nterculturality in the media. Combining critical multimodal discourse analysis and reception theory

At a time of changing geopolitical scenarios and revived nationalisms, what position does the media take in intercultural matters? And how does the audience interpret media text that rely on intercultural content?
The role of the media as a mirror of “reality” was the translucent background against which much research and theorising in Media Studies was done since the establishment of this field and up to the 1960s (Gurevitch et al., 1982/2005: pp. 3-4). Stuart Hall (1980) and a new critical tradition, however, convincingly challenged the mirror position: he argues that the media message is negotiated through the ideological encoding of meaning on the part of the text producer and the ideological decoding of meaning on the part of the audience. The interplay between the two forms the basis for the construction of “realities”.
The paper uses data from my current research to analyse some cultural themes in an infotainment programme and to explore qualitatively the interaction of one research participant with the text. The research uses a Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis lens (e.g. van Leeuwen, 2005; Machin and Mayr, 2012) and aims to explore the effects of mass-mediated travel and cultural programmes on an audience. The mediation analytical framework that has been designed as part of the project will be briefly introduced before looking at some of the data and discussing some preliminary findings.

The paper aims to contribute to discussions in both Media Studies and Critical Discourse Studies by focusing on the genre of infotainment and by exploring its effects on an audience with regard to intercultural issues.