Visual Communication: Understanding Images in Media and Culture provides a theoretical and empirical toolkit to examine implications of mediated images. It explores a range of approaches to visual analysis, while also providing a hands-on guide to applying methods to students′ own work. The book:

• Illustrates a range of perspectives, from content analysis and semiotics, to multimodal and critical discourse analysis
• Explores the centrality of images to issues of identity and representation, politics and activism, and commodities and consumption
• Brings theory to life with a host of original case studies, from celebrity videos on Youtube and civil unrest on Twitter, to the lifestyle branding of Vice Media and Getty Images
• Shows students how to combine approaches and methods to best suit their own research questions and projects 

An invaluable guide to analysing contemporary media images, this is essential reading for students and researchers of visual communication and visual culture. 

"Compelling and wide-reaching… Aiello and Parry provide us with a sense of how persuasive the visual is today and how it insinuates itself into all aspects of life, from everyday interactions to the dramas of high politics, from advertising to crisis diplomacy, and from selfies to national celebrations." - The International Journal of Press/Politics

"Aiello and Parry have chosen to focus on one important visual site: mediated images, according to three theoretically rich approaches: identity, politics and commodities. Each chapter is supported by their own case studies of contemporary visual phenomena, such as iconicity in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the discursive strategies of the opening title sequence from the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, and the design strategies that distinguish the website Vice.com… their project will be welcome not only to many classrooms but to the field at large." - Visual Communication

"Giorgia Aiello and Katy Parry present the subject of visual communication in various contexts, not avoiding difficult, ethically demanding and contemporary topics. They show the power of images in the contemporary media sphere." - Studio Medionawcze

"...it marks the maturation of the visual research discipline. Aiello and Parry’s focused attention on the way mediated images operate culturally ensures that their project will be welcome not only to many classrooms but to the field at large." - SAGE Journal of Visual Communication

"The broad conceptual and empirical spectrum covered by Aiello and Parry is truly impressive. They provide us with a sense of how persuasive the visual is today and how it insinuates itself into all aspects of life, from everyday interactions to the dramas of high politics, from advertising to crisis diplomacy, and from selfies to national celebrations." - SAGE International Journal of Press/Politics

"They consciously address diversity, inclusion, gender and stereotypes. The relevance of the book also lies in encouraging and supporting lecturers to include visual communication in their curriculum: The world, be it online or offline, is shaped by images and it is necessary that these, along with their Forms of origin and their scope for interpretation can be read and understood. Although the term "visual literacy" is not included in the index, Aiellos and Parry′s book is aimed precisely at this competence.
" - Medien Wissenschaft