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Article
Publication date: 28 August 2023

Lázaro Florido-Benítez

The nuclear purpose of this research paper is to analyse representative bridges around the world as a tourist attraction and iconic element through destination marketing…

Abstract

Purpose

The nuclear purpose of this research paper is to analyse representative bridges around the world as a tourist attraction and iconic element through destination marketing organisations’ (DMOs’) tourism official websites where these are localised and three online travel agencies’ (OTAs’) websites.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used a mixed method. The author carried out Google research (13 March 2023) that included the following search word string “iconic bridges around the world” and “the most famous bridges worldwide” to select the most relevant bridges around the globe. Moreover, this research used a content analysis to examine how Expedia, Booking and Orbitz OTAs promote the bridges through their websites in terms of a tourist attraction, iconic element, tourist package, images and information.

Findings

Findings suggest that the most representative bridges analysed in this study are promoted as iconic element and tourist attraction through DMOs’ websites. Nevertheless, Booking, Expedia and Orbitz OTAs promote and sell products and services related to bridges selected, except in the case of the Millau Viaduct in France, the Si-O-Se-Pol bridge in Iran, the Danyang Kunshan Grand bridge in China and the Royal Gorge in the USA. Furthermore, results support that OTAs need to enhance the quality and variety of products and services that are linked to iconic bridges sightseeing tours because at the moment, there is a great uniformity in the promotion of products and services provided.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to broader debates in the importance of bridges as a tourist attraction and iconic element to attract tourists through tourism promotion websites.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2019

Ulrika Kjellman

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics and functions of images in scientific practices and how scientific images differ to other types of representation (e.g…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics and functions of images in scientific practices and how scientific images differ to other types of representation (e.g. textual, numerical or artistic images). To address these questions, the study looks into the illustration practice of the Swedish researcher Gaston Backman, who wrote several books on the origin of the human species, human anatomy, physical anthropology and race biology in the beginning of the twentieth century.

Design/methodology/approach

A comparative and functional analytical method is applied to show how the images act in his writings and how rhetorical and technical circumstances affect the way the images communicate and document scientific facts and ideas. Theoretically, the study relates to ideas suggesting: images to be serious partakers and vehicles of representation in the practice of science; and the need for images to be schematic and more abstract in comparison to an iconic image in order to work in this practice.

Findings

The findings of this study show that Backman used both schematic and iconic images in his research writings, and that these different image expressions had different functions: where the former was based on facts and had an informative and scientific function, the latter was based on fantasy/myth and used to promote ideological values and ideas.

Originality/value

This study stresses the importance of images in the practice of science, i.e. how images alongside verbal or numerical expressions act as important information and knowledge carriers in the work of science. Even though images intermingle with verbal and numerical expression, they also have a unique and specific, a role that needs to be taken seriously and investigated further in the realm of information studies and document studies. The authors also need to be aware that images can have different functions in the scientific practice, and are not always there to carry scientific facts or ideas, but ideologies and fantasies.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 75 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2014

Claire-France Picard, Sylvain Durocher and Yves Gendron

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative cultural shift from professionalism to commercialism in the accounting profession, based on an analysis of the promotional…

4362

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative cultural shift from professionalism to commercialism in the accounting profession, based on an analysis of the promotional brochures used by the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Québec), over the last 40 years, to attract new members.

Design/methodology/approach

The study's specific objectives are: to examine accountancy's cultural representations depicted in promotional brochures; to evaluate the extent to which these representations are indicative of the commercialist shift as documented in the literature; and to establish whether the representations under study provide further insight into the nature of the cultural shift. Drawing on the semiotic approach developed by Roland Barthes, the authors' analysis is predicated on the idea that promotional brochures and advertisements, though often simple in appearance, constitute complex representations that convey meaningful information about influential values and cultural change.

Findings

The authors found that commercial values are increasingly apparent through the celebration of multidisciplinary services and the emphasis on generous compensation and high dynamism.

Originality/value

Barthes' framework was especially useful to analyze the interplay between images and text to gain insight into the historical emergence of what has become the accountant's representation of today. As such, this study points to promotional representations participating to the inculcation of a cosmopolitan culture, where the internationalization of business is supposedly natural, inevitable, and beneficial to everyone. The authors' research also highlights the increasingly significant role played by marketing experts in designing professional institutes' brochures, consistent with the broader view of marketization as a key trend within the accounting industry.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2011

Jane Davison

The purpose of this paper is to examine Barthes' influence on, and potential for, accounting communication research; and to apply Barthes' principles to visual images of…

5178

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine Barthes' influence on, and potential for, accounting communication research; and to apply Barthes' principles to visual images of professional accountancy.

