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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Teaches visual literacy, theory, scholarly critique, and practical application of visuals in professional communication careers
Visual Communication: Insights and Strategies explores visual imagery in advertising, news coverage, political discourse, popular culture, and digital and social media technologies. It is filled with insights into the role of visuals in our dynamic social environment and contains strategies on how to use them.
The authors provide an overview of theoretically-informed literacy and critical analysis of visual communication and demonstrate the ways in which we can assess and apply this knowledge in the fields of advertising, public relations, journalism, organizational communication, and intercultural communication. This important book:
- Reveals how to analyze visual imagery
- Introduces a 3-step process, Research-Evaluate-Create, to apply the knowledge gained
- Combines research, theory, and professional practice of visual communication
Designed for undergraduate and graduate courses in visual communication as well as visual rhetoric, visual literacy, and visual culture, Visual Communication: Insights and Strategies reveals how to apply rhetorical theories to visual imagery.
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Seitenzahl: 536
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
PART ONE: Understanding Visual Communication
Chapter 1: Making Sense of Visual Culture:
1000 Words or One Simple Picture?
HOW VISUALS WORK
MULTIPLE MEANINGS
DECODING VISUAL MESSAGES
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 2: Visualizing Ethics
HOW VISUALS WORK: ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS
VISUAL DECEPTION
APPLYING ROSS'S ETHICS
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 3: Ways of Seeing
THREE KEY TERMS
VISUAL RHETORIC
THE DIFFERENT LENSES OF VISUAL RHETORIC
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
PART TWO: Basic Ways of Seeing, Interpreting, and Creating
Chapter 4: Sign Language
SEMIOTICS: THE SCIENCE OF SIGNS WITH MEANINGS
MEET THE SEMIOTICIANS
SIGNS ARE ALL AROUND US
DOING SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 5: This Means That
METAPHOR: WHEN THIS STANDS FOR THAT
VISUAL METAPHOR LESSONS FROM THE MEDIA
VISUAL METAPHOR CRITICISM
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 6: Storytelling
PEOPLE ARE STORYTELLERS
THE ART AND SCIENCE OF VISUALS
NARRATIVE CRITICISM
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
REFERENCES
Chapter 7: Visual Voices
EVERYDAY DRAMATIZING: WE'RE ALL DRAMA QUEENS AND KINGS
VISUAL IMAGES MAKE EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS
MASTER THE BASIC CONCEPTS
APPLYING FTA TO VISUAL STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
HOW TO ANALYZE AND CREATE VISUAL SYMBOLIC MESSAGES
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
PART THREE: Using Visuals in Professional Communication
Chapter 8: Advertising
PHOTOGRAPHY IN SOCIETY
THE POWER OF VISUALS IN ADVERTISING
THE CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING LANDSCAPE
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 9: Public Relations
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PR: HOW VISUALS DEFINED IT
THE POWER OF VISUALS IN THE MODERN ERA OF PR
VISUAL RHETORIC STRATEGIES IN PR CAMPAIGNS
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 10: Journalism
PHOTOJOURNALISM
NEWS: VISUAL SOCIETY. VISUAL ANXIETY
DIGITAL INNOVATIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT WITH NEWS VISUALS
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 11: Organizations
VISUAL MODES
BECOMING A CULTURE DETECTIVE
IMAGES GONE WRONG
THE POWER OF VISUALS IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Chapter 12: Intercultural Communication
WAYS OF LOOKING AT INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND ITS PLACE IN MASS COMMUNICATION
CULTURAL IMAGERY AND ITS ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS
DECONSTRUCTING INTERCULTURAL IMAGERY
CHAPTER SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 3
Table 3.1 Durand’s visual rhetoric matrix.
Chapter 4
Table 4.1 Interpretant matrix.
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Conceptual metaphor example. © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Table 5.2 Structural metaphor examples. © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Table 5.3 Conceptual metaphor examples.
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 The five assumptions of narrative paradigm theory (NPT) (Fisher, 19...
Chapter 7
Table 7.1 Symbolic convergence theory (SCT) at a glance.
Chapter 8
Table 8.1 Advertisement visual metaphor examples.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Smartphones and visual culture.
Figure 1.2 Everything we use and wear carries meaning.
Figure 1.3
Figure 1.4 This image communicates that it is possible and desirable to own ...
Figure 1.5
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 Categorical imperative and utilitarianism.
Figure 2.2 Ross’s seven prima facie duties (pluralism ethics) “At first glan...
Figure 2.3 Intentionally cropped photo of President Trump’s 2017 inauguratio...
Figure 2.4 Meme depicting Richard Sherman as The Predator film character....
Figure 2.5 Example using “obesity” to illustrate elements of framing....
Figure 2.6 The World Wildlife Fund uses a visual metaphor for global warming...
Figure 2.7 Original image inspiring the Rubio photoshop.
Figure 2.8 Photoshopped image of Marco Rubio.
Figure 2.9 The Potter Box.
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Internet meme inspired by the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierr...
Figure 3.2 Cult of Kek image illustrating rhetorical manipulation.
Figure 3.3 A semiotic sign can have multiple meanings depending on context....
Figure 3.4 This ad uses visual metaphor to emphasize the negative qualities ...
Figure 3.5 HGTV programs like Property Brothers can be viewed as visual narr...
Figure 3.6 Memes can take on new meanings when altered and shared online.
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Barthes’s semiotic analysis found this image represented French i...
Figure 4.2 Example of an iconic sign.
Figure 4.3 Example of indexical sign.
Figure 4.4 Example of symbolic sign.
Figure 4.5 The Harley visual branding serves to replace, substitute for, or ...
Figure 4.6 ”Metro Gun Share Program” installation in Chicago.
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 This explicit metaphor conveys William Perry’s size as well as a ...
