Monday, January 10, 2011

representing tragedy

Clrshooting3colco

It may be useful to read the visual rhetoric surrounding the Arizona shootings. Clearly, the Palin target maps are receiving several forms of scrutiny. This morning, I came across what seems to operate in a fairly conventional mode of representing a tragedy -- an infographic, which includes a timeline accompanied by images that highlight specific sites and events. To begin analyzing this infographic, we might ask:

  1. What images are privileged?
  2. What text -- what information is highlighted?
  3. What special emphases are generated? (using color, bold fonts, directional lines, etc.)
  4. How is the information arranged in the frame? (consider Wysocki, esp red box #2)
  5. What information is de-emphasized, hidden, or absent?
  6. What seems to be missing? (key terms, events, etc.)
  7. Who is generating this infographic? 
  8. What is the purpose of the infographic?
  9. What can we speculate about the audience for this infographic (in terms of several identity markers such as group or political affiliation, education, socio-economic factors)?
  10. How do we imagine the relationships in this rhetorical situation?
  11. How might this have been more useful? Less useful?
  12. How would you recreate this infographic? Why?

No comments:

Post a Comment