Design/methodology/approach

The study seeks to provide: a synthesis of prior accounting research that has drawn on Barthes' work, followed by an overview of Barthes' work in both its rational, structuralist, phase, and its more sentimental, post‐structuralist, phase, that identifies strands of interest to accounting communication; and Barthesian semiotic interpretations of visual images of accountancy portrayed in the annual report front covers of a major UK accounting firm through their linguistics (anchorage and relay), denotation and connotation.

Findings

Barthes' work has been surprisingly little used in accounting; a number of aspects of Barthes's work could be more fruitfully exploited, especially those from his later post‐structuralist phase; a Barthesian approach assists in reading the dual portrayal of accountancy as both an art and a science, and as business‐aware as well as traditionally professional.

Research limitations/implications

The theoretical section is limited to a broad overview of Barthes' very extensive work; the empirical section provides a detailed analysis of one organization. It would be useful to extend the research to more extended analyses based on Barthes' prolific work, and to many aspects of accounting communication.

Practical implications

The analysis may be of interest to all accounting researchers, practitioners, trainees and auditors, since communication is central to accounting.

Originality/value

The paper adds to theoretical work in accounting communication, to the empirical literature on the interpretation of verbal and visual signs in accounting and accountability statements, and to understanding of the external images of professional accountancy.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2010

Rania Kamla and Clare Roberts

This paper aims to examine GCC companies' use of visual images to interplay modernity and globalism with tradition, Islam and local culture. The analysis aims to bring attention…

2697

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine GCC companies' use of visual images to interplay modernity and globalism with tradition, Islam and local culture. The analysis aims to bring attention to the way that businesses in the GCC use visual images to engage with or influence debates in their societies concerning the tension between modernity, globalisation and traditional values in the Arab‐Islamic world.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is critical and discursive and based on a close reading of the visual images reported in the 2005 annual reports of companies listed on GCC stock markets.

Findings

The analysis suggests that GCC companies on many occasions used visual images to depict and represent the possibility of a successful profitable, modern and global business that is also sympathetic to tradition and operates within the framework of Islamic principles.

Originality/value

While visual images are increasingly used in companies' annual reports they have been largely ignored in accounting research. Furthermore, when this research manifests, it has been concerned with investigating Anglo‐American and Western contexts. This paper instead emphasises the significance of researching the use of visual images in a variety of contexts and locations. It critically and contextually explores the use of visual images in a largely unexplored, non‐Western and a significantly Islamic context.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 August 2007

Bradford Keeney

Aims to define the conceptual tools of Gregory Bateson's epistemology – the nature of difference, logical typing, and recursion – and to apply this to understanding how we can…

Abstract

Purpose

Aims to define the conceptual tools of Gregory Bateson's epistemology – the nature of difference, logical typing, and recursion – and to apply this to understanding how we can approach the analysis of ethnographic reports of the Bushman n/om‐kxaosi (shamans) and the Bushman rock art of Southern Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper argues that kinesthetic interaction with n/om‐kxaosi provides a vehicle for learning their way of construing the world.

Findings

The n/om‐kxaosi have a kinesthetic lexicon and a set of dominant metaphors rooted to their ecstatic body expression that provide coherence to their ways of healing and spiritual understanding. The previously assumed incoherent nature of Bushman religious views noted by anthropologists is argued to have been the consequence of underestimating the importance Bushman thinking gives to circularity and transformation of all aspects of their experience.

Originality/value

Illuminates the analysis of the Bushman culture.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 36 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 February 2007

O. Folorunso, O.R. Vincent and B.M. Dansu

This paper seeks to describe the use of edge‐detection as an approach to support the process of analyzing visual scenes.

1141

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to describe the use of edge‐detection as an approach to support the process of analyzing visual scenes.

Design/methodology/approach

Edges‐detection is considered as a KM technique task. Several edge‐detection algorithms were discussed but Canny method was chosen in conjunction with JAVA to find the edges of an image.

Findings

The paper provides an overview of knowledge need by the visual scene analyst. It reviews the process of extracting knowledge from image data. Finally, the paper looks at the management aspects of image‐edge detection.

Originality/value

Experiments herein have proved the method robustness by considering edge‐detection as a knowledge management technique for visual scene analysis by deriving knowledge from semantic information based on object boundaries shadow.

