Conceptualising images as images in use, this title considers the agencies behind visual communication and its impact on society. It engages critically with traditional approaches to visual analysis, socially situated analyses of images and demonstrates the explanatory force of thinking through images in use in a series of case studies.

1. Introduction (by Stocchetti, Matteo); 2. Part I. Approaches to visual communication and the question of power; 3. Chapter 1. Images: Who gets what, when and how? (by Stocchetti, Matteo); 4. Chapter 2. The critical tradition in visual studies: An introduction (by Herkman, Juha); 5. Chapter 3. The map, the mirror and the simulacrum: Visual communication and the question of power (by Kukkonen, Karin); 6. Chapter 4. Disenchantment with politics and the salience of images (by Wodak, Ruth); 7. Part II. Case studies: Visual communication in late modern society; 8. Chapter 5. Organising political consensus: The visual management of diplomatic negotiations and community relations in the Finnish accession to the EU (by Koski, Anne); 9. Chapter 6. Walls, doors and exciting encounters: Balkanism and its edges in Bulgarian political cartoons on European integration (by Curticapean, Alina); 10. Chapter 7. The politics of visual representation: Security, the US and the 'war on terrorism' (by Palu, Helle); 11. Chapter 8. The politics of identity and visuality: The case of Finnish war children (by Kuusisto-Arponen, Anna-Kaisa); 12. Chapter 9. Visual politics and celebrity humanitarianism: How colonial culture is revitalised in the West (by Yrjola, Riina); 13. Chapter 10. The economics of gay reality television: The visualisation of sexual difference in contemporary consumer cultur (by Kolehmainen, Marjo); 14. Chapter 11. Mending endings: Power and closure in film plots (by Dullaart, Gerda); 15. Chapter 12. Representing the state of exception: Power, utopia, visuality and narrative in superhero comics (by Miettinen, Mervi); 16. Index

The volume is an excellent resource for students, teachers and researchers planning to pursue work on multimodal analysis, since it covers a range of theoretical and methodological approaches in the study of images in discourse. The significance of this work is its strong coherent blend of studies in the area from a variety of perspectives and settings. Specifically, the underlying theme of elucidating the political dimensions of analysing images considering socio-cultural factors imparts valuable insights for future investigations.