Multi-modal communication in online newspaper articles: analysis and audience reception on the Christmas Island accident

The potential for online news to represent international events employing multi-modal features enhances the ability of the audience to access diversified information. The use of varying media formats in addition to written text, such as broadcast and images, can reduce the distance between the audience and the event to enhance understanding. Additionally, the provision of news commentary spaces accommodates a public sphere for audiences to debate socio-political events while engaging with media content. This paper explores the ways in which Australian online media engage with its readers through diversified content, and the responses it evokes from them. The 2010 Christmas Island accident, which involved the death of a number of asylum-seekers attempting to reach Australian territory from South-East Asia, has been taken up as a contemporary case study. The paper employs decoding analysis on the multi-modal discursive representation and interaction of audience responses.