Details

Information Management & Computer Security, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-5227

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Ray Uzwyshyn

This paper aims to present the schematic for building a multimedia information visualization system and digital archive which takes advantage of a wider spectrum of media elements…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present the schematic for building a multimedia information visualization system and digital archive which takes advantage of a wider spectrum of media elements (images, sound, datasets) and interactivity with regards to research level historical body of knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology for this interactive multimedia visualized system was based on create a digital environment to explore larger bodies of research that expand on simple text‐based Information Retrieval Database systems. Through photos, videos, interactive maps, digital audio interviews, primary documents and narrative structures the system presents new methodologies for building digital libraries. The “educational” objective of this project was to present a stylistically elegant yet intellectually robust interactive multimedia information system for academic libraries.

Findings

Building new online digital libraries must involve robust interactivity to take advantage of the computer's intrinsic specificity and the wider set of choices open to the human perceptual apparatus. Instead of text‐based navigation systems, a more creative set of visual “tools” should be explored for digital libraries including interactivity and cognitive cartographies. Key here are the terms “visual metaphor” and innovatively structuring visually intuitive “narratives” into non‐linear dynamic but humanly usable information systems.

Research limitations/implications

In expanding the range of “allowable” “historical archival media” (audio, video, images, datasets, databases) in digital libraries and keeping research level academic integrity, future questions regard what this means for historiography, information construction, and questions surrounding epistemology and “archives” of the future.

Practical implications

Technically, the successes in building this digital library information system solve the question of how to present a large robust amount of information indifferent rich media formats in an interesting and engaging manner. The project points to methodologies to present a research spectrum depth structure of textual material that can seamlessly be incorporated through wider spectrum of media elements: images, video, audio, music, datasets and interactivity.

Originality/value

This paper provides a methodology for marrying a textual body of academic research with a wider spectrum of media elements (sound, images, datasets, music) and incorporating them into a digital library through an innovative methodology. It will be valuable to anyone needing guidelines and specific algorithmic recipes and suggestions for building new millennia digital libraries which take advantage of a wider spectrum of media elements.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 May 2018

Terrence H. Witkowski

This paper aims to present a visually documented brand history of Winchester Repeating Arms through a cultural analysis of iconic Western images featuring its lever action rifles.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a visually documented brand history of Winchester Repeating Arms through a cultural analysis of iconic Western images featuring its lever action rifles.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applies visual culture perspectives and methods to the research and writing of brand history. Iconic Western images featuring Winchester rifles have been selected, examined, and used as points of departure for gathering and interpreting additional data about the brand. The primary sources consist chiefly of photographs from the nineteenth century and films and television shows from the twentieth century. Most visual source materials were obtained from the US Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the Internet Movie Firearms Database. These have been augmented by written sources.

Findings

Within a few years of the launch of the Winchester brand in 1866, visual images outside company control associated its repeating rifles with the settlement of the American West and with the colorful people involved. Some of these images were reproduced in books and others sold to consumers in the form of cartes de visite, cabinet cards and stereographs made from albumen prints. Starting in the 1880s, the live Wild West shows of William F. Cody and his stars entertained audiences with a heroic narrative of the period that included numerous Winchesters. During the twentieth century and into the present, Winchesters have been featured in motion pictures and television series with Western themes.

Research limitations/implications

Historical research is an ongoing process. The discovery of new primary data, both written and visual, may lead to a revised interpretation of the selected images.

Originality/value

Based largely on images as primary data sources, this study approaches brand history from the perspective of visual culture theory and data. The research shows how brands acquire meaning not just from the companies that own them but also from consumers, the media and other producers of popular culture.

Details

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, vol. 10 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-750X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Bimbisar Irom

The study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between remediations and participation in new media. By lending some transparency, the analysis hopes…

Abstract

Purpose

The study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between remediations and participation in new media. By lending some transparency, the analysis hopes to contribute toward generating a critical optics aware of the potentials and pitfalls of emergent media.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology is visual semiotic analysis. The author make no claim for one, true interpretation or critical judgment about the images.

Findings

In demonstrating some shortfalls of Instagram affordances, the analysis shows how social media sites can develop tools that encourage users to engage in civic consciousness and respectful political debate. The study makes clear that new media tools can hamper or aid participatory logics.

Originality/value

To author’s knowledge, no other study that has analyzed remediated images related to the controversial confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is also important to place these images in the contexts of “iconicity” in emergent media (a concept increasingly being eroded in new media environment).

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 48 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

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