Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Chapter 14 Reflection
Visual arguments are everywhere we turn; but this is not new to our world. Visual arguments date as far back as the cavemen times when they painted on cave walls. The Romans and the Egyptians sculpted the rulers and the pharaohs to show a sign of authority to their people. The colors, depth and objects in a visual argument are all created to catch and appeal to our eyes in one way or another. They are created to provoke thought, ask questions and bring about emotions. For example, after 9/11 occurred, a stamp was published with the famous photo of the firefighters raising the flag in the rubble to raise money in support of the cleanup. A similar tactic was used during Iwo Jima, and the stamp also depicted soldiers raising the American flag during battle. The stamp created during Iwo Jima was one of the most profitable stamps in our history. Therefore, the same tactic was used in order to get the same response. It was so successful because it surfaced a lot of emotion people were feeling when all of that was going on. This same thing happened when Hurricane Katrina occurred, when photographs were sent to the public, people were more likely to donate money to the cause because they saw a photograph of real people or the devastation, rather than just hearing someone talk about it. Personally, I like the visual arguments that do not include many words, but instead have a symbolic photo to get the point across. I believe it is more powerful and makes a person think deeply about what the argument is trying to say. I also think that an actual photograph rather than a drawing is more powerful because it is real rather than created or designed by someone. With a photograph you can better relate to it because you know that person or animal actually exists rather than an idea in someone's head. Visual arguments often times make more of a statement than many words on a billboard, and that is why it has remained a part of the world for so many years.
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Ciera I love your description of Visual arguments, it incorporates everything it needs to be easy to understand and informative. I like the in-depth thought of how far visual arguments actually go back, and how they are not very different as they are today. Like back in the day, Saddam had used the same tactics as the Roman by making a huge statue that supported his authority over the people. I defiantly agree that if the visual argument is used more as a symbolic meaning that gets to a deeper point it is way more effective. I like arguments that make me think deeper and harder about it. If the picture holds a good symbolic meaning while being real it is super effective in most times. The example of World War two on Iwo Jima of the Troops setting up the flag atop of a hill hold a deep symbolic meaning for many, while being a real picture which helped people get emotional for the people that were actually there. I also agree that words are not as important in a visual argument, but sometimes I do see a visual argument that I have no idea what it means and if it had words it would make it more effective. Which is more that visual argument really just target specific groups sometimes, so making a visual argument that much better would be able to relate it to something that everyone can easily recognize? Like the Iwo Jima one where everyone realizes that war kills and that to raise the flag was victory.
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