Visual Communication 2007 Abstracts
Visual Communication Division
The Epideictic Function of Visual Rhetoric • Jim Benjamin, University of Toledo • Aristotle’s Rhetoric described three forms of rhetoric: forensic, deliberative, and epideictic. This paper advances our understanding of the epideictic function of visual rhetoric. First, paper defines and identifies the unique aspects of epideictic rhetoric. Next the work explains how visual rhetoric applies to a unique media, coins. Finally, the study applies the analytic framework to a specific case of visual rhetoric, the U. S. quarter dollar commemorating the 50 states.
Henri Cartier-Bresson reinterprets his career in magazine photojournalism • Claude Cookman, Indiana University • Between 1952 and 1974, Cartier-Bresson revised his understanding of himself as a photojournalist. This article analyzes that change through close readings of The Decisive Moment; the Le Monde interview, which has never been discussed in the literature; other published statements and unpublished letters by Cartier-Bresson. It draws on interviews and correspondence with his widow Martine Franck, his friend and U.S. representative Helen Wright, and with colleagues and associates at Magnum Photos.
Anthony Suau’s Fear This: The Subjectivity of a Photojournalist’s Photobook • Timothy Gleason, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • Anthony Suau’s Fear This represents one photojournalist’s view of Americans’ reaction to the government’s threat of war and the actual engagement in Iraq. This study employs a layered analysis that addresses historical practices, political economic forces and the cultural meanings of photojournalism. The author argues photobooks allow for subjective statements and are a form of presentation that engages readers.
Pictures and Pixels: Digital Photographic Archives at Photographic Agencies • Keith Greenwood, University of Oklahoma • A survey (N = 53) was conducted with representatives of photographic agencies to examine the creation and implementation of digital photographic archives. The results indicate adoption of the innovation is influenced by characteristics of the organization and that innovations that fit well within the established routines of the organization and within the existing knowledge and skills of the organization members are likely to be successfully adopted.
Looking for you: An analysis of video blogs • Margaret Griffith, Temple University • Web logs (blogs) are one of the newest forms of self-presentation on the Internet. The blog search engine, Technorati, is currently tracking over 63 million blogs, up from 30 million in February of 2006. There has been some scholarly interest in journalistic blogging, but there has been little research on blogs, and now vlogs, as online diaries.
Ideological Analysis of Iraqi Civilian Casualties as Portrayed in Time Magazine’s First Year Photographic Coverage, 2003 • Sun-A Kim and Zoe Smith, University of Missouri • Using cultural studies and ideological analysis, this study examines how photographs from the Iraq War published in Time from January 13 to December 29, 2003, portray Iraqi civilian casualties and reflect dominant ideologies of the U.S. government. Time’s use of mythical themes reinforced the American government’s rationale of a just war with a humanitarian purpose. This cleaned up view from the first year’s coverage potentially interferes with readers’ grasp of the grim reality of war.
Hooray for VegasWood: Las Vegas Through a Hollywood Windshield • Paul Martin Lester, California State, Fullerton • This paper will show through a unique perspective-the automobiles portrayed within the movies-how Hollywood told and sold the story of Las Vegas, the American hub of gambling, excess, and decadence. A visual analysis of ten Las Vegas-themed motion pictures that were nominated within any category for an Academy Award and concentrating on the ways automobiles were metaphorically inserted and employed within each picture will help explain Hollywood, Las Vegas, and American culture.
“Change the way you communicate!” Visual communication through camera phones and Nokia.com • Jonathan Lillie, University of Hawaii-Manoa • This paper critiques some of the first advertisements for camera phones, exploring what the ads say about their users and uses based on a qualitative textual analysis of multimedia ads selected from Nokia.com. Nokia’s online ads are placed within the contexts of Nokia’s emphasis on downstream innovations, particularly in advertising, and are later compared to the findings of some of the first research studies of people’s social uses of camera phones.
A battle of visions: Dramatistic images of the Missouri 2006 senatorial campaign • Janis Teruggi Page, University of Florida and Margaret Duffy, University of Missouri • One of the most closely watched political races in the nation played out on television during fall, 2006. We used Symbolic Convergence Theory and its critical method, fantasy theme analysis, to analyze the Missouri senatorial campaign ads of incumbent Jim Talent and challenger, Clair McCaskill.
“X”-ing Out Enemies: Time Magazine, Visual Rhetoric, and the War in Iraq • Richard Popp and Andrew Mendelson, Temple University • This paper examines the visual rhetoric of Time magazine’s coverage of the death of Iraq War insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Time marked al-Zarqawi’s death by using the same visual trope – a portrait crossed out by a blood-red “X” – used to mark the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the death of Adolph Hitler in 1945.
“Snowflake” White and Politically “Right:” Photographic Framing in News Media Coverage of Stem Cell Research • Nicole Smith, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • At any given time, there are a number of issues on the media, and subsequent public, agenda. Currently, stem cell research is one such issue. This study seeks to understand the photographic frames in news media coverage about stem cell research. Previous research has indicated that examining news media photos is a valid way to understand how the media frame a particular issue.
Animated editorial cartoons: Is Ben turning over in his grave • Karon Speckman and Kalen Ponche, Truman State University • This study examined whether Web-based animated editorial cartoons are different from print cartoons and whether the cartoons have characteristics that make them effective as political symbols. The authors devised three modes of animated cartoons: “value-added” print; “The Daily Show”; and “musical-review.” The study concluded some content changes in print are reflected in animated cartoons, for example the emphasis on funny cartoons over controversial cartoons.
Children’s Recognition of Alcohol and Tobacco in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and 101 Dalmatians • Andrea Schuch, University of South Florida • How images in media, including Disney productions, relate to children has long been a topic of debate. Though most media effects studies have examined violence, the effects of alcohol, tobacco, and stereotypes are becoming significant areas of research as well.
The Nicholson Photographs: A Caseworker’s Visual Record of Rural Clients in the South during the Depression • Patsy Watkins, University of Arkansas • This project examines a collection of 97 photographs taken by federal relief caseworkers in Arkansas during the depression. The photos were likely taken as a local alternative to the famous Farm Security Administration photos, which were rejected by state relief administrators as inappropriate for their uses. The project examines the content, the composition and the captions accompanying the photos for their contributions to the visual historical record of the depression in the rural South.
Nielsen versus Nielsen: A Usability Analysis of Television Homepages • Norman E. Youngblood and Amanda McDermand, Texas Tech University • No study has examined Web page design and usability in the context of local television Web sites. A content analysis of 173 local and eight national television homepages stratified by Designated Market Area (DMA) rank and station rating provide insight into how television homepages follow usability guidelines proposed by Nielsen and Tahir. This study revealed that although usability score does not correlate DMA rank, it does correlate with station rating within a DMA.
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