Reading done on October 16 2018
"Defining Visual Rhetorics - Chapter 1: The Psychology of Rhetoric Images"
- by Charles A. Hill - 2004
- Edited by Charles A. Hill and Marguerite Helmers
In this chapter, Hill focuses on representational images, which are "visuals that are clearly designed to represent a recognizable person, object, or situation" (Hill 2004, 25).
He raises the question: "How, exactly, do images persuade?
In other words, how do representational images work to influence the beliefs, attitudes, opinions —and sometimes actions— of those who view them? (Hill 2004, 25).
"Cultural studies of visual rhetoric constitute one type of attempt to understand how visual appeals operate. In these types of studies, scholars analyze the ways in which culturally shared values and assumptions are utilized in persuasive communication, and how these shared values and assumptions influence viewers’ responses to mass-produced images" (Hill 2004, 26)
Hill (2004) claims that "psychological processes and cultural practices are inextricably linked" (26). Additionally, he asserts that "cognitive processes may be said to be the mechanisms through which the influences of culture operate" (Hill 2004, 26): Meaning that "psychological and cultural influences on individual response and action are not" (Hill 2004, 26).
"To ask how images work to influence viewers’ beliefs, attitudes, and opinions is ultimately to ask about the very nature of images and about how people respond to them" (Hill 2004, 26). Hill (2004) states that "[c]onventional wisdom says that representational images tend to prompt emotional reactions and that, once the viewer’s emotions are excited, they tend to override his or her rational faculties, resulting in a response that is unreflective and irrational" (26).
"[I]ndividual rhetor is faced with the danger that any particular element may be forgotten or get drowned out in a sea of information, anecdote, and argument. To counteract this danger, a good rhetor will attempt to prompt audience members to focus their attention on the specific elements that the rhetor thinks will most benefit his or her case" (Hill 2004, 28).
"Many psychological studies of persuasion have found that, when faced with opposing verbal arguments, a reader or listener will usually accept the one that reflects or reinforces his or her already-held opinions and assumptions (see, for example, Evans; Johnson-Laird and Byrne; Kuhn; Lau, Smith, and Fiske; Voss et al.)" (Hill 2004, 28).
The author claims that the challenge for a rhetor is to make the elements - in the situation that are supportive of a particular argument at focus - more salient and memorable for the audience (Hill 2004, 28). For example by giving "presence" to the element at focus.
"Presence, as the term is used by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, refers to the extent to which an object or concept is foremost in the consciousness of the audience members. Skillful rhetors attempt to increase the presence of elements in the rhetorical situation that are favorable to their claim because they know that elements with enhanced presence will have a greater influence over the audience’s attitudes and beliefs" (Hill 2004, 28)."the rhetor’s goal is not merely to create some presence where before there was none, but rather to endow the elements in the situation that are favorable to the rhetor’s case with as much presence as possible. In fact, the rhetor’s ulti- mate goal, whenever possible, is to make the relevant object, concept or value fill the audience’s entire “field of consciousness” (118). In other words, when particular elements are given enough presence, they can crowd out other con- siderations from the viewer’s mind, regardless of the logical force or relevance of those other considerations" (Hill 2004, 29).
"The phenomenon of presence is inherently linked to visual perception. It has often been remarked that a picture of one starving child is more persuasively powerful than statistics citing the starvation of millions. In Perelman and Olbrecht-Tyteca’s terms, the one child depicted in a photograph becomes undeniably more “present” to us, whereas the million individual children whose tragedy and suffering are summed up in a statistic are not. Although we can all recognize this phenomenon from our own experiences, it is difficult to explain why this should be so" (Hill 2004, 29).
"If we assume that we are talking mostly about photographic images, then we could say that the suffering portrayed in the photograph carries more epistemic force than a verbal description because the existence of the photograph proves the existence of its subject. As Barthes points out, a photograph is, by definition, a captured reflection of an object or person that actually exists or that existed at one time, so the photograph at least proves the existence of the person or object, no matter how much the circumstances surrounding that existence may be manipulated in the darkroom" (Hill 2004, 29).
"Such an argument assumes that people reflect on the nature of evidence to an extent that would prompt a line of reasoning something like this: “The starving child depicted in the photograph must be real, while the statistics could be inaccurate, misleading, or even made up. Therefore, it is rational to place more weight on the one ‘real’ child in the photograph.”" (Hill 2004, 30).
