Visual variations of violence – The metonymic framing of violence in the featured images of online news about Africa

Abstract

As early as 2009, Forceville pointed out that the examination of non-verbal metonymies is more suitable for revealing their inherent power and nuanced, unnoticed effects than the analysis of their verbal counterparts. Although the ubiquity of (verbal) metonymy logically implies the frequent occurrence of nonverbal manifestations, visual metonymies have so far been pushed into the background behind verbal counterparts (Benczes, 2019). This does not mean that there is no discourse on visual metonymies at all, in fact this discourse is becoming more and more active. One of the most productive “sites” of visual metonymies is the world of advertising (see Qui, 2013; Pérez-Sobrino, 2016; Kashanizadeh & Forceville, 2020; Chatti, 2022; Hidalgo-Downing & O’Dowd, 2023). Others have identified visual metonymies in children’s books (Guijarro, 2019; Puspitasari, 2022) and in political campaigns (Goehring, Renegar & Puhl, 2017; Benczes, 2019; Tasić & Stamenković, 2022). The puzzle is more about the exact steps along which visual metonymies can be identified, because authors do not offer details about the process and aspects of analysis and identification. The dissertation specifically focuses on the rhetorical function of visual metonymies, namely the fact that they highlight certain features of a given phenomenon, while relegating others to the background. This characteristic makes metonymy an effective framing device. Although the mentioned studies all imply that visual metonymies are effective framing tools, visual metonymic framing has not yet been defined. The thesis reflects on both the theoretical (i.e., lack of definition) and methodological (i.e., lack of analytical framework) shortcoming by examining the potential inherent in visual metonymic framing in the light of the news genre, more specifically, violent news about Africa. To account for the research niche, an analytical framework, examining the substitutions through which violence is depicted in online news via detecting the metonymic relations of the Action ICM and the metonymies of the Complex event ICM, was set up. The model was validated on a sample of 289 units of analysis. The sample, including articles from BBC Africa and CNN Africa in the period 2011-2020, was compiled in a semi-automated manner. First of all, the results revealed that the INITIAL SUBEVENT FOR COMPLEX EVENT and FINAL SUBEVENT FOR COMPLEX EVENT metonymies greatly outweigh the CENTRAL SUBEVENT FOR COMPLEX EVENT metonymy, thus supporting the related hypothesis. Second of all, the obtained results highlight that the AGENT FOR ACTION and PATIENT FOR ACTION metonymic relationships are responsible for more than half of all the metonymic relations detected in the images. Although the proportion of RESULT FOR ACTION and INSTRUMENT FOR ACTION relationships in themselves is not negligible, overall, an anthropocentric result (driven by AGENT FOR ACTION and PATIENT FOR ACTION) emerged. This finding also supports the related hypothesis. Based on the findings, it can be said that the visual representation of violence in online news is a very fertile ground for the analysis of metonymic framing, since the display of violence is limited in several aspects, so news portals are forced to depict the events through substitutions. The analysed sample suggests that the majority of the substitutions strive to humanize the events, giving way to the emotional involvement of the readers (via the HUMAN OVER NON HUMAN principle and the news value of personification and impact). The thesis provides new results in terms of theory and methodology as well. The following points summarize the novelties explored in this research. • Introduction of a novel definition of visual metonymic framing: despite the fact that scholars agree that (visual) frames are often mediated by figurative language types, such as metaphors and metonymies in texts that offer a particular interpretation of events (among others, Burgers, Konijn & Steen, 2016; Charteris-Black, 2004; Catalano & Waugh, 2013; Catalano & Musolff, 2019), no definition has yet been offered as to what we mean by metonymic framing. This niche is even more evident in the literature on visual metonymies. The dissertation reflects on this deficiency by defining both metonymic framing and visual metonymic framing. • Development of a novel model for the visual metonymic framing of violence: although the discourse on visual metonymies is increasingly active, the puzzle is posed by the lack of clearly defined steps along which visual metonymies can be identified in news images. Focusing on violence as a timeless news value, the dissertation advances an analytical framework that lays the foundations for application of the Violence ICM (motivated by the Action ICM and Complex event ICM). • Identification of a novel metaphor-metonymy interaction in news images: the metaphor-metonymy interaction has so far been primarily investigated in advertisements, at least as far as the visual or multimodal scene is concerned (Pérez Sobrino, 2016; Kashanizadeh & Forceville, 2020). Although not the focus of the thesis, the identification and discussion of metaphor-metonymy interaction in the light of news images is a novel result. I trust that the method can be suitable for examining the visual representation of any violent act, given that the analytical framework is specific enough to identify the Violence ICM, but at the same time flexible enough to be extended to the interpretation of visual representations of violence universally. It is particularly important in the present day to examine through which interpretive frameworks the media portrays violent events, such as wars. Thus, the presented model, allowing for the investigation of the narratives (and their implications) that are prioritized by visual substitutions in online news, is highly relevant and novel. After all, violence, conflict and negative events have always been considered newsworthy, they have always represented news values, and this will certainly remain so in the future as well.