Exploring multimodal registers in and across organizations and institutional fields: Sketching an approach for larger-scale multimodal analysis

In this article, we develop methodology that enables a systematic analysis of the structural aspects of multimodal discourse from larger amounts of data. While existing research in visual organization studies has provided interesting insights into the content and meaning(s) of visual and multimodal communication, comparably little is known about how precisely multimodal communication establishes such meanings, suggests relationships between text producers, topics, and audiences, and interacts with the written word. Conceptually, we suggest the concept of ‘visual register' as a way of capturing the particular repertoires of expression that the visual offers and argue that studying such registers substantially contributes to understanding the distribution of meanings in and across organizations and institutional fields, but also across points in time. By drawing on the social semiotic concept of ‘metafunction', we develop coding advice that aims at facilitating the analysis of larger quantities of visual data while still acknowledging the particular performativity of the visual mode. We illustrate our ideas with empirical data on the reporting of Austrian publicly traded corporations about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a complex and multivocal management idea that touches a variety of topics and incorporates multiple levels of audience engagement with regard to a substantial diversity of audiences.