What is Visual Rhetoric?
As we learned in 6-01, rhetoric is any form of communication that attempts to modify another person's perspective. Visual Rhetoric is the use of pictures and images to make an argument, to persuade, or to communicate an idea. It can be a photograph or a drawing. Sometimes the meaning is clear, and other times it might take some more time or context to work out what the image is trying to persuade someone to think or believe.
Let's take a look at an example:
Visual Rhetoric
Visual Rhetoric is a form of communication that uses images to create meaning or to make an argument.
Discussion
Look at the images below and for each, discuss the following questions in pairs or groups.
- What are the most important parts of this image? What do you see?
- Who is the audience for this image? How do you know?
- What is the argument this image is trying to make? What is the photographer/artist trying to persuade the audience of?
- Does the photographer/artist clearly communicate his or her argument? If yes, how so?
- Is this image effective? Why or why not?
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