A tabloid dragons choice : a semiotic image analysis of Aftonbladets image choices on the web and the printed newspaper.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the image selection in the swedish newspaper Aftonbladet during three days. We wanted to know what kind of images Aftonbladet choosed to publish in the printed newspaper and in the corresponding articles on the web. Through a semiotic image analysis we were able to analyze what images Aftonbladet choosed to publish and what the images signaled. We were also looking for differences and similarities in the image selection so we compared what kind of different images the newspaper where using on the web and in the printed newspaper. We analyzed three pages from two newspapers in June, and the associated web articles, which gave us a total of 50 photos to analyze. Through the analysis we found that most of the images could speak to the observer's pathos, that is, emotions. The result also showed that Aftonbladet used more sensational journalism on images of people in the printed newspaper compared to the web. The similarities we found mainly concerned that there were many of the images that were the same on the web and the printed newspaper. The differences we found mainly concerned that there were many more images on the web than in the printed newspaper and the pictures were also much bigger at the website. We hope that our study will provide an in-depth understanding of the importance of the image in the news context and contribute to the journalistic research field