ABSTRACT
The most important part of the tweet is really the picture, which shows all the schoolchildren looking intently at their mobile phones, their backs turned on one of the most famous masterpieces of Western art. Just as the words have meaning, the picture also has meaning—it sends a message about an event that happened in a particular place, involving particular people. In other words, understanding this tweet requires that we are able to figure out how the language in the message interacts with visual communication and with the kinds of expectations we bring to the message as a result of being members of our societies. From this we can see that talking about ‘language’ in the media can actually be a rather complicated thing. Regarding the way this message represents media use, this is also more complicated than it might initially seem.
