Television news and the digital environment: a triadic multimodal approach for analysing moving image media

Taking into account the image and narrative analysis akin to film studies, as well as discourse as per the long-standing tradition of print analysis, this article suggests a dedicated triadic multimodal methodological approach for television news analysis. The precise methodology for best practice qualitative text analysis is as yet poorly defined (Macnamara 2005, 16), but this article proposes a solution to that very concern. This article engages with the methodological challenges of studying television news, and critically reviews several established methods – semiotics, discourse analysis, and the context of media production – but calls for a more holistic approach that better integrates the multimodal nature of television news. I propose a method which allows a blend of the different tracks of television news, from audio and visual to the political economy of these texts. I do so with a view to providing tools for media and journalism students to carry out a beginner’s analysis, but also for more established research to engage with the requirements of studying television news. I then provide an example of how this triadic method can be operationalised by analysing a television news broadcast in relation to the coverage of violence in the context of the 2014 South African election.