Studia Językoznawcze

synchroniczne i diachroniczne aspekty badań polszczyzny


ISSN: 1730-4180    eISSN: 2353-3161    OAI    DOI: 10.18276/sj.2026.24-11
CC BY-SA   Open Access   ERIH PLUS

Issue archive / t. 24, 2025
Multimodal constructions of work. A social semiotic analysis of the communist press images

Authors: Anna Łazuka-Banach ORCID
University of Szczecin
Keywords: visual communication semiotic resources work
Whole issue publication date:2026-02
Page range:22 (167-188)
Cited-by (Crossref) ?:

Abstract

The paper focuses on examining the images on the theme of work as found on the front pages of Trybuna Ludu, a Polish newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the Polish communist authorities. The data set of 34 images (from the selected years of the period from 1944 to 1989) was analyzed using a social semiotic toolkit as discussed by Kress and van Leeuwen who argued for the importance of visual images which just like the verbal are characterized by their own visual grammar. Following its rules, the images were surveyed in terms of various semiotic resources used and their semiotic potential was elicited. The resulting representations of work were then situated in the contemporary political context. The study fits into the broad research trend on visual communication.
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