Visual Rhetoric / Native American Mascots

Article: Native American Mascots: Pride or Prejudice?
http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/04/native-american-mascots-pride-or-prejudice/


VISUAL RHETORIC

Visual rhetoric is a form of persuasion that uses images to create meaning or prepare an argument. Like tradtional rhetoric, visual rhetoric attempts to persuade its audience to reach a desired conclusion. Unlike traditional rhetoric, visual rhetoric relies on lanuage AND graphic imagery to convey meaning.

In visual rhetoric, the message is often immediate and to the point, and therefore it must rely on certain conventional images that the majority of its audience will instantly recognize. The easiest way to go about this is to use archetypes and stereotypes.

What is an ARCHETYPE? What is a STEREOTYPE?

To say that archetypes are good and stereotypes are bad is a gross simplification. Archetypes represent the essence of a type, or which everyone, regardless of culture or teaching, would recognize. Stereotypes on the other hand, represent the more openly skewed opinions held by a particular set of people.

(Information provided by www.layingthefoundation.org)

VISUAL RHETORIC QUESTIONS

1. Who is the intended audience? Who is the actual audience? How can you tell?
2. What is the visual rhetoric being used for? In other words, what is the purpose of the visual rhetoric - what is the author trying to convince the audience to think, feel, or do?
3. Is there copy (words or text) included in the visual text? What does it say? What is it meant to convey or what emotions (pathos) is it meant to evoke? How does this copy add to the ideas expressed by the images?
4. What is the tone or mood of the visual? What emotions do you think this mood is meant to evoke and why?
5. What can you NOT see in the image? Why do you think that is - what is the intended effect of this omission?
6. How is the author attempting to appeal to the audience - in other words, how do you think the author is seeking to connect to the audience's presuppositions? Are there strong appeals or modes of proof to pathos, logos, and/or ethos? Also, would one of these appeals not be as effective without the other? For example, is the author appealing first to the emotions of the audience in order to have a chance at appealing to the audience logically?
7. Name all of the stakeholders with regard to the visual rhetoric. In other words, who has a stake in whether or not the author's purpose is achieved or not with the audience?