Abstract
This is an innovative book written with the aim of demonstrating the benefits of using relevance theory in visual and multimodal communication studies. The author Charles Forceville acknowledges that while ‘visual information plays an ever greater role in modern communication’, its study has been dominated by semiotics but semiotics ‘has not come up with an overall theory of communication in which such analyses can be embedded’ (p. 1). Forceville argues that such a theory would be extremely useful and should be premised on a number of ‘competences” such as ‘knowledge of the code’, ‘an understanding of the genre’, ‘the ability to recognise that, and how, people and objects represented in the discourse/message resemble people and objects in the “real” world’, ‘the ability to recognise depicted events and scenarios’, ‘awareness of the affordances . . . and constraints of the medium in which a discourse/message is rendered, including pertinent aspects of style’ and ‘possession of pertinent encyclopedic knowledge of the world’ (p. 2). In his view, relevance theory ticks all these boxes and is able to deal with all forms of communication. At the core of relevance theory is the claim that ‘successful communication requires optimal relevance to a target audience’ (blurb). However, one key limitation is that it has predominantly been applied in relation to spoken communication so one of the book’s key contributions is to offer an adaption of the theory, which makes it applicable to all forms of communication. According to the blurb, ‘Visual and Multimodal Communication: Applying the Relevance Principle is the first book to systematically demonstrate how RT can fulfil its promise to develop into an inclusive theory of communication’. As the title suggests, Forceville focuses on the applicability of RT to ‘static visuals and multimodal discourses in popular culture genres’ (blurb). The author uses a range of case studies of pictograms, advertisements, cartoons and comics. The book is split into Introduction and 11 substantive chapters. The first five chapters present the theoretical work on relevance theory, adapting it to accommodate visual communication, relevance theory and mediated mass-communication and genre. The next four chapters then present a few case studies – pictograms, traffic signs and logos; advertising; political; and non-political cartoons and comics. The final two chapters are on controversial communication and include concluding remarks. All in all, this is an insightful book who would be of interest to communication scholars of different backgrounds.