Editing Visual rhetoric (section)

== Modern application ==
Visual images have always played a role in communication; however, the recent advancements in technology have enabled users to produce and share images on a mass scale.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=McComiskey|first=Bruce|date=1 Jan 2014|title=Visual Rhetoric and the New Public Discourse|journal=JAC: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, & Politics|volume=24|pages=187–206}}</ref> The mass communication of images has made spread of news and information a much quicker process. As a result, certain images may go "viral", meaning the image may have been shared and seen by a large number of audiences, and attracted mainstream media attention.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.lifewire.com/what-does-it-mean-to-go-viral-3486225|title=What Does 'Going Viral Online' Really Mean?|work=Lifewire|access-date=2018-03-10|language=en}}</ref> Images are utilized in a variety of ways for a number of purposes. From business to art to entertainment, the versatility of images in popular culture have some scholars arguing words will eventually become outdated.<ref name=":2" />

=== Rhetorical analysis of an image ===

*Determine the ''audience'', i.e. the intended readership/viewer of the text.
*Determine the ''purpose'', i.e. the importance of the message behind the image.
*Determine the ''context'' and meaning(s) behind the image/text.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Ball, Cheryl E., author.|title=Writer/designer : a guide to making multimodal projects|date=16 March 2018|publisher=Macmillan Learning |isbn=978-1-319-05856-2|oclc=1021051218}}</ref>

====Analyzing the design choices of an image====

* '''Emphasis''': search for the ''stress'' of the image; where does the author/artist want the audience attention to go to?
* '''Contrast''': search for the ''element'' that stands out in the image; where is the emphasis in the image?
* '''Color''': helps the audience figure out the ''emphasis'' of an image. Why were certain colors used in this image? What do the choice of these colors tell us?
* '''Organization''': the ''arrangement'' of elements that make the image a whole. How is the image organized? What does the organization of the image tell the audience?
* '''Alignment''': the ''line up'' of the image. How does the alignment of the image control how the audiences' eyes view the image?
* '''Proximity''': the ''space'' used (or not used) in an image. How close (or not so close) are the elements portrayed in the image? What meaning does that make?<ref name=":7" />

=== Visual communication design ===
{{see also|Visual communication design}}

==== Method of appeal ====
[[Aristotle]] proposed three types of appeal to an audience:

* ''Ethos'' is the appeal to ethics or integrity.
* ''Pathos'' is the appeal to emotions
* ''Logos'' is the appeal to logic or reason<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Botha |first1=Anneli |title=An exploration of the conceptual relationship between design aesthetics and Aristotelian rhetoric in information visualisation |date=19 September 2012 |hdl=2263/27944 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

These techniques are a technical skill learned and utilized by visual communication designer's today, such as in the field of advertising. Each of these methods of appeal have the ability to influence their audience in different ways. Methods of appeal can also be combined to strengthen the underlying message.

==== Visual literacy ====
Visual literacy is the ability to read, analyze, and evoke meaning from visual text through the means of ''visual grammar''. Visual Communication Designers depend on their audience having visual literacy to comprehend their outputted materials.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://colorado.aiga.org/2013/01/visual-rhetoric-an-introduction-for-students-of-visual-communication/|title=Visual Rhetoric: An Introduction for Students of Visual Communication|last=Fox|first=Randy|date=January 9, 2013|website=AIGA - Colorada|access-date=March 31, 2019}}</ref>

==== Visual ethics ====
Research has shown that there are ethical implications to the presentation of visuals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kienzler |first1=D. S. |title=Visual Ethics |journal=Journal of Business Communication |date=1 April 1997 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=171–187 |doi=10.1177/002194369703400204 |s2cid=220880176 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Wiles |first1=Rose |last2=Prosser |first2=Jon |last3=Bagnoli |first3=Anna |last4=Clark |first4=Andrew |last5=Davies |first5=Katherine |last6=Holland |first6=Sally |last7=Renold |first7=Emma |title=Visual Ethics: Ethical Issues in Visual Research |date=October 2008 |url=http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/421/ }}</ref><ref name=":8">{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Nancy |title=Ethics and Visual Rhetorics: Seeing's Not Believing Anymore |journal=Technical Communication Quarterly |date=January 1996 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=87–105 |doi=10.1207/s15427625tcq0501_6 }}</ref> "Visuals present the risk of, all too easily, swaying their audiences in an unethical fashion."<ref>{{Cite web|last=McDonnell|first=Amber|date=2016|title=The Ethics of Visual Rhetoric & Photo Manipulation |url=http://www.xchanges.org/the-ethics-of-visual-rhetoric|website=XChanges}}</ref> Advances in technology have made it easier to manipulate and distort visuals.<ref name=":8" /> Visual communicators are expected to accurately portray information and avoid misleading or deceiving viewers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dragga |first1=Sam |last2=Voss |first2=Dan |title=Hiding Humanity: Verbal and Visual Ethics in Accident Reports |journal=Technical Communication |date=1 February 2003 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=61–82 |id={{Gale|A98055409}} {{ProQuest|220997816}} |hdl=10822/1002710 |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/stc/tc/2003/00000050/00000001/art00008 }}</ref>