Figure 5.2 This visual metaphor suggests the school will nurture children to...
Figure 5.3 Some visual metaphors are ambiguous: Is the United States wealthy...
Figure 5.4 Morphic forms create visual metaphors by giving an object attribu...
Figure 5.5 In this adjacent metaphor, both the players’ avatars and the alie...
Figure 5.6 This famous Man Ray photomontage presents a unified metaphor; the...
Figure 5.7 The Coke bottle is absent in this implied metaphor.
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Moby Dick: In its deep structure lies a power struggle with evil.
Figure 6.2 This map, by social realist artist William Gropper, was created t...
Figure 6.3 Skittles TV Commercial: Bleachers “Contract the rainbow, taste th...
Figure 6.4 Pictures with mysteries – what's happened? – make visual stories ...
Figure 6.5 How content is formed (two barren trees photographed close‐up fro...
Figure 6.6 Example of visual hyperbole: extreme exaggeration emphasizes a ch...
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 A Mountain Dew commercial featured a stuntman hooked to a cable l...
Figure 7.2 For fans of the Star Wars movie franchise, images and props help ...
Figure 7.3 Trayvon Martin, killed by neighborhood watch volunteer.
Figure 7.4 Cristiano Ronaldo lends his athletic celebrity to the Jeep brand....
Figure 7.5 The Australian Institute for Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservati...
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Popular Twitter meme “Evil Kermit.”
Figure 8.2 This visual metaphor highlights the product’s freshness....
Figure 8.3 A simple design for this ad draws emphasizes the red color unders...
Figure 8.4 Viewers don’t understand metaphors of modest complexity (c) as we...
Figure 8.5 Pakistani cinema billboard invites passersby to participate in it...
Figure 8.6 Product placement of Amnesty International poster in the TV serie...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Joice Heth poster, 1835.
Figure 9.2 Trash Island, the gigantic mountain of trash in the Pacific Ocean...
Figure 9.3 YouTube personality Frankie Grande joined other Internet stars an...
Figure 9.4 Sewn and knitted “pussyhats” being worn on a plane to the January...
Figure 9.5 In a multimedia microsite, Patagonia shows how to conserve by buy...
Figure 9.6 Once suspected to be a military weapon, the Druzhba sanatorium ov...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 (Original caption) ENTHUSIASTIC GREETING: President Kennedy, rel...
Figure 10.2 Margaret Bourke‐White, the first Western professional photograph...
Figure 10.3 A computer‐generated video, falsely claiming to show a real plan...
Figure 10.4 Fake photo of President Trump handing MAGA hat to Houston flood ...
Figure 10.5 News reporters and designers increasingly post creative graphics...
Figure 10.6 Retro Report’s documentary features the story of the mothers and...
Figure 10.7 The first known political cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin ...
Figure 10.8 #MeToo movement is satirized by cartoonist Garry Trudeau in this...
Figure 10.9 “The true face of Donald Trump” Der Spiegel cover by American ar...
Figure 10.10 Stereotypical images of the White heroic cowboy versus the Nati...
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 This “storymap” for the National Endowment for the Arts seeks to...
Figure 11.2 The logo of the Mongol’s motorcycle gang.
Figure 11.3 Southwest Airlines (SWA) infuses its trademark bright colors int...
Figure 11.4 Reformation’s image on Instagram struck an offensive tone with ...
Figure 11.5 One response to Hilton’s failure to address an issue: “For Chris...
Figure 11.6 Simple composition and contrasting elements communicate clearly ...
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Cartoons explaining Cherokee culture is just one of many art for...
Figure 12.2 Artificial intelligence and virtual reality techniques allowed J...
Figures 12.3 and 12.4 Two popular newspapers, one from India and the other f...
Figure 12.5 “Watching Oprah,” a special exhibition at the National Museum of...
Figure 12.6 This sweeping vignette is part of the online virtual 3D experien...
Figure 12.7 Screenshot from Reuters’ Openly: the first global digital platfo...
Figure 12.8 A Nike ad featuring LeBron James fighting respected Chinese symb...
Figure 12.9 Part of Catalan! Arts unified brand to promote Catalan cultural ...
Figure 12.10 Greenpeace uses “pictograms” to dramatize the destruction of fo...
Guide
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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VISUAL COMMUNICATIONINSIGHTS AND STRATEGIES
INSIGHTS AND STRATEGIES
JANIS TERUGGI PAGE
University of Illinois at ChicagoChicago, IL
MARGARET DUFFY
University of MissouriColumbia, MO
This edition first published 2022©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Janis Teruggi Page and Margaret Duffy to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Page, Janis Teruggi, author.| Duffy, Margaret, author.Title: Visual communication: insights and strategies / Janis Teruggi Page, University of Illinois, Chicago. Margaret Duffy, University of Missouri, Columbia, USADescription: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Blackwell, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2020043378 (print) | LCCN 2020043379 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119226475 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119227298 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119227304 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Visual communication. | Visual analytics.Classification: LCC P93.5 .D86 2021 (print) | LCC P93.5 (ebook) | DDC 302.2/26–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043378LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043379
Cover Design: WileyCover Images: © Janet Trierweiler
Preface
How can we make sense of the myriad visual images surrounding us today? How can we strategically use images with a clear understanding of their function and impact?
This book answers these questions by providing new “ways of seeing” visual representations through different lenses and in different contexts. It then provides practical guidance for creating purposeful and ethical visual communication.
The authors recognize the accelerating dominion of images in communication, society, and culture. We human beings process images and video effortlessly and automatically. Visuals carry an emotional and visceral punch that text can rarely, if ever, match. As multinational marketers, social media influencers, and teenagers on TikTok know, visuals create their own language, accessible to all, regardless of traditional textual barriers of understanding such as education or language.
