Print advertising in anglophone and francophone Canada from a critical discourse analytical point of view: establishing different relations between the producer and viewer of advertisement images. (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lick, Erhard
• Is Part Of: Visual communication. Volume 14:Number 2(2015:May)
• Page Start: 221
• Page End: 241
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: Canada -- critical discourse analysis -- magazine advertisements -- marketing communications -- semiotics -- visual design; Visual communication -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Periodicals; Art and society -- Periodicals; 302.222
• DOI: 10.1177/1470357214565580
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-3572

Abstract

This article investigates whether marketers use different visual designs in Canadian magazine advertisements to establish different types of contacts to, on the one hand, anglophone and, on the other hand, francophone viewers. The results of the content analysis, which is based on the Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design (2006) model by Kress and Van Leeuwen, show that there are significant differences between the English and French advertisements regarding the relationship between the image-producer and viewer. In particular, there are differences concerning both the social distance and power relations between the image-producer and viewer as well as the involvement and detachment of the viewer.