Ch 5 & 6

Ch 5
This chapter is about “modality”—“the truth value or credibility of (linguistically realized) statements about the world” (p. 155). Modality markers are like the little cues that can help us determine whether the messages from texts or images are reliable or not. Verbal modality markers can be auxiliary verbs, such as may, will and must, or adjectives and adverbs, such as possible, probable, certain and so on. Visual modality markers are more complicated. Generally speaking, in terms of color, the more color is reduced, or the more abstract the color, that means the lower the modality. More detailed markers of visual modality include: color saturation, color differentiation, color modulation, contextualization, representation vs. abstraction, depth, illumination, and brightness. What I find interesting is that high modality (=high credibility?) is not necessarily better than low modality. The goal of visual communication is not always to have high modality. In the example of the coffee advertisement (Plate 2), the low modality of the background, through the use of soft focus and soft colors, is meant to represent fantasy and promise. Depending on the message we want to convey, sometimes we may want to have low modality.

The authors also talked about “coding orientation”—the “sets of abstract principles which inform the way in which texts are coded by specific social groups, or within specific institutional contexts” (p. 165). The same level of color saturation can convey high or low modality according to different social groups. The authors identified four coding orientations: scientific/technological, abstract, naturalistic, and sensory. In terms of the coding orientations of different groups, we should think about our target audience when we create images or make films. For example, the principle of modality of horror movies and science fiction would be different from the naturalistic coding orientation. In horror movies, maybe black and white or a dark color tone would have higher modality. In science fiction movies, like when they want to show virtual reality, maybe full color saturation would have higher modality.

Ch 6
This chapter is about image composition and the meanings behind different compositions. Images can be centered or polarized. In horizontally polarized images, the left side is “given” and the right side is “new.” In vertically polarized images, the top section is “ideal” and the bottom section is “real.” In centered images, the center is the focus or the nucleus of information and the margins are subservient. The authors pointed out that the centered composition is relatively uncommon in Western cultures, but more common in Asian cultures. There may be another difference between Eastern and Western cultures in terms of horizontal polarization. Some Asian languages, like Chinese and Japanese, is read from top to bottom, then from right to left, and the book-bindings are on the right side instead of the left. Therefore, in the Asian context, the right side can be the “given” and the left side is the “new.” I have one example from a Chinese/Japanese comic book. The right side is a recap of the previous volume and the left side is the new story.