We've watched as entertainment and information have morphed into largely image‐based communication including advertising and brand messaging, organizational communication, and individual creation and uploading of images, memes, and videos of all kinds. As of this writing in early 2021, people are watching 5 billion YouTube vides every day and Instagram has over one billion users worldwide. U.S. digital advertising expenditures are projected to grow to 22.18 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 (https://www.statista.com/statistics/256272/digital‐video‐advertising‐spending‐in‐the‐us/).
Most of us take the sphere of images for granted: it's just the way the world is. Of course, human beings have always created symbolic structures of meaning that shape how we interpret and participate in social life. However, we also tend to treat these image systems as natural phenomena. We conveniently forget that we ourselves invented these structures of meaning and it's important we understand their significance and meaning in more thoughtful and nuanced ways.
For some years, we've been conducting research on images, moving and still, and their various roles in society. We've studied and written about digital visual folklore in emails about President Obama, the widespread sharing of memes of football star Richard Sherman, comedy television's performance of vice presidential debates, presidential candidates' online visual storytelling, images of morality in political TV ads and news coverage, sexual imagery in advertising, issues in visual persuasion ethics, photographic coverage of the Pope's 2015 visit to Cuba, ethical implications of VR, AR, and 360° technologies, and satiric images of Trump as spectacle in global magazines, among other visual topics.
Inspired by our previous work, we wrote this book for students and scholars with the intent of providing insights into the role of visuals in our dynamic social environment. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “We are symbols and we inhabit symbols” (The Poet, 1844). We hope this book connects with a broad range of scholars and practitioners in the arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering, technology, and neuroscience and serves as an invitation to future study.
Acknowledgments
Both authors made generous contributions in the research and writing of this book. As this project has evolved through its various phases, there are many people to whom we owe special thanks.
We would like to begin by thanking our academic colleagues in visual communication for inspiring and challenging us to create this book and extend our theoretical, applied approach to visual communication education to students in all preprofessional fields that encounter visual phenomena.
Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers who offered clear critique, advice, and suggestions based on their own teaching experiences in visual communication. We also benefited greatly from our students who, through classroom engagement, provided helpful feedback on lessons and exercises.
We want to acknowledge our colleagues and administrators at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Communication, and the Novak Leadership Institute at Missouri School of Journalism for their support during the research and writing of this book.
We also deeply appreciate the contributions from the professionals and academics who shared insightful profiles in our chapters and who offered their suggestions and ideas as we developed the outline of the book.
Drawing from years of study and practice in fine art, Janis is especially grateful for the long‐term mentoring in visual metaphors by Sr. Alyce Van Acker, O.P., of the Fine Line Creative Arts Center, St. Charles, IL.
Finally, we would like to thank our spouses William Page and Daryl Moen for their constant encouragement throughout our long process of shaping and perfecting each chapter, resulting in a work we are truly proud of.
About the Authors
Janis Teruggi Page is a faculty member in the Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago, and has been affiliated with the Strategic Public Relations Master’s Program, George Washington University, for more than a decade. She has taught visual communication courses throughout her academic career. As a Fulbright distinguished chair, in 2018 she researched intercultural visual communication and taught visual literacy at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. An award‐winning author, her research includes “Images with Messages: A Semiotic Approach to Identifying and Decoding Strategic Visual Communication,” published in the Routledge Handbook of Strategic Communication (2015), and “Trump as Global Spectacle: The Visual Rhetoric of Magazine Covers,” published in the Handbook of Visual Communication (2020). She is also coauthor of the textbook Introduction to Public Relations: Strategic, Digital, and Socially Responsible Communication (2019, 2021) with Lawrence J. Parnell. Prior to joining academia, she had a 20‐year career as creative and marketing director for various US media companies. A former student at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, she holds a PhD from the Missouri School of Journalism with a secondary emphasis in art history.
Margaret Duffy is Professor of Strategic Communication and cofounder and executive director of the Novak Leadership Institute. She led the effort to obtain a $21.6 million gift to endow the Institute from David Novak, alumnus of the Missouri School of Journalism advertising program. Mr. Novak is the retired CEO of YUM! Brands (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC) and credits his education in advertising as the catalyst for his leadership success. Until 2016, Dr. Duffy chaired the Strategic Communication Faculty at the Missouri School of Journalism. She also served as associate dean for graduate studies. Dr. Duffy directed the Missouri School of Journalism's Online Master’s Program from 2001 to 2016. An award‐winning scholar, her research focuses on leadership, organizational communication, visual communication, and persuasion ethics. She coedited the book Persuasion Ethics Today (2016) and cowrote Advertising Age: The Principles of Advertising and Marketing Communication at Work (2011), Dr. Duffy is a founding board member of the Institute for Advertising Ethics and an inaugural fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. In 2019, she received the University of Missouri Distinguished Faculty Award. She is a former marketing executive and earned her PhD from the University of Iowa. An author and consultant, Dr. Duffy conducts research and advises media companies and brands around the world with clients as varied as Estée Lauder and the US Army.
PART ONEUnderstanding Visual Communication
Chapter 1Making Sense of Visual Culture: 1000 Words or One Simple Picture?
“Pics or it didn’t happen.”
Source:http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58791114. Reproduced with permission of RetroClipArt/Shutterstock.com.
By 2015, this phrase had morphed from a meme to a catchphrase that seemed to be everywhere. If a friend tweeted that she'd been cliff diving in Acapulco, you might respond with that phrase suggesting that perhaps she was being boastful without any evidence to back it up (Whitehead, 2015). If your gamer pal claimed to have reached level 60 in World of Warcraft, you might demand some proof.
