SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC: http://vcj.sagepub.com) Copyright © The Author(s), 2012. Reprints and permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalspermissions.nav/ Vol 11(3): 307–328 DOI 10.1177/1470357212446410 visual communication ARTICLE Perceiving press photography: a new integrative model, combining iconology with psychophysiological and eye-tracking methods MARION G. MÜLLER, ARVID KAPPAS, AND BETTINA OLK Research Center Visual Communication and Expertise (VisComX), Jacobs University Bremen, Germany ABSTRACT Any analysis of how mass-mediated visuals are perceived and interpreted in multimodal contexts should be informed by a scientific understanding of the biological constraints on visual processing, as well as a solid culturally aware visual communication approach. This article focuses on the interdis- ciplinary combination of three methods – iconology, a qualitative method of visual analysis targeted at the meanings of visuals and based in the humanities, and eye-tracking and psychophysiological reaction measure- ment, both based in experimental psychology. The authors propose a Visual Communication Process Model as an integrative means for connecting dif- ferent facets of the communication processes involved in visual mass com- munication. The goal of this new model is to widen and sharpen the focus on explaining (a) meaning-attribution processes, (b) visual perception and attention processes, and (c) psychophysiological reactions to mass-medi- ated visuals, illustrated in this article with examples of press photography. KEYWORDS eye-tracking • iconology • press photography • psychophysiology • visual methods INTRODUCTION In this article, we propose a new approach to bridging the methodological and theoretical gap in interdisciplinary research of the visual, by combining iconological visual analysis (Müller, 2011) with measurements of cognitive processes and emotional effects (Olk and Kappas, 2011; Müller and Kappas, 446410VCJ 11 3 10.1177/1470357212446410Müller et al.: Perceiving press photographyVisual Communication 2012