Visual Images within Accounting Annual Reports:
A Critical Discourse Analysis
Authors: Xun Gong, Sudhir Lodh, Kathy Rudkin (Wollongong, NSW)
Discussant: Jane Davison (Royal Holloway, University of London)
SUMMARY OF PAPER
INTRODUCTION
Motivation and aims:
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Evolving nature of accounting and annual reporting to incorporate more nonnumerical information
To explore the contextual messages and socio-political significance of visual images
in the Chinese context
To examine the dual ideological influences of socialism and capitalism
Theory & methodology
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Fairclough (1993) - critical discourse analysis
– Barthes (1977 – which essay?) – visual semiotics
• Portraiture (Davison, 2010)
• Chinese cultural beliefs – Confucianism & Taoism (give refs
• Colour in the Chinese tradition
Empirical focus
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China Mobile Annual Report 2010
– Rationale
• Dualism E & W - listed Hong Kong & New York
• Dualism state and private
• Dual Chinese and non-Chinese readership
• Largest telecoms firm in the world
– Dissemination
• Postal service
• China Mobile Ltd website
• Chinese Mobile Communications Corporation website
(difference between the two websites?)
(is there a different version in each of the three
media?)
Findings
Three sets of competing interpretations:
• Globalisation v nationalism
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Democracy v dictatorship
Shareholder interest v stakeholder interest v stateholder interest
Postal service annual reports and China Mobile Ltd website indicate globalisation,
democracy, shareholder interest
China Mobile Communications Corporation website indicates nationalism, dictatorship and
stateholder interest.
Contribution
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(1) Ideology - first study of dual ideological implications of an annual report’s visual
discourse for both socialism and capitalism
(2) Method - combines critical discourse analysis with Barthes’ semiotics
(3) Method - combines arts disciplines (portraiture, antithesis, repetition) and
Chinese cultural beliefs and use of colour (these too may be studied under arts
disciplines?)
Add a fourth – detailed study of the Chinese context?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Key prior work
– Preston et al. (1996)
– Graves et al. (1996)
– Preston and Young (2000)
– AAAJ special issue (2009)
– Davison (2010)
Brief categorisation
– Quantitative and content analysis
– Qualitative – art theories, sociology
– Gap re history, power and politics
– Gap re Chinese context
THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
Detailed theory and methodology: critical discourse analysis
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Language as social practice with political implications
Includes discourse beyond the linguistic, such as body gestures and visual images
Three-dimensional framework
– Public discourse – visual in annual reports [pp. 10-38]
– Discourse practice – regulation, dissemination, readership
– Social practice – institutions and governance of the telecoms industry and
China Mobile [pp. 38-39
Detailed theory and methodology: nothing on the visual??
EMPIRICAL WORK
Public discourse: denotation ‘literal’
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The waves’ representation of old & new, past & present, disruptive & sustaining (are
these ‘literal’ meanings?)
Use of repetition (is this denotation?)
Public discourse: connotation ‘symbolic’
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(1) Waves – strategic direction & solid foundations (evidence?)
(2) Water symbolism & Chinese culture - – sustainability (Taoism, kindness) &
(Confucianism dynamic, wisdom): sustainability & democratic management (farfetched?)
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(3) Use of colour & Chinese culture –
Front cover – many colours - blurs east & west (far-fetched?)
Portrait of chairman – yellow, purple – Qing dynasty power and dictatorship
v Western symbolism of quality & trust
(4) Awards
Use of antithesis – blurred v concrete
Use of repetition – emphasis of prizes
(5) Director biographies
Portraiture codes:
Physical – attractiveness & success
Dress – power & social status; western
Interpersonal – smiles & charisma
Spatial – same backcloth – consistency & solidarity
Overall – globalised, charismatic, trustworthy, united. (?)
Other aspects, eg repetition, diversity, government control (text)
(6) Open dialogue with senior management
Open and authoritative management
Global corporate identity
Centralisation & suppression – dominance of upper figure
Social practice and discourse practice
This work is in another paper
STRENGTHS
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More work on the visual welcome.
Analysis of ideology in visual images of annual reports – undeveloped as it stands,
but if developed this would be an interesting contribution.
Focus on China – despite the growth of China and Chinese accounting, there is
almost no work on the use of the visual in Chinese annual reports.
Placing in theory – not easy in visual work.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
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Literature review – better quality and accuracy of analysis, and tying in to subsequent
empirical work
Theory & methodology, especially visual theory & methodology
– Closer discussion of critical discourse analysis
– Closer discussion of the nature and challenges of the visual – almost nothing
at present.
– Closer discussion of the precise methods employed, eg. more precision re
Barthes – Barthes (1977) is a collection of quite different essays
– Too many approaches at present – confusion and overlap between CDA and
semiotics, signifier/signified, denotation/connotation, rhetoric [antithesis &
repetition], visual portraiture
– What is uniquely Chinese in the visual?
Empirical analysis
– Sometimes the claims seem far-fetched and lacking in evidence
– Tie in with literature review
– Categories of analysis not logically constructed
Length & structure
– Overall structure well sign-posted in introduction. Too long at 20,000
words. Unbalanced between sections. Main arguments get lost. Repetition
between sections. No real conclusions at present.
FURTHER RESOURCES
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inVisio [International Network for Visual Studies in Organizations] at: in-visio.org
Newly available ESRC-funded research development web pages http://moodle.invisio.org/
Journal special issues AOS 1996; AAAJ 2009; QROM 2012
Books: Imagining Business (Routledge 2012) (Eds. Quattrone, McLean, Thrift); The
Visual Organization (Routledge 2013) (Eds. Bell, Schroeder, Warren); Companion to
Accounting Communication (Routledge, 2013) (Eds Jack, Davison, Craig)
Conference at Essex University 27-28th November 2012