==== Advertisements ====
Advertisers know that their consumers are able to associate one thing to another; therefore, when an ad shows two things that seemingly different, they know that the consumer will find a connection between the two.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Phillips|first1=Barbara|last2=McQuarrie|first2=Edward|date=2004|title=Beyond visual metaphor: A new typology of visual rhetoric in advertising|url=https://courses.helsinki.fi/sites/default/files/course-material/4482592/22.3_MT2004%20Phillips.pdf|journal=Marketing Theory|volume=4|issue=1–2|pages=113–136|doi=10.1177/1470593104044089|s2cid=73621526}}</ref> Advertisers also find ways to make sure that the consumer creates a positive association between what they are selling and whatever they are associating their product with.<ref name=":1" />

In advertising, there are nine main classifications for how ads incorporate visual rhetoric.<ref name=":1" /> These classifications vary in complexity with the least complex being when advertisers juxtapose their product with another image (listed as 1,2,3).<ref name=":1" /> After juxtaposition, the complexity is increased with fusion, which is when an advertiser's product is combined with another image (listed as 4,5,6).<ref name=":1" /> The most complex is replacement, which replaces the product with another product (listed as 7,8,9). Each of these sections also include a variety of richness.<ref name=":1" /> The least rich would be connection, which shows how one product is associated with another product (listed as 1,4,7).<ref name=":1" /> The next rich would be similarity, which shows how a product is like another product or image (listed as 2,5,8,).<ref name=":1" /> Finally, the most rich would be opposition, which is when advertisers show how their product is not like another product or image (listed as 3,6,9).<ref name=":1" /> 
# Advertisers can put their product next to another image in order to have the consumer associate their product with the presented image.
# Advertisers can put their product next to another image to show the similarity between their product and the presented image.
# Advertisers can put their product next to another image in order to show the consumer that their product is nothing like what the image shows.
# Advertisers can combine their product with an image in order to have the consumer associate their product with the presented image.
# Advertisers can combine their product with an image to show the similarity between their product and the presented image.
# Advertisers can combine their product with another image in order to show the consumer that their product is nothing like what the image shows.
# Advertisers can replace their product with an image to have the consumer associate their product with the presented image.
# Advertisers can replace their product with an image to show the similarity between their product and the presented image.
# Advertisers can replace their product with another image to show the consumer that their product is nothing like what the image shows.

Each of these categories varies in complexity, where putting a product next to a chosen image is the simplest and replacing the product entirely is the most complex.<ref name=":1" /> The reason why putting a product next to a chosen image is the most simple is because the consumer has already been shown that there is a connection between the two.<ref name=":1" /> In other words, the consumer just has to figure out why there is the connection. However, when advertisers replace the product that they are selling with another image, then the consumer must first figure out the connection and figure out why the connection was made.

=== Visual arts ===
Visual [[Trope (linguistics)|trope]]s and tropic thinking are a part of visual rhetoric. While the field of visual rhetoric isn't necessarily concerned with the aesthetic choices of a piece, the same principles of visual composition may be applied to the study and practice of [[visual art]]. For example, [[figures of speech]], such as [[personification]] or [[allusion]], may be implemented in the creation of an artwork. A painting may ''allude'' to peace with an olive branch or to Christianity with a cross; in the same way, an artwork may employ personification by attributing human qualities to a non-human entity. In general, however, visual art is a separate field of study than visual rhetoric.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}[[File:Grafiti corazón.jpg|thumb|This image portrays a young person holding a heart. Instead of looking at this image literally, rhetoricians will observe the keyhole in the heart's center and think critically about this image's significance.]]