Other phrases call on our desire to tap into what Whitehead and others have called “visual authority.” You've all heard that “seeing is believing” and heard people say, “I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes.” And consider the famous Chinese proverb, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Here's the thing: it's not Chinese, and it's not a proverb. In fact, it was likely the creation of ad man Fred Barnard1 in the 1920s. As William Safire (1996) writes, Barnard, trying to increase his agency's business selling ads on railway cars, came up with the phrase. He had it translated into Chinese characters with the caption “Chinese Proverb: One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words” and it passed into popular culture as “one thousand words.” Whether it is one thousand or ten, Barnard tapped into the notion that most people find visual evidence more credible and interesting than verbal or textual expression (Graber, 1990).
In entertainment, politics, interpersonal interactions, and at work and at play, we're all consuming, evaluating, and creating visuals. Our culture is increasingly suffused with images aimed at selling us something, persuading us, informing us, entertaining us, and connecting us with others. Your skills and capabilities in communicating effectively and critically evaluating what's around you are crucial to your personal and professional success and that is what this book is about. In the following chapters, we'll provide you with the tools to become an ethical and effective communicator in an era increasingly suffused with images of all kinds.
Key Learning Objectives
Understand visual culture and its transformation in the digital age.
Explore the fluidity of visual meaning.
Identify ways to research and analyze visuals.
Chapter Overview
In this introductory chapter, you'll explore five important issues relating to visuals in contemporary society. First, you'll be introduced to how visuals work and how we interpret them. Second, we'll review the astounding growth of visuals and video in recent years and how this trend is on a steep upward trajectory. Third, we examine the concept of visual culture and how changing technology relates to that culture. Fourth, you'll delve into how individuals can draw different meanings from the same visuals or video artifacts and how that process relates to social life and the meanings we take from our environment. Fifth, we preview ways to analyze visuals. At the close of the chapter we offer two vignettes illustrating how visuals work and provide an overview of the book as a whole.
HOW VISUALS WORK
LO1 Understand visual culture and its transformation in the digital age
Today almost every part of our lives is visual and visualized. We routinely use devices to see, to capture experiences, and to communicate. As suggested by Tavin (2009), visual culture is “a condition in which human experience is profoundly affected by images, new technologies for looking, and various practices of seeing, showing, and picturing” (p. 3, 4). We are now at a place of unlimited visual culture and thus how we understand media and visual literacy has changed.
Photographic Truth?
Among the things that strike us about images and photographs in particular is how they feel as if they are presenting us with a truth about reality. Sturken and Cartwright (2009) call this the “myth of photographic truth” (p. 24) because it obscures the roles of human beings who are creating the image. Those acts of creation include many factors such as the choices the photographer makes about the scene, lighting, and composition. Indeed, the photographer decides what subjects are worthy of their time or attention.
Even with technologies that make it easy and inexpensive to capture images of all kinds, the picture‐taker must choose those subjects, whether they are powerful images of war or funny pictures of grumpy cats. All of these will affect the tone of a photo and thus the interpretations people take away from it. Even though we may know intellectually that the photographer has chosen a certain subject at a certain time and framed it a certain way, a photo still carries a sense of legitimacy. Put differently, it involves the “legacy of objectivity that clings to the cameras and machines that produce images today” (Sturken and Cartwright, 2009, p. 18).
FOCUS: A Historical Perspective on Visual Culture
Another way to understand visual culture is to look at it historically. This example illustrates the role of perspective. When we compare medieval paintings (1300–1500) to contemporary paintings, we see remarkable differences. People in today's societies are used to seeing two‐dimensional (flat surfaces) that depict three‐dimensional spaces such as a road receding into the distance. In medieval times, Christianity was the primary organizing principle of society and artists presented religious and historical images based on the importance of those portrayed rather than more realistic representations (Willard n.d.). The world depicted in the paintings was the domain of God, not the lived experience of people, as shown in this two‐dimensional artwork from 1295 depicting the Twelve Apostles receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit:
Source: Art Collection 2/Alamy Stock Photo.
In fact, it's thought that the highly religious yet illiterate people in medieval times would have found 3D representations to be puzzling and even heretical. The Renaissance in the late fifteenth century led to the emergence of interest in science, intellectual pursuits, and the more realistic depictions of the world. With this societal change, artists began achieving three‐dimensional effects using a whole range of techniques including linear perspectives, in which the “illusion that objects appear to grow smaller and converge toward a ‘vanishing point’ at the horizon line” (Jirousek, 1995). This is illustrated in Rembrandt's 1632 painting, The Abduction of Europa:
Source: GL Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.
Growing Importance of Visuals
Increasingly, visuals dominate how we communicate and how we understand other people, our society, and the culture in which we live. The line between the media we consume and what we used to consider “real life” is largely erased. Media are our environment as much as the physical spaces we inhabit. Old ways of belief are challenged even more in a world built of visual communication. According to Anderson (1990), this is resulting in an “unregulated marketplace of realities in which all manner of belief systems are offered for public consumption” (p. 6).
Groundbreaking journalist and social critic Walter Lippmann (1922) was likely the first to apply the term “stereotype” referring to attitudes people acquire without specific knowledge of an event or individual. People tend to quickly process visuals along the lines of what they already believe or think and interpret them in terms of familiar categories (Graber, 1988). This may lead people to reflect less on the credibility and accuracy of visual claims than those made in type.
Our Precarious Visual Culture
Today, something that looks like a photo may be an image that's digitally produced, altered, or enhanced. Many images are essentially fictions deliberately created to amuse, to deceive, or to offer an artistic perspective. Many of these are shared and even go viral. They range from silly fictions and jokes, such as fried chicken Oreos and a man presumably holding an 87‐pound cat, to manipulated photos attempting character assassination, such as President Obama shown smoking and President George W. Bush shown reading a book upside down (Hoaxes, 2015).
