Term paper
Visual Argument Analysis
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Introduction
Visual argumentation is the process of creating attention through the use of a visual aid. These are done with the aim of passing on a message, or even make advertisement of a particular subject product or service. For instance; visual aids may include website advertisements, magazines, billboards along the roadside, newspapers, and advertisements on buses. Therefore, visual argument aims at bringing these forms of rhetoric into life; ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos.Visual representation is an important part of human mentality as many people tend to understand better when they are able to visualize. Various organizations and companies like to use visual argument to pass information to the public about a particular function, new product in the market, they are used for propaganda by politicians, and it’s a way to show someone’s creativity like the photographers. Therefore, visual argument is very important especially in areas where most of the proportion of the population is illiterate (Frey 45).
Today, visual argument is gaining interest as a rhetorical device with the technological improvement of visual communication, particularly the advent of digital technology and the remarkable realism of computer animation. Visual argument promotes social change by encouraging individuals to modify their actions so as to accommodate the symbolic norms of visual discourse. It resonates with personal encounters, facilitating the production of social meaning and enjoys an element of realism that makes its interpretation of human experience uniquely persuasive to individuals who can understand the context of the rhetorical message.
Thesis statement
Effective and efficient way of presenting an idea or argument is through communication using the visual argumentation. In order to express the verbal ability, human beings are always to a large extent visually oriented creatures and much able to understand the information through images. However, for this to be successful, there is need to characterize the form of visual argument in more detail so as to show or describe how the arguments may be perceived or taken while in image form, and the specific aspect of visual cognition the images displays.
Visual argumentation Analysis of an advertisement with the use of a picture encouraging maintenances of forests
A warning on dangers of forest fires
Argument
This is an advertisement promoting the importance of preserving our environment so that we can help protect the wild animals in the forests. This is by ensuring that we take good care of our forests and prevent them from fires in order to avoid the consequences encountered such as lose of the rare species, and other animals since forests are a home to many animals and other important tree species. Therefore, the words written below the advertisement are just to emphasize more on the need to preserve and protect forests in all ways possible. And it’s the responsibility of each individual to ensure that the environment is protected and taken care, and when each person becomes responsible to ensuring the safety of the environment, then challenges such as forest fires will be prevented and reduced (Meister 78).
There is the use of pathos, logos, and ethos in this advertisement to describe or show the emotion in the audiences so that they get persuaded. For instance, the picture has been brought out in a way that reveals sympathy to the animals because of insecurity in their habitats. There is also anger to the negative effects human beings pose to the forest, wild animals, and environment at large.Therefore, those words and the picture itself brings out the emotions in the observers through the facial representation of the animals. The words written below the picture acts as a reminder to human beings that, it’s their duty to act responsibly when it comes to protecting the environment because animals are under human control and there is nothing they can do in order to have their habitats protected. The pictures portrays animals being harassed and victimized indicating the acts of man in causing environmental disasters. In addition, the fire shown in the background emphasizes the meaning of the word “madness” emphasizing on the need to act urgently to prevent such environmental hazards.
Conclusion
A very effective and efficient way of presenting an idea or argument is through communication using the visual argumentation. In order to express the verbal ability, human beings are always to a large extent visually oriented creatures and much able to understand the information from what they see. However, for this to be successful, there is need to characterize the form of visual argument in more detail so as to show or describe how the arguments may be perceived or taken while in image form, and the specific aspect of visual cognition the images display.Therefore, for easy characterization, it is vital to differentiate between rhetorical and demonstrative modes of visual argument. The difference is cognitive because it reflects on how the details of the picture are understood by the observers or the audience, while, in the rhetoric visual argument, the picture details ignites a pattern of both emotional and verbal reactions in an individuals` mind. Thus, these two need to make sense as a single visual scene. For instance, from the above advertisement made warning people on the importance of preserving and protecting our environment, the picture is clearly showing desperate animals which have been misplaced because of forest fire, which are all human responsibilities. Thus through this scene, the viewers get to learn the negative effects they cause to the wild animals and the environment generally.Therefore,from here, they will now to act responsibly so as to avoid such problems and they will also appreciate the value and the importance of protecting the environment.
Works Cited
Frey, Lawrence. New directions in group communication. New York: Sage, 2002.
Meister, Mark.Enviropop: studies in environmental rhetoric and popular culture’s:
Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.