"When direct visual perception of the desired element is not feasible, then using concrete language to help the reader or listener construct a mental image can be quite effective for enhancing the presence of the favorable rhetorical element" (Hill 2004, 30).
"[...] [P]sychological studies demonstrate that words can also elicit highly emotional responses" (Hill 2004, 30).
"We commonly speak of readers constructing a "mental image" while reading a narrative or descriptive text, and neurological studies show taht this occurs quite literally—i.e., reading a descriptive text can actually activate the same parts of the brain used to process visual images (Howard et al.; Robotier; Sinatra)" (Hill 2004, 30-31). Hill (2004) claims that "[t]hese mental images can result in emotional responses similar to those that are prompted by the viewing of actual images" (31).
"Because imagistic language can prompt mental imaging and therefore elicit emotional responses, it seems likely that using such language would increase the rhetorical effectiveness of the message. The relationship between the creation of mental images through reading text and the process of developing or revising one’s beliefs and attitudes based on these mental images has been studied by psychologists as the concept of vividness. In psychological studies, vivid information is identified as information that is emotionally interesting and concrete (Nisbett and Ross)" (Hill 2004, 31).
"Vivid information takes the form of concrete and imagistic language, personal narratives, pictures, or first-hand experience. Vividness is a matter of degree, of course, but the most vivid type of information would be an actual experience (being attacked, being involved in an accident, etc.), and the least vivid type of information would be information that one is exposed to by reading or listening to abstract, impersonal language and statistics" (Hill 2004, 31).
"[...][t]he more vivid the information, the more likely it is that the information will prompt an emotional response from the receiver (Campos et al.) (Hill 2004, 31).
"vividness is almost a direct synonym for visualization" (Hill 2004, 32).
"Many psychologists consider emotions to be a cognitive recognition of and response to a physiological reaction to some external stimulus (Dillard and Peck). In other words, when we recognize (perhaps on some preconscious level) a potential danger, that recognition results in a range of physiological responses (our hair standing up on end, increased adrenaline flow, etc.). Our brain recognizes these responses and interprets them in a way that we recognize and label as an emotion (e.g., anger, fear, sadness)" (Hill 2004, 33).
"[...][C]all cultural values, are continually exploited in persuasive discourse for the emotional weight they contain. In many persuasive appeals that use images, the images elicit emotions largely because these images instantiate one of these values, and evoking one of these cultural constructs causes the emotions that are linked to it to be instantiated" (Hill 2004, 35).
"Professional persuaders—politicians, attorneys, marketing experts, etc.— exploit the linkage between emotions, values, and particular images by creating associations between those images and abstract values that the persuader wishes to make more present to the audience" (Hill 2004, 35).
"[A]n emotional reaction can be prompted even by abstract symbols of complex concepts. Once the association between a particular image and a value is created and internalized, the image becomes a symbol for the abstract value and can be used to trigger its associated emotions" (Hill 2004, 35).
"Kjeldsen argues that the persuasive power of vivid images is shortlived, and is not really effective for convincing someone to change his or her beliefs over the long term. Surely there are situations in which someone succumbs to an emotional appeal, only to have his or her newfound conviction fade as the triggered emotions fade. In other words, an emotional appeal will often result in a new conviction or acceptance of a controversial claim only so long as the triggered emotions last. For many persuasive purposes, this will render an emotional appeal useless and may even result in a backlash if the audience member later begins to feel that he or she has been emotionally manipulated" (Hill 2004, 36).
"But many persuasive messages are part of long-term persuasive strategies; the most obvious examples are political and advertising campaigns" (Hill 2004, 36).
"[T]hey expect that the series of messages will work together, constructing an overall image and set of schematic relations that will convince the audience member to take the desired action. The objective in such campaigns is not to prompt a powerful temporary response, but to build up, over time, a schematic connection between the product or candidate and a set of positive values that will prompt the reader to think favorably of the product. The overall goal is to prompt members of the target audience to develop positive feelings toward the product or the candidate (and a political candidate is, in essence, the “product” that a political campaign attempts to sell). This can be accomplished by continually displaying visual associations between the product and some object or symbol that is already schematically tied to a positive value (thereby taking advantage of the emotional responses that are already associated with that value) (Hill 2004, 36).