=== Graffiti ===
[[Graffiti]] is a "pictorial or visual inscription on a {{sic|public|ally}} accessible surface."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hanauer|first=David|date=2011|title=The discursive construction of the separation wall at Abu Dis: Graffiti as political discourse|journal=Journal of Language and Politics|volume=10|issue=3|pages=301–321|doi=10.1075/jlp.10.3.01han}}</ref> According to Hanauer, Graffiti achieves three functions; the first is to allow marginalized texts to participate in the public discourse, the second is that graffiti serves the purpose of expressing openly "controversial contents", and the third is to allow "marginal groups to the possibility of expressing themselves publicly."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hanauer|first=David|date=2004|title=Silence, voice and erasure: psychological embodiment in graffiti at the site of Prime Minister Rabin's assassination|journal=The Arts in Psychotherapy|volume=31|pages=29–35|doi=10.1016/j.aip.2004.01.001}}</ref> Bates and Martin note that this form of rhetoric has been around even in ancient Pompeii, with an example from 79 A.D. reading, "Oh wall, so many men have come here to scrawl, I wonder that your burdened sides don't fall".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bates|first=John|date=1980|title=The thematic content of graffiti as a nonreactive indicator of male and female attitudes|journal=The Journal of Sex Research|volume=16|issue=4|pages=300–315|doi=10.1080/00224498009551087}}</ref> Gross and Gross indicated that graffiti is capable of serving a rhetorical purpose.<ref>{{cite journal |id={{Gale|A14540573}} {{ProQuest|1290169516}} |last1=Gross |first1=Daniel D. |last2=Gross |first2=Timothy D. |title=Tagging: changing visual patterns and the rhetorical implications of a new form of graffiti |journal=Etc |date=22 September 1993 |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=250–265 }}</ref> Within a more modern context, Wiens' (2014) research showed that graffiti can be considered an alternative way of creating rhetorical meaning for issues such as homelessness.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Wiens |first1=Brianna Ivy |title=Home Is Where the Spray-Painted Heart Is: Graffiti as Rhetorical Resistance on Skid Row |url=https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/rx913q29h }}</ref> Furthermore, according to Ley and Cybriwsky graffiti can be an expression of territory, especially within the context of gangs.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ley |first1=David |last2=Cybriwsky |first2=Roman |title=Urban Graffiti as Territorial Markers |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |date=December 1974 |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=491–505 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1974.tb00998.x |s2cid=41530734 }}</ref> This form of visual rhetoric is meant to communicate meaning to anyone who so happens to see it, and due to its long history and prevalence, several styles and techniques have emerged to capture the attention of an audience.

=== Text ===
While visual rhetoric is usually applied to denote the non-textual artifacts, the use and presentation of words is still critical to understanding the visual argument as a whole. Beyond how a message is conveyed, the presentation of that message encompasses the study and practice of [[typography]]. Professionals in fields from graphic design to book publishing make deliberate choices about how a typeface looks, including but not limited to concerns of functionality, emotional evocations, and cultural context.<ref>Michael Bierut, "Now You See It and Other Essays on Design." Princeton Architectural Press. New York. November 7, 2017.</ref>
[[File:Wiki Meme.jpg|thumb|An example of a simple meme. Identifiable symbols fill gaps in meaning where text is absent.]]

=== Memes ===
Though a relatively new way of using images, visual Internet memes are one of the more pervasive forms of visual rhetoric. Visual memes represent a genre of visual communication that often combines images and text to create meaning. Visual memes can be understood through visual rhetoric, which "combines elements of the semiotic and discursive approaches to analyze the persuasive elements of visual texts."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Huntington|first=Heidi|date=2013|title=Subversive Memes: Internet Memes as a Form of Visual Rhetoric|url=https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/spir/article/view/8886|journal=Selected Papers of Internet Research|volume=14}}</ref> Furthermore, memes fit into this rhetorical category because of their persuasive nature and their ability "to draw viewers into the argument's construction via the viewer's cognitive role in completing "visual enthymemes" to fill in the unstated premise."<ref>Blair, J. A. (2004). The rhetoric of visual arguments. In C. A. Hill & M. Helmers (Eds.) Defining visual rhetorics (pp. 41-61). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.</ref> The visual portion of the meme is a part of its multimodal grammar, allowing a person to decode the text through "cultural codes" that contextualize the image to construct meaning.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Milner|first=Ryan|title=The World Made Meme: Public Conversations and Participatory Media|publisher=MIT Press|year=2016|isbn=9780262034999}}</ref> Because of what is unstated, memetic images can hold multiple interpretations.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hahner|first=Leslie|date=2 February 2017|title=The Riot Kiss: Framing Memes as Visual Argument|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00028533.2013.11821790|journal=Argumentation and Advocacy|volume=49|issue=3|pages=151–166|doi=10.1080/00028533.2013.11821790|s2cid=140824851|via=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> As groups create and share a specific meme template what is unstated becomes a fixed reading with "novel expression".<ref name=":4" />