Some are memes shared by like‐minded people. These images with text make fun of public figures or celebrities and often call on well‐known popular culture references and icons. For example, during the Obama presidency, many forwarded email memes pictured Obama through the lens of racial stereotyping portraying him as a witch doctor, an animal, and even a pimp (Duffy et al., 2012).
For some people, such images are plausible and shareable and even if they don't literally believe the message, they nonetheless appear to believe that the visual joke carries an element of truth. The same message put into type likely would be patently offensive. However, in a cartoon‐like meme, senders and receivers of the image can claim that “it's just a joke.” For others, the images offer the opportunity to further manipulate or mashup visuals and videos to create entirely new messages and meanings. People can take photos and add stickers, filters, doodles, and text overlays. They can edit and crop images, create collages and mashups. And, of course, they can and do share them.
Political Persuasion
Images created to intentionally mislead are increasingly part of the promotional strategies for political candidates and their supporters. In pre‐Internet times, visuals and video, usually on television, played a major role in positioning candidates and their opponents. Political consultants have frequently harnessed the power of the visual because human beings are able to quickly interpret and process those messages. Early on, researchers found that in news coverage and advertisements, visual elements overwhelmed verbal elements. In 1988, an ABC news correspondent, Richard Threlkeld, voiced a spot that was aimed at discounting the claims of a George H.W. Bush presidential ad called “Tank Ride.” The piece showed the visuals of the ad as the reporter's voiceover detailed the false claims it made. However, research revealed that people who saw it tended to ignore the verbal statements and internalize the message of the original ad. An intentional alteration of images in an ad from President George W. Bush's 2004 campaign was digitally enhanced to add images of soldiers into a crowd he was addressing. After criticism, the campaign withdrew the ad.
Another questionable use of images is found in a web video by the Democratic National Campaign that used a dramatization of a man in a business suit pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair off a cliff as a way to attack Republican Congressman Paul Ryan's proposed plan for health care reform (Raposa, 2012). While no one was likely to believe that Ryan's plan would literally involve throwing old people from high places, the powerful visuals coupled with a soundtrack of “America the Beautiful” nevertheless sent a deceptive message about the possible effects of Ryan's plan. As we examine many media artifacts, we can see the power of visual metaphors – in this case, a policy change – equated to a violent act against a helpless and vulnerable person.
Political persuasion has always drawn on popular culture and the conventions of films and other audiovisual devices. You've probably noticed that negative political ads (NPAs) tend to present opponents using dramatic conventions drawn from horror movies or crime dramas because viewers find it easy to understand and connect with those conventions. For example, often opponents will be portrayed accompanied by dark atmospheric visual effects, unflattering images, and scary or ominous music. YouTube, Facebook, and scores of other social networks provide low cost ways to distribute content beyond television programming.
Digital Transformation of Visual Culture
Much research on digital visual content in the twenty‐first century points to a tsunami of images washing over words. WebDAM, a digital brand consulting firm and data science company, reported that verbal intelligence is dropping while visual intelligence is increasing (Morrison, 2015). Scores in the SAT reading exam hit an all‐time low in 2016 (Kranse Institute, 2017) and three years later, with an increased number of student test‐takers in 2019, SAT reading scores again fell nationally. Research surfacing in many parts of the world now cautions that essential “deep reading” processes may be under threat as we move into digital‐based modes of reading (Wolf, 2018): essentially “skimming” with low engagement and retention.
But we're incredible at remembering pictures, writes biologist John Medina (n.d.) in his multimedia project Brain Rules. Three days after hearing information we may remember 10% of it but add a picture and memory increases to 65%. Thanks to the digital revolution, visuals have become a universal language. A whopping 82% of all Internet traffic globally will be video by 2022, estimates Cisco (2019), up from 75% in 2017 – and virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) will increase 12‐fold globally between 2017 and 2022.
Instagram had one billion monthly active users in 2018 according to TechCrunch (Constine, 2018). That same year, the total number of photos shared in the platform's history was recorded at more than 50 billion. Dating apps like Tinder and Friendsy make it easy (some say too easy) to exchange photos with others and find romance. When it comes to the essential organizational website, research suggests that well‐designed and highly visual sites are more trustworthy than poorly designed sites (Harley, 2016).
Members of Generation Z, those born in 1996 and later, are even more visually oriented than the much‐discussed Millennials, those born between 1980 and 1985 (Williams, 2015). Research on Gen Z finds that 44% play video games daily and 72% visit YouTube daily (Claveria, 2019). Advertisers and media companies are responding to shifts toward the visual by redesigning their communication on big and small screens. On the so‐called “visual web,” brands and news organizations have moved to image‐based content creation. The massive use of mobile is a major driver of these changes as smaller screens are friendlier to visual content than textual.
Smartphones and Visual Culture
Smartphones have become so central to social life in many countries that the prospect of losing one's phone is more distressing than losing one's car. Owning a certain type of phone or wearable technology also communicates aspects of your interests, beliefs, and priorities. Today, most people in most countries are swimming in media images or being monitored by cameras in most public and private places. Signage and outdoor advertising are everywhere.
People are sending and receiving messages on screens of all types, large and small. Smartphones and tablets capture both the mundane and extraordinary in digital photography and video. Individuals are creating their own reality shows in real time, broadcasting their activities to users who can favorite or save the videos for later viewing or redistribution. Some people post funny animal videos (Figure 1.1), others create videos aimed at inspiring and motivating, and still others vlog with beauty advice. Some of the myriad of postings are more instructional such as how to install a garbage disposal, how to build and fly a homemade drone, and even how to give an opossum a pedicure.
