This chapter proposes an original system for analyzing the significance of contextual cohesion to image-centric practices within news discourse, termed as Compositional Narrative Devices (CND). This system demonstrates how pre-set compositional configurations, comprised of specific and recurrent collocations of visual and textual elements on a page, are employed to depict distinct types of narratives. Using data from the elite news publication Time Asia, this chapter shows how these devices are a recurrent and heretofore undocumented form of storytelling within the news genre.

CNDs function to inter-relate the representational and compositional metafunctions and depict encapsulated narratives, whereby elements of page composition come together to provide a synopsis of a news article. These mini narratives serve as previews/trailers facilitating quick comprehension. The analysis draws on Kress & van Leeuwen’s (2006) semiotic framework as well as Caple’s (2013) Balance Network. It uses mathematical symbols and descriptive labels to better encapsulate the essence of the narrative strategy each configuration represents. In all, it comprises a total of six devices: contradiction, asymmetric sets, contrast, gallery, subsets, and banner. Given that visual story telling looks set to dominate the future of print media, I argue that this system represents an important contribution toward understanding possibilities offered by word-image interplay within print media news discourse.