Representing experience : the co-articulation of verbiage and image in multimodal text

Multimodal texts enhance communication by using different semiotic resources in meaning-making and in the realisation of social goals and purposes (Martin and Rose 2003; Thibault 2004; Unsworth 2001). In contemporary newspapers, texts are becoming increasingly multimodal and complex in the construction of social values and beliefs (Iedema et al. 1994; White 1998). The key contribution of this chapter lies in its eclectic three level approach, which provides a unique, in-depth understanding of highly complex multimodal media texts. It aims to complement the theoretical framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as a mode of presenting temporal and social experience (Halliday, 1994; Hasan, 1996; Martin, 1995, 2001).