Honor in the face of shame: the semiotics of the American flag at political-sex-scandal press conferences. Issue 3 (2nd July 2016)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Honor in the face of shame: the semiotics of the American flag at political-sex-scandal press conferences. Issue 3 (2nd July 2016)
- Main Title:
- Honor in the face of shame: the semiotics of the American flag at political-sex-scandal press conferences
- Authors:
- Mandell, Hinda
Martin, Kelly Norris - Abstract:
- Abstract: Political sex scandals occurred in rapid succession from 2004 to 2011 in the U.S. The press conferences that followed received significant interest from the national press and public. Interestingly, a general pattern occurred where politicians who resigned at the press conference displayed an American flag and wore a lapel pin, while those who remained in office did not. After conducting a semiotic analysis of eight popular-press images, we argue that the absence of the American flag indicates a separation of personal scandal from the office, and the presence of the flag indicates that personal transgression has public consequences as embodied by the politician's resignation. Furthermore, the politician's desire for control over his public representation may inversely impact his concern for social presence and media richness in the U.S. Removal of the visual presence (lower media richness) will also have an impact on the visual literacy or the holistic nature of the event's visual language. After all, an audience's understanding of that event is largely accomplished through available visuals, such as the American flag.
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of visual literacy. Volume 35:Issue 3(2016)
- Journal:
- Journal of visual literacy
- Issue:
- Volume 35:Issue 3(2016)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 35, Issue 3 (2016)
- Year:
- 2016
- Volume:
- 35
- Issue:
- 3
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2016-0035-0003-0000
- Page Start:
- 147
- Page End:
- 166
- Publication Date:
- 2016-07-02
- Subjects:
- Sex scandals -- American flag -- press conferences -- semiotics -- politicians -- social presence -- media richness -- social presentation
Visual literacy -- United States -- Periodicals
Visual learning -- United States -- Periodicals
Visual communication -- United States -- Periodicals
Visual learning
Visual literacy
United States
Periodicals
302.22605 - Journal URLs:
- http://search.ebscohost.com/direct.asp?db=ufh&jid=H13&scope=site ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjvl20/current?nav=tocList ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/1051144X.2016.1270631 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1051-144X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 537.xml