Abstract:

This study aims to investigate the ways in which signs are produced and modes are chosen for representation and interpretation of meanings and concepts. At first, the most salient components i.e. portrait, and documentary photos, manipulated images, words and colors were scrutinized respectively in terms of their functions and embedded meanings in Iranian news magazines. Then, the functional and communicational purposes of different genres were specified. The results revealed that many processes (e.g. analytical, action, reaction, and symbolic processes), and strategies (e.g. margin vs. center, top vs. bottom strategies), color differentiation, and modality modification are involved in representing and interpreting meanings and concepts in this type of discourse. On the other hand, four genres were defined based on which the covers of news magazines are categorized. These genres are narration, identification, revelation of multiplicity, and symbolization. It's worth noting that each genre covers certain types of news events.

Keywords:

Covers of news magazines, genre, multimodal discourse.