https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9674-5909
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ABSTRACT
This study of UK online news articles about COVID-19 in Italy builds upon prior work by Filmer and Riggs. Using multimodal analysis including DNVA, I analyse the interplay between a) specific stylistic features in headlines and ledes, and b) initial images, in framing Italy and its early experience of the pandemic. These elements often contribute to portraying Italy as struggling, and contribute to alarmist frames more generally. The findings suggest that stylistic and visual choices are deliberate and influential and work in concert to shape representations. Further research is warranted on metaphors and word-image dissonance in reporting on COVID-19.
Cette étude d'articles de presse en ligne britanniques sur le COVID-19 est le prolongement d'un travail antérieur par Filmer et Riggs. Au travers d'une analyse multimodale, y compris la DNVA, j'examine l'interaction entre, d'une part, des caractéristiques stylistiques spécifiques dans les titres et les intertitres et, d'autre part, les images initiales, dans le cadrage de l'Italie et de son expérience au début de la pandémie. Ces éléments contribuent souvent à dépeindre l'Italie comme un pays en difficulté et, plus généralement, à un cadrage alarmiste. Les résultats indiquent que les choix stylistiques et visuels sont délibérés et influents et que ces éléments agissent de concert pour façonner les représentations. D'autres recherches sur les métaphores et la dissonance mot-image dans l'actualité sur le COVID-19 sont préconisées.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Ilaria Patano for her help with formatting.
Disclosure statement
As clearly stated, the corpus used for this article overlaps with that of Filmer and Riggs. The content studied, the perspective from which it is analysed and the supporting literature diverge in large part. Similarities between the studies are clearly indicated.
Notes
2 Ibid.
9 Consider how different the perspective of this Telegraph headline is: ‘What can Britain learn from how Italian culture lovers are coping with isolation?’ (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/can-britain-learn-italian-culture-lovers-coping-isolation/) As discussed by Filmer and Riggs (Citation2023), this headline and the Telegraph articles more generally reflect – as also discussed by Filmer and Riggs (2023) – what the newsbrand considers the main concern of its predominantly older and ‘well-heeled’ readership: culture and travel.
21 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/italy-coronavirus-advice-is-it-safe-travel/; https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/articles/italy-travel-ban-official-advice-which-areas-are-on-lockdown-sho/
Additional information
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Ashley Riggs
Ashley Riggs is assistant professor of English language and translation at the Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Her research focuses on journalistic style, journalistic translation, cultural (mis)representation and multimodal news discourse, including in constructive news; her monograph Stylistic Deceptions in Online News: Journalistic style and the translation of culture (2020) explores a number of these topics. Ashley is on the publications committee of IATIS and the editorial board of Hermēneus. She also acts as reviewer for various international journals.