Zum Status sprachlich kodierter Einheiten in der massenmedialen Kommunikation

Abstract

This article advocates a perspective on the textuality of language units in the massmedia which is not biased with the established cultural schemes. Due to their massmedia context it appears to be unadequate to categorise them as texts, even though they are from the formal viewpoint comparable to conventional text units. However, such units are evidently not intended for the kind of reception which is typical of texts, but function rather as components of complex “visual surfaces” (Schmitz 2011: 23–42). Most researchers – also outside the field of linguistics – attempt to ascribe such units to one of the established categories of signs, so that they are perceived either as (unusual) texts or as (unusual) pictures, which inevitably results in focusing on their either textual or pictorial aspects. An alternative is an interdisciplinary approach, perceiving such units as a separate type of signs und determining their comprehensive analysis.