All these technologies and their diverse applications affect how we see others and our environments, how we are seen and see ourselves. Some suggest that the visual web is a phenomenon largely fueled by social media, smart phones with sophisticated cameras, and apps that make it easy to create and share visual media (eMarketer, 2015). Hubspot lists the 10 best user‐generated content campaigns on Instagram, for example, the UPS Store showcases a behind‐the‐scenes look at small business owners; online furniture store Wayfair lets customers showcase the results of their online shopping sprees; and Netflix lets fans promote their favorite shows and movies (Bernazzani, n.d.).
Figure 1.1 Smartphones and visual culture.
Source: Supparsorn Wantarnagon/Alamy Stock Photo.
MULTIPLE MEANINGS
LO2 Explore the fluidity of visual meaning.
For most of us, everyday communication seems effortless. We chat, text, and share photos with our friends with an expectation of how the receivers of our message will react. However, as you know, communication can easily go wrong. A friend's mom, acting very concerned, recently asked her son what “LOL” meant on emails. He replied, “laughing out loud. Why?” She said, “that explains a lot. I thought it was ‘lots of love’ and I sent it in a message to someone whose pet had died.”
Similarly, that photo you shared thinking it was hilarious may or may not get the reaction you expect. Intentionally or not, images and text point us to certain interpretations of their meanings while downplaying other interpretations.
Polysemy
Different images, words, and even different fonts carry cultural meanings that may resonate or puzzle, anger or offend. These differences in meaning and interpretations are called “polysemy,” quite literally “multiple meanings.” These multiple and shared meanings shape our culture and how we understand our world. When most people hear the word “culture” they tend to think of fine arts, opera, or esoteric French films. In this book, when we refer to visual culture, we're talking about “the total way of life of a people … the social legacy the individual acquires from his group” and “a way of thinking, feeling, and believing” (Kluckhorn, 1973, in Geertz, p. 3).
Along the same lines, renowned scholar Raymond Williams (1958/1993) suggested in his foundational essay that culture is ordinary. By that he meant that we should not think of culture as simply artifacts or materials that people in a society make, whether they're smartphone photos, paintings, or Photoshopped memes. While these are part of culture creation, cultures are also created in our actions and practices in everyday life, as we individually and collectively assign meaning and morality to what we do, say, and communicate. Similarly, Clifford Geertz argued:
Believing, with Max Weber, that man [sic] is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning.
(Geertz, 1973)
This helps us think of our world not as something fixed, static, and “out there,” but as something we are actively creating as we interact with each other, with media, and face‐to‐face. The expectations and strictures of our cultures establish our identities and our places in society and lead us to judge what is valued and what is deplored, and make us evaluate what is worthy and unworthy. This doesn't mean that there's no “real” reality out there, but it does mean that in social life and our interactions, we socially construct the meanings of that reality.
In pre‐Internet 1990, Walter Anderson wrote that in society, the “mass media make it easy to create and disseminate new structures of reality” (p. 9). We as individuals now don't need special tools and training to alter and edit videos, photos, and images of all kinds. Those with more skills can create entire worlds peopled by highly realistic images of individuals and environments as seen in games like the Grand Theft Auto series and Madden NFL. Some wearable technologies put the user “into” realistic 3D environments where they can “walk” through rooms, “drive” on simulated roads, and “shop” virtual products.
Semioticians, people who study the science of signs and their meanings, argue that all of the things human beings construct or create are “containers of meaning” (Anderson, 1990, p. 21). Thus, everything we use and wear from the shoes we choose to the ways we decorate our homes carries meaning both to the wearer/user and to those around us. Anderson suggests, “all the T‐shirts and jeans and sneakers … are not only things but ideas” (p. 21) and they all may be studied as cultural facts and activities (Eco, 1978). For example, someone wearing a T‐shirt with the message “I hate T‐shirts” may be sending a message meant to be ironic or jokey. A man wearing a blue blazer and khakis may be sending a message that “I'm a guy who knows what's appropriate to wear to work.” Or a small boy donning a straw hat, bandana, and strung‐up tube toys may be sending the message, “I'm a cowboy today” (Figure 1.2). In addition, memes, Photoshopped photos, social media photos, nine‐second videos, and emojis carry, in their form and content, ideas and values.
Because we're immersed in a world of many messages or representations, many of them visual, we can see that our social worlds are constantly under construction through our interactions with images. Rose (2012) uses the term “scopic regime” and defines it as “the ways in which both what is seen and how it is seen are culturally constructed” (p. 2). Visual culture is often criticized as turning society and human life into a spectacle and that the move from analog to digital culture not only allows for endless replication, but itself is different and worse than, say, traditional photography. Thus, Rose concludes, “The modern connection between seeing and true knowing has been broken” (p. 4).
Figure 1.2 Everything we use and wear carries meaning.
FOCUS: Trump's Hand Gestures
Some scholars attribute the success of Trump's candidacy in the 2016 Republican primary in part due to its value as comedic entertainment. One study, “The hands of Donald Trump: Entertainment, gesture, spectacle” (Hall et al., 2016), analyzed the populist candidate's comedic performances during the Republican primaries. The study proposed that in an era when style attracts more attention than content, Trump took this characteristic to new heights. The authors concluded that Trump's unconventional political style, particularly his use of gesture to critique the political system and caricature his opponents, created a visual spectacle. Through his exaggerated depictions of the world crafted with his hands, he succeeded in ignoring political correctness and disarming his adversaries – elemental to bringing momentum to his campaign. Among Trump's many hand gestures, the study notes Trump's use of the pistol hand, his signature gesture used on The Apprentice with his catchphrase “You're fired!” to fire unworthy contestants. When Trump used the pistol hand, it conveyed arrogance, sovereign power, and commanding force – as seen in the photo below:
Source: AP Images/Stuart Ramson.
