Understanding Media Communication: On the Significance of Iconic Thinking for a Praxeological Model of Communication

Abstract

This article outlines the state of the art in picture analysis as it has been developed in the trajectory of reconstructive methodology. Analyzing pictures in their own right—that is, by adhering to the particular affordances of the medium “picture”—has strong implications for qualitative research some of which are discussed in this article. With regard to content, this discussion revolves around questions pertaining to bodily self-presentation in mass and social media. On this basis, the article concludes with a praxeological model of communication that offers a guideline for social research which is clued-up as to its own media and, thus, takes into account that meaning in pictures is constructed differently than meaning in language.

Cartographic imaginaries of the COVID-19 crisis in Mexico – a typology of disease maps

“…Everything should be described and re-formulated in all detail, estranging the interpreter from the contents to suspend their intuitive understanding. This reflects the documentary method's link to ethnomethodological techniques (Przyborski & Slunecko, 2020).…”

“…These different materialities (Egbert, 2019) and their specific assemblage provoke different cognitive processes in/with the viewer/reader. It can be seen as a communicative form ("Gattung" in German sociology) (Knoblauch, 2013) with its own social order (Przyborski & Slunecko, 2020). At the same time, how this (or any other form) is conducted, hints at a different social order at some other level.…”

“You Have Blood On Your Lips” — Experiencing and Articulating Animal-Related Violence in Veganism

“…This needs to include their modes of functioning as specific forms of expression, articulation, communication, and documentation. An examination of images can take place on at least three levels, which of course are often intertwined and can only be separated analytically, if at all: As interpretation, in the narrower sense, where images are analysed in their own right (i.e., with regard to their intrinsic dimensions) and their inherent logic (Przyborski & Slunecko, 2020); as analysis with regard to the use and effects of images (Straub, 2022); or -as it is done in this article -an analysis of how seeing and showing violence against animals is talked about and what this teaches us about the functions of imagery.…”