According to Essentials of Argument, "Visual argument is immediate and tangible and pulls you into the picture. (237)" This seems like the most important point because to me, it does the best job summarizing the difference between a visual and written argument. A written argument relies on abstract symbols to convey a message, and while images are also symbols, they're not as abstract and they have the potential to draw a person into the message with a simple glance.
Just for fun, I've constructed my own visual argument that features certain people and events from this country's history. Anyone reading this blog, this is your chance to judge whether or not I've managed to convey my point. What is this argument about? Is it successful or not?
2. What is the most important feature of visual image you learned from McCloud? Why? (140-50 words).
The most important thing I learned from McCloud is the relationship between the reader/watcher when they see a cartoon face as opposed to when they see a real face. When the person has a face-to-face conversation with another person, they have an image in their mind of the person they are speaking with which is accurate based on their perception. However, at the same time, they have a perception of their own face which is not as vivid, and contains more of a general "sense of shape..... A sense of general placement. (207)" Because a person doesn't see themselves in a photo-realistic sense, when they see a cartoon image of a face, it is easy for them to view the cartoon as a representation of themselves.
1. Wood, Nancy. Essentials of Argument. 2nd. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc, 2009.
McCloud, Scott. "The Vocabulary of Comics." Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World 195 - 208. 10 Sep 2008
3 comments:
So I'll give it my best shot--you've got red recalling conservatives and the representatives put them in a bad light when contrasted to yellow. But yellow is full of contradictions. Are you suggesting they are cowards? Or are you pointing out that yellow can be equated with peace and should not have such a negative connotation when compared with red. Also, the yellow--with Murrow could mean you are putting him in the Yellow Journalism category.
Overall, main argument=people who have been called cowards or yellow are really the people one should side with. They are not prejudiced like those in the red.
How'd I do?
The colors don't actually stand for anything. Lincoln was a Republican, so should he have been in the other column? They mean nothing other than to separate one group from another. They could have been blue and gray, or black and white. The problem is that there aren't very many colors that don't mean anything to somebody, so I went with red and yellow because they make for a nice contrast.
Overall, your interpretation is close, but there's something very specific that I'm looking for. Looks like I somehow missed something when creating this.
On second thought, I'm keeping the colors. Yellow = Cowardly (which is what each of those on the left side would claim of those opposing them). Red is the color of the republicans and what they wrap themselves in when not busy co opting the flag.
The main thing I was trying to get from those in red was the fact that you have the salem witch hunts, the hunts for communists, and the hunt for terrorists. Obviously in the case of the witch hunts, there are no witches, so that was just baseless hysteria. With the other two, sure, those groups exist(ed), but the hunt for them became an obsession that ruined the lives of many people who did not fall into those categories.
The people on the right side are the ones who are willing to either take on witch hunts and persecution head-on (as in the case of Murrow), or simply stand up for our basic humanity. Asking which side you're on is intended to argue that Bush isn't one of the good guys, so do you really want to stand with him, particularly when he stands together with some of the worst injustices ever carried out in this country.
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