Using Kaleidographic to visualize multimodal relations within and across texts

Abstract

Kaleidographic is a dynamic and interactive data visualization tool that allows users to observe and explore relations between any number of variables. It was developed in reaction to the problem of capturing the complex ways in which words and images combine to make meaning. This article introduces the Kaleidographic tool through a case study examining the multimodal construction of news values in news items widely shared on the Facebook social media platform. The design and functionality of the tool are explained in relation to the challenges faced when exploring both the visual and verbal elements of these news items as part of a multimodal discourse analysis. Through this case study, the authors show that Kaleidographic offers multimodal researchers a means of exploring relations at the intersection of different semiotic modes that might be missed in static graphs and tables. Despite Kaleidographic being initially conceived out of the analysis of text–image relations, the case study demonstrates that it has potential applications beyond multimodal discourse analysis. To facilitate broader applications of the tool, it is now publicly available online for use without charge.