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The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
3) The Iconological interpretation – the coder deduces intrinsic meaning and
content from the inner structure of the picture, in reference to related literary
texts and “knowledge of history of cultural symptoms or symbols in general” 4
It becomes clear that in each of the three steps the coder will be required to use three
different knowledge banks in order to formulate a description. It also becomes clear
that the steps of analysis recommended by Panofsky are structured around an increase
in subjectiveness – from “practical experience (familiarity with objects and events)” 5
in the pre-iconographical description to “synthetic intuition (familiarity with the
essential tendencies of the human mind)” 6 in the iconological interpretation.
It is therefore important to consider how to work around the resulting subjectiveness
when using Panofsky’s method in connection with the methods of qualitative content
analysis. In order to provide a valid content analysis, any subjective interpretation
should be avoided and therefore the results of the ekphrasis should be empirically
tested for the degree of variation when compared with the results of other coders. The
opposite approach, which I would like to use, attempts not to rely on a given
analytical grid based on existing knowledge, but instead purposefully relies on the
first impression and lateral understanding of the coder. Awareness of the subjective
quality of the first impression affords distance in the following analytical stage of the
description. The coder should hold on to his initial aisthetic impression and keep this
clearly in mind at the beginning of the content analysis procedure. Such an approach
is important in order for the specific nature of the journal covers’ visual material to be
fairly analysed and so that in the second stage of analysis a certain distance from the
research object can be achieved.
3. Exemplary analysis of parallel front pages from “Polityka” and “Der Spiegel”
Following the end of the Second World War and subsequent efforts to stabilize
political order, communication science was increasingly searching for enhanced
approaches to explore mutual understanding between nations worldwide. The
modernist idea that media coverage of other countries could also affect international
relations formed the background for these efforts. 7 The role of the press in the
production and dissemination of national stereotypes is highlighted in this report,
which the nations themselves and other nations then maintain. It is under these
circumstances that such stereotypes can be manipulated not only in a positive sense
but also in a negative sense in order to create tensions and misunderstandings, an
aspect that Merrill criticizes in his study of the topic. 8
Within the context of my research, comparative studies of such stereotypes are
conducted using visual material from news journal covers spanning 1945 to 2010.
4 Panofsky, Erwin (1939): Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance.
New York; p 15
5 Panofsky, Erwin (1955): Meaning in the Visual Arts: Papers in and on Art History. New York; p 41
6 see above
7 White, Llewellyn/ Leigh, Robert D. (1946): Peoples speaking to peoples : A report on international
mass communication from the Commission on Freedom of the Press. Chicago; p 1
8 Merrill, John C. (1959): The Foreign Press: A Survey of the World ́s Journalism. Louisiana; p 7
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