Bilder als (Nicht-)Repräsentationen am Beispiel der Fertigbilder
Pictures as (non-)representations exemplified by ready-made (stock) images

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss the question of the representational function of pictures in context of the contemporary media. The common thesis that pictures express more than thousand words appears as questionable regarding the so-called ready images (in German ‘Fertigbilder’). They do not represent certain events but are available on Internet platforms offering pictures, which can be freely used for an actual text content, so that they seem to represent it. This phenomenon may be perceived as context manipulation. Although the picture itself is not faked in any way, its use outside the primary context may have a significant influence on its interpretation. Such ready images are frequently used as headline pictures on news portals on the Internet. Their relationships with the headline texts is discussed in the following article regarding to the classification of text-picture relationships by Winfried Nöth, based on several examples of items on the German version of the international news portal msn.com. The analysis conducted reveals that such headline pictures are only in rare cases dominant towards the headline texts, regarding their representative function. Typically, they stand in a subordinated or contradictive relationship to the texts, which significantly restrains their role as information carriers.

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