Analyzing Visual Arguments How can I make informed judgments about media messages and how they affect an audience? ELA9LSV2 Communication/Written/Oral Texts/Media The student formulates reasoned judgments about written and oral communication in various media genres. The student delivers focused, coherent, and polished presentations that convey a clear and distinct perspective, demonstrate solid reasoning, and combine traditional rhetorical strategies of narration, exposition, persuasion, and description. The student responds to written and oral texts and media (e.g., television, radio, film productions, and electronic media).

Recognizing Visual Argument First, you need to decide whether you are looking at an argument. Discover this by asking the following: Is the visual material about an issue that has not been resolved or settled? Does this issue potentially inspire two or more different views? If your answer to both these questions was yes, then attempt to describe the issue and the perspective being developed.

Analyze the Author’s Purpose Recognizing different purposes in visual argument will help you evaluate your sources. Some visuals are obviously intended as argument, and others conceal their argumentative purpose, making it more difficult to recognize.

Author’s Purpose… Obvious argument: The author’s purpose is clearly to take a position and to change minds or to convince others. Extremist Argument: Authors who hold fast to prejudiced beliefs and stereotypes about various people, causes, or special projects sometimes rely on emotions to appeal to specific audiences. Hidden Argument: Some visuals seem to be used to inform but, on closer inspection, actually favor one position over other (not in an obvious way).

Why is Visual Argument Convincing? Visual Argument is immediate and tangible and pulls you into the picture. It communicates fast and evokes a rich, dense, and immediate response from a viewer.

Who might have created this visual? To what purpose? What issue does it raise with you? What position do you take on the issue? How does this visual affect your opinion? Visual Argument often establishes common ground and invites viewer identification. How do you identify with this visual?

What issue does this set of visuals raise with you? What position do you take on the issue? How do these visuals affect your opinion? How do you identify with these visuals? What issues do the pictures raise for you?

Visual Argument… Visual argument is immediate and tangible and pulls you into the picture… Visual argument often establishes common ground and invites viewer identification… Visual argument often evokes an emotional response… Visual argument often relies on juxtaposition of materials from radically different categories.. Visual argument often employs icons to prompt an immediate response from a viewer… Visual argument often employs symbols… Visual argument is selective… Visual argument invites unique interpretations from viewers…

Context: This ad appeared in Time magazine. For Discussion: How does the author of the ad create common ground between the company and the family? With whom do you identify in the picture? How is selectivity used: what is included and what is left out? What is the claim for the overall ad and for the picture alone? How is ethos, or speaker’s credibilty used in this ad? How is logos, or logical facts, used in this ad? How is pathos, or emotions, used in this ad?

Quick writing activity… What is the purpose of this ad? Who is the target audience? What other picture might State Farm have used to communicate the claim in the ad and accomplish the same purpose? How would you compare the effectiveness of another picture with that of the woman and her children?

Critique Visual Argument… The rhetorical situation: Texts: What kind of text is the visual published in? Reader: What readers does the text anticipate? Do you share common ground with the publisher? Are you open to changing your opinion? Author: Who is the author? How is the author influenced by background, experience, education, affiliations, values?

Your Turn… Evaluate the advertisement that you have chosen. Who is the author? In what text was the advertisement published? What is the claim? What is the support? How are you affected emotionally, logically, or ethically by the advertisement? Who is the intended audience? How does the advertisement attempt to appeal to the intended audience?