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The paper examines the process of visual othering in documentary photographs in print news stories. Adopting the perspective of multimodal critical discourse analysis, it demonstrates how a series of images can construct, in combination with the textual component in image captions, a coherent and self-contained narrative reflecting a shared stereotypical script. The articles argues that the traditional exploration of text-image relations in the press should be extended by considering the storytelling potential of sequenced images in view of the fact that such images can manifest subtle patterns of multimodal manipulation. The implications of this study are relevant for our understanding of the semiotic potential of sequenced images in news stories, as distinct from the genre of print or online picture galleries, and of how such storytelling contributes towards articulating discourses of prejudice.

In this paper, I analyse how expertise is discursively negotiated in TV documentary programmes. While previous research has explored the relationship between the ‘lay’ and the ‘expert’ dimensions invarious public participation programmes, this paper focuses on a TV programme format that is based on the cooperative interaction between professionals who differ in the extent of their knowledge and experience. The paper notes that while expertise is unevenly distributed between the voiceover, the presenter and the expert, these parties complement each other in explaining complex phenomena for the benefit of the audience. Using data from the documentary series How Britain Worked, I argue that as long as the presenter possesses some technical expertise, he may be positioned as a semi-expert between the true expert and the lay audience, even when he simultaneously acts in other contexts as a novice acquiring the specialized expertise needed for his quest. Thus, rather than demonstrating his own knowledge and skills, the presenter mediates expertise for the benefit of the audience. The mediating role is attested by the presenter's frequent shifts of footing in and out of the conversational interaction with the true expert, who may end up assuming a background role of expert support.