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Article published In:
Discourse Theory: Ways forward for theory development and research practice
Edited by Benjamin De Cleen, Jana Goyvaerts, Nico Carpentier, Jason Glynos, Yannis Stavrakakis and Ilija Tomanić Trivundža
[Journal of Language and Politics 20:1] 2021
► pp. 145–161

“Symbolic photographs” as floating and empty signifiers

Iconic transformation of news photography

| University of Ljubljana
| University of Ljubljana

The article discusses the use of “symbolic photographs”  – images in news reporting which have no direct connection to reported events – in news reporting. Such images deviate not only from the self-professed journalistic norm of factual reporting but also fundamentally challenge the act of civic eyewitnessing constitutive for visual journalism. Concepts of floating and empty signifiers from Discourse Theory are applied to “symbolic photographs” to analyse their ambivalent act of signification, their particular mode of iconicity and, by extension, the journalistic and political implications of their repetitive use.

Keywords: symbolic photographs, news photography, floating signifier, empty signifier, iconicity, iteration
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.“Symbolic photographs” and iconic tendencies of news photography
  • 3.Empty and floating signifiers
  • 4.Migrants on crowded boats between floating and empty signifiers
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 14 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20050.tom
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Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

De Cleen, Benjamin, Jana Goyvaerts, Nico Carpentier, Jason Glynos & Yannis Stavrakakis
2021. Moving discourse theory forward. Journal of Language and Politics 20:1 ► pp. 22 ff. DOI logo

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