The Grammar of News Images: Multimodal Approaches to Form, Power, and Meaning in Znews

This study employs Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Multimodal Discourse Analysis framework to examine 67 introductory images in Znews’ LENS section. Combining qualitative and descriptive quantitative approaches, it analyzes representational, interactive, and compositional meanings. The findings identify distinct discursive patterns across thematic groups—Tourism–Urban Life, Social Work, Education, Occupations, Celebrities, Accidents–Disasters, and Healthcare. Extending beyond technical aspects, the study critically explores how images construct power relations, shape identities, and reflect ideologies of development, humanitarianism, and cultural consumption, thereby enriching both communicative effectiveness and academic understanding of press photography in Vietnam’s digital media context.