The gesture is understood through its gun shape and its associated swiftness and precision of striking down an unworthy opponent. Yet the gesture is also playful: when Trump thrusts his hand forward to mimic the firing of a gun, he brings a child's pantomime of shooting to the firing of an adult in an entrepreneurial battle or the dismissing of an opponent in a political arena.
Media critic Stuart Hall (1997) writes that “culture is about shared meanings” and “primarily, culture is concerned with the production and the exchange of meanings … between the members of a culture or group” (p. 2). He suggests that people who are in the same culture will tend to interpret the world in generally similar ways while warning that things or actions cannot have stable meanings. Hall tells us that meanings are produced in multiple ways: through personal interactions, through our use of media and technology, and in what we create and how we share those creations:
Meaning is also produced whenever we express ourselves in, make use of, consume or appropriate cultural “things;” that is, when we incorporate them in different ways into the everyday rituals and practices of daily life and in this way give them value or significance. (p. 3, 4)
Human beings have always created and responded to shared and differing interpretations of reality. All societies have systems of belief that carry values and seem natural to those who are part of that society. Like all cultural products, visuals are created within “the dynamics of social power and ideology” (Sturken and Cartwright, 2009, p. 22). Those with greater material wealth or socioeconomic status generally have more resources and abilities to use and influence the creation and dissemination of images and video. Thus, their worldviews are likely to have more prominence and influence than those from people with fewer resources. This means that we experience images within changing social contexts that can change rapidly and that the meanings we assign to them aren't neutral. Instead, they carry values and privilege certain interpretations over others.
Form and Content
READ THIS BOOK! That statement in all caps and in boldface, communicates something different from “read this book.” How is it different from read this book? And why include it here? We include it because it reveals, in an unexpected way, how the form and not just the content of a simple sentence can communicate and conform to or violate cultural norms.
You probably don't think of letters and words as visuals, but even the choice of a font can make a big difference in the meanings people take away from the message. Imagine a condolence card that says “With Heartfelt Sympathy! ” It feels strange because it violates our cultural expectations about what's appropriate for such a message. Because type and text are so much part of our environments, we may not think of them as visual. But each typeface, each font, has a different personality and may convey different emotions and meanings. Perhaps without even being aware of it, you have certain expectations of the “rightness” of using a certain font to communicate a particular message.
Apple's “Get a Mac” video campaign offers another example of how content can be differentiated by its form (Figure 1.3). Actors and humorists John Hodgman and Justin Long posed as human interpretations of a PC and a Mac. Against a white background, Long, dressed in casual clothes, introduced himself, “Hello, I'm a Mac.” Hodgman, dressed in a more formal suit and tie, adds, “And I'm a PC.” Even before the characters act out attributes of each brand (a laid‐back Mac and an uptight PC), we can deduce these attributes from their form: two men standing in a blank void, staring directly at us, but one with rigid posture and business attire, and the other posed and dressed casually, hands in jeans' pockets.
Figure 1.3
Source: YouTube.
DECODING VISUAL MESSAGES
LO3 Identify ways to analyze visuals and conduct visual communication research.
As you can see from this discussion, images we consume and create don't have fixed meanings. Instead, people go through a process of coding and decoding messages and images that they send and receive (Hall, 1997). For instance, when we see a forwarded meme, we “decode” the meaning of the image and text. How we decode will have to do with our individual experiences, our skills in interpreting messages, our values and beliefs, and the cultures and subcultures we are part of. In addition, the source of the message or visual affects how much interest and credibility we assign to a phenomenon.
Semiotics: Signs and Symbols
A useful way to understand and analyze communication involves semiotics, the science of signs, an approach we will cover in detail in Chapter 4. Semiotics begins with two important concepts: the denotative and connotative meanings of signs. Think of denotation as the dictionary definition or a description. For instance, the denotative description of the American flag might be “13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist‐side corner bearing 50 small, white, five‐pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars” (Central Intelligence Agency n.d.).
However, connotative meaning has to do with the associations, emotions, and cultural expectations of individuals that are evoked by a symbol. It would seem that burning a piece of white, blue, and red cloth shouldn't be controversial. But for many Americans, the act of burning the flag is an act of treason. For others, it's a symbol of free speech and First Amendment rights. For those with negative views of the United States, it is a symbol of oppression deserving of desecration. Semiotics is a way to understand signs and their interpretation in a more systematic way.
Consider how advertisers communicate with audiences and the denotative and connotative aspects of ads. The image in Figure 1.4 was part of an advertorial (also called a native advertisement) for Toyota Tacoma trucks. Most people effortlessly interpret that this is an image of a truck and know that the advertiser wants viewers to consider purchasing it. Advertisers expect their target audience not only to see the literal or denotative aspects of the image (this is a big, shiny, new truck), but also to assign connotative meanings, presumably positive ones.
In this advertisement, the outdoor setting is rugged and framed by a beautiful cloudless sky. The connotation the advertiser likely intended may be a sense of manliness, power, and virility. For other viewers, the ad may suggest freedom, a statement of success, or the opportunity for adventure. And for others who assign oppositional meanings, it may be a symbol of irresponsibility, squandering the earth's resources, and contributing to climate change. Beyond the feelings that the advertiser hopes audiences will decode, the ad, like all ads, tells us something about our culture once we metaphorically look under the hood of the ad. What could this tell us about our culture and values?
Figure 1.4 This image communicates that it is possible and desirable to own such a machine. It tells us that this product, if purchased, will fill important functional and psychological needs. The ad suggests that buying this truck will make the purchasers happy and provide them with freedom and independence.
Source: Zach Joing/Alamy Stock Photo.
Visual Rhetoric
The photograph in Figure 1.5 became an Internet sensation. Taken at the premiere of the film, Black Mass, almost everyone pictured clutches a smart phone and is excitedly trying to find an angle in order to take a photo of a celebrity. Only one individual stands out – an older woman who is serenely observing the event – without a camera.
