analyses

Abstract

The paper develops a methodical approach and explains analytical procedures to reconstruct frames in discourses formed by multimodal texts in convergent media. It is applied to the discourse on the trial of John/Ivan Demjanjuk, a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen accused of holocaust-related war crimes. The paper thus examines discourses where written messages and images from mass media as well as comments and visuals spread through social media relate to each other in framing public issues. To establish a viable perspective that caters to the interactive communicative organisation and the multimodal semiotic constitution of such convergent discourse, the paper joins approaches from frame semantics and social semiotics in a framework of recursive sampling and coding. Using the discourse on the Demjanjuk trial as its case, the application of the discourse analytical procedures to reconstruct framings of the accused as either responsible culprit or victim of circumstances is explained.

Authors

• Christian Pentzold, Technische Universitaet Chemnitz / HIIG

• Vivien Sommer, Technische U Chemnitz

• Claudia Fraas, Technische U Chemnitz

• Stefan Meier, Tübingen U