Shifman, in an analysis of [[Know Your Meme|KnowYourMeme.com]], found that popular memetic images often feature juxtaposition and frozen motion.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last=Shifman|first=Limor|title=Memes in Digital Culture|publisher=MIT Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-262-31769-6|pages=89}}</ref> Juxtaposition frames clashing visual elements in order to "deepen the ridicule" with a large incongruity or diminishes the original contrast by taking the visual object into a more fitting situation.<ref name=":9" /> Frozen motion pictures an action made static, leaving the viewer to complete the motion in order to complete the premise.<ref name=":9" />

Considered by some scholars to be a subversive form of communication, memetic images have been used to unify political movements, such as umbrellas during the [[Umbrella Movement]] in Hong Kong or the images of tea bags by the [[Tea Party movement|Tea Party Movement]] in 2009.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mina|first=An Xiao|title=Memes to Movements: How the World's Most Popular Medea is Changing Social Protest and Power|publisher=Beacon Press|year=2019|isbn=9780807056585}}</ref>

According to a 2013 study by Bauckhage, et al., the temporal nature of most memes and their "hype cycles" of popularity are in line with the behavior of a typical fad and suggest that after they proliferate and become mainstream, memes quickly lose their appeal and popularity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bauckhage |first1=Christian |last2=Kersting |first2=Kristian |last3=Hadiji |first3=Fabian |title=Mathematical Models of Fads Explain the Temporal Dynamics of Internet Memes |journal=Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media |date=28 June 2013 |volume=7 |issue=1 |url=https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/14392 }}</ref> Once it has lost its appeal, a meme is pronounced "dead" to signify its overuse or mainstream appearance.<ref name=":4" />

Among the intrinsic factors of memes that affect their potential rise to popularity is similarity. A 2014 study conducted by researcher Michele Coscia concluded that meme similarity has a negative correlation to meme popularity, and can therefore be used, along with factors like social network structure, to explain the popularity of various memes.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coscia |first1=Michele |title=Average is Boring: How Similarity Kills a Meme's Success |journal=Scientific Reports |date=May 2015 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=6477 |doi=10.1038/srep06477 |pmid=25257730 |pmc=4175728 |bibcode=2014NatSR...4.6477C |doi-access=free }}</ref> A 2015 study by Mazambani et al. concluded that other factors of influence in meme spread within an online community include how relevant a meme is to the "topic focus" or theme of the online community as well as whether the posting user is in a position of power within an online setting.<ref name=":10">{{cite journal |last1=Mazambani |first1=Gideon |last2=Carlson |first2=Maria A. |last3=Reysen |first3=Stephen |last4=Hempelmann |first4=Christian F. |title=Impact of Status and Meme Content on the Spread of Memes in Virtual Communities |journal=Human Technology |date=30 November 2015 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=148–164 |doi=10.17011/ht/urn.201511113638 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Memes that are consistent with a group's theme and memes that originate from lower-status members within the group spread faster than memes that are inconsistent and are created by members of a group that are in positions of power.<ref name=":10" />

Scholars like Jakub Nowak propose the idea of popular driven media as well. Successful memes originate and proliferate by means of anonymous internet users, not entities like corporations or political parties that have an agenda. For this reason, anonymity is linked to meme popularity and credibility. Nowak asserts that meme authorship should remain anonymous, because this is the only way to let people make the statements that they want to freely.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nowak |first1=Jakub |title=Internet meme as meaningful discourse: Towards a theory of multiparticipant popular online content |journal=Central European Journal of Communication |date=11 May 2016 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=73–89 |doi=10.19195/1899-5101.9.1(16).5 |doi-access=free }}</ref>