Why did the image resonate with so many? Tweets and shares often commented that the woman was the only individual living in the moment and truly having a genuine, unmediated experience. And of course, the image resonated because it was unusual – the woman's behavior was unexpected and outside the bounds of today's culture. This can be explained through understanding the cognitive perception of selectivity – our brains draw conclusions from stimuli that are significant within a complicated visual experience. Whether the woman was, indeed, living in the present or she didn't own or use a smartphone is unanswered. Nevertheless, by showing something outside the norm, the image communicated aspects of culture to many people.
In the following “What's Ahead” section, you will see a preview of the book's chapters and the many methods of visual analysis that you will learn – including semiotics, visual rhetoric, narrative analysis (how visual compositions tell stories), metaphor analysis (how visual images propose comparisons), and fantasy theme analysis (how visual messages converge in groups to develop cohesive understanding).
Figure 1.5
Source: John Blanding/The Boston Globe/Getty Images.
FOCUS: Saving Big Bird
“I'm sorry, Jim. I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS … I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too. But I'm not gonna keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.” With those words in the first presidential debate of 2012, moderated by Jim Lehrer of Public Broadcasting System (PBS), candidate Mitt Romney made Big Bird the star of the debate and launched a tidal wave of social media messages. Most of those messages were highly visual. A @firebigbird Twitter account popped up almost immediately and social and traditional media exploded with memes, jokes, parodies, and videos.
In a frequently shared image, a child holds a sign while standing in front of an American flag. The sign, written in childlike printing, reads “My American dream is to save Big Bird's job so kids can learn.”
A close reading of the image leads the viewer to several interpretations. First, it draws attention to PBS and its programming aimed at educating diverse young people and dependent, in part, on the financial support of the US government. Second, the image alludes to Romney's proposed funding cut. And through the image of the child (of indeterminate ethnicity and sex) against a background of the US flag, it suggests that all of America's children are threatened by the potential loss of PBS programming and their “American dream” of educational opportunities. Thus, the viewer is invited to fill in the blanks and complete the meaning of the message (Page and Duffy 2013).
What's Ahead?
If we can better understand how meanings are produced, we can become smarter consumers of visuals and other communication and more effective creators. As you can see from the previous discussion, how we communicate and interpret visuals is deeply rooted in our cultural worlds and expectations. In the following chapters, we'll explore how and why images communicate effectively, how they can fail to communicate, and how to apply that knowledge as professional communicators.
Chapter 2
outlines useful approaches to ethical decision‐making in creating and consuming visuals.
Chapter 3
explains a classic way to explore the meanings of images: visual rhetorical analysis, and then introduces the next four chapters that deal with symbols, metaphors, narratives, and imaginative fantasies.
Chapter 4
teaches semiotics: how visual “signs” and symbols communicate within a culture.
Chapter 5
covers how the comparative functions of metaphors can be a powerful visual strategy.
Chapter 6
illustrates the storytelling capacities of visual images.
Chapter 7
helps you see how visuals can illustrate dramas and meanings within group communication.
Chapter 8
is the first of four chapters that cover professional practices using visual images. This chapter helps you to understand advertising, its compelling visual qualities, and questions of ethics.
Chapter 9
continues with strategic communication, featuring the field of public relations and its use of visuals, for example, in crisis, public service, and political communications.
Chapter 10
features the role of visual imagery in journalism, the image's significance in delivering news, and issues of subjectivity and misinformation.
Chapter 11
teaches how to “read” and perform an organization's culture from the standpoint of observing and transmitting visual cues.
Chapter 12
builds on all previous chapters by developing your intercultural literacy when it comes to the use of visual imagery.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this chapter we began our exploration of visual culture and its influence in our lives, influence fueled in large part by technological innovations. Professional communicators increasingly use images and video for messaging and persuasion. Moreover, the proliferation of devices and apps allowing almost everyone to create and share images contributes to visual culture. Social media amplify the power of visuals, a power that can be positive, promoting individuals' and communities' wellbeing. Yet, social media may also unleash destructive messages and have negative, unintended consequences. Visual social media's impact extends to every realm of social life and helps shape what we understand as reality.
KEY TERMS
StereotypeAttitudes people acquire without specific knowledge of an event or individual.
MemesCultural images shared between people, often with text and carrying symbolic meaning.
Virtual reality (VR) Computer simulation of a 3D image or environment which a person can interact with in a seemingly real or physical way through use of special electronic equipment.
Augmented reality(AR)The superimposing of a computer‐generated image into the real world.
PolysemyDifferences in meaning and interpretations; multiple meanings.
Visual cultureThe visually‐constructed way of life of a people; a way of thinking, feeling, and believing.
Scopic regimeWays in which both what is seen and how it is seen are culturally constructed.
DecodeThe interpretation of the underlying meanings of texts based on varying assumptions and skills, dependent on context and interpreter.
DenotativeLiteral definition or description.
ConnotativeMeanings drawn from associations, emotions, and cultural expectations.
SemioticsStudy of signs and their meanings.
Visual rhetoricPersuasive messages carried in visual images.
Narrative analysisDetermining how compositions tell stories.
Metaphor analysisDetermining how images propose comparisons.
Fantasy theme analysisDetermining how messaging converges in groups to develop cohesive understanding.
PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
How has changing technology affected the visual culture of your life? Compared to text‐based communication, how have the increasing numbers of visuals – and ways to view them – shifted your engagement and experience of media?
Locate a contemporary advertisement, short video, or newscast that has a dominant visual component. Consider it individually by examining:
The setting
The visual features
The messages
The persuasive elements
Then, together as a class, share the meanings you individually took away. Note any differences and discuss how social life, popular culture, historical memory, personal circumstance, etc. shape one's understanding of a visual message.
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