A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON IMAGE-TEXT RELATIONS IN BIG PHARMA’S CODES OF ETHICS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2023.15.4Keywords:
codes of ethics, image-text relations, corporate communication, Big PharmaAbstract
The study of image-text interconnections offers an interdisciplinary approach to understand and contextualise visuals. The present research explores image-text relations in codes of ethics (CoEs), which are corporate documents issued by corporations. Drawing from a generalised system of image-text relations (Martinec & Salway 2005), quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted to illustrate the type of image-text relation implemented in CoEs by companies operating in the global pharmaceutical sector, the so-called Big Pharma industry. Findings suggest that visual type does not necessarily determine a fixed pattern of image-text relations in CoEs. While pictures, drawings and tables display a clear, recurring trend, graphics do not.
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