“Words or Visuals: Which Speaks Louder?”

by Jennifer Heater | Xchanges 8.2

Introduction

When choosing visual media to accompany text in an article, technical communicators need to consider many factors. With the increasing advancement in technology, humans have access to a vast variety of different visuals that were not as easily accessible in the past. With advancements in the internet, Smartphones, and multiple options for capturing photographs and sharing them virtually instantly, anyone can publish visuals instantly. Technical communicators need to be aware of technology’s steady increase in today’s society which allows humans to have easier access to visual media.

Visual media can reach around the world in the matter of seconds, as noted by Marketing Vox: “Facebook boasts 15 billion images and 300,000 accesses per second” (qtd. in Gurri, Denny, and Harms 101). Visual media can be transmitted through many different outlets and has no limitation on the possibilities of the viewer’s perceptions. In today’s advancing society, it is important to consider visual rhetoric and its impact on the way a document is perceived. Although there is no concrete definition for visual rhetoric, an understanding that there is a persuasive factor to media is an important factor that needs to be considered. According to Marguerite Helmers and Charles Hill, “simply applying methods and concepts designed specifically for verbal language to persuasive images is not the most productive or accurate way to develop methodology for the study of visual rhetoric” (2004). A document that has uncomplimentary visuals can be hard for a reader to comprehend and could lead to a reader not putting effort into trying to understand the meaning of the words.

The elements in visual media give meaning to the image and can blur the lines between an image and reality. As stated in an article by Martin Gurri et al., “with visual media, however, the illusion is created that we are gazing out of a window at the real world” (102). Visual media opens windows of possibilities that images might have the same effects as real life on the reader; it is important for technical communicators to make certain that the images within text compliment the message being written. In this article, I will discuss and evaluate visual media used in multimodal documents and the effects that they can have on the perception of the reader and the ethics of the writer while suggesting that educators stress the significance of visual rhetoric at the classroom level.

Many scholars who have researched visual rhetoric and ethical issues agree that visual media and text work together to portray overall meaning of a document. According to Paul Lester, “The most powerful, meaningful, and culturally important messages are those that combine words and pictures equally and respectfully” (qtd. in Gurri et al. 102). Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen’s explanation of mode is as follows: “Modes can be understood as ways of representing information, or the semiotic channels we use to compose a text” (qtd. in Lauer 227). Technical communicators have a responsibility to the reader to honestly and effectively pass on information without confusing or misleading the reader. As Nancy Allen states, “Technical communicators want their documents to be attractive and persuasive to their readers, but they also need to remain true to their informative purpose” (88).

Ethical issues and visual rhetoric should be included in the coursework required for technical communicators throughout their programs to ensure that there is a standard or expectation placed in the field. As Gurri et al. remind us, “People are taught to read words but are never taught to read pictures” (qtd. in Lester viii). Visual semiotics is defined by Carey Jewitt and Rumiko Oyama as “the description of semiotic resources, what can be said and done with images … and how the things people say and do with images can be interpreted” (136). By learning the basics of visual semiotics and typology, students can have a solid starting point to understanding the effects of visual rhetoric on a reader. This theory was introduced in the 19th century by philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914), who outlined a three-part typology to define specific purposes when analyzing images for documents.