The Rhetoricof the

Presented by Jeannie Parker Beard

Roland Barthes

• 1915-1980, French Literary Critic and Theorist• Semiotics and Structuralism • “The Rhetoric of the Image” 1977

The Panzani Ad

Barthes chose to analyze an advertisement “Because in advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional” (33).

The “Linguistic Image”

The language that anchors the text.

•Denotational & Connotational• “Italianicity” Of Panzani

The Pure Image

Depicting: “two euphoric values: that of the freshness of the products and that of the essentially domestic preparation for which they are destined” (34).

The symbolic meaning of the image

The “Literal Message”Denoted meaning“What it is” •Pasta•A net•Can•Onions•Peppers•Tomatoes •Garlic

Connoted meaning triggers associative responses in the viewer

So what?

• The “Rhetoric of the Image” demonstrates how images have a dramatic effect on how we view, interpret, and relate to the world.

• Images are sign(ifier)s

Images as SignsWhat does this image mean to you?

Text vs. ImageSummer Reading List

Image vs. TextSummer Reading List

The Power of Image

Words alone do not always convey the most meaning.

Chocolate

• “Aunty Pam's is an old-fashioned chocolate cake, is not a sponge or a mudcake. It has a light, fine texture and is milky, slightly fluffy and quite sweet. The recipe is a simple one that uses vinegar to sour the milk, bicarb soda and half a cup of cocoa. Everything can be mixed in a single bowl and is then easily poured into tins.”

“My Friend the Chocolate Cake”

By Leanne TolraTheage.com.au

The Logo

• A logo is good for brand recognition.

The Logo with The Pic

• But it’s even better this way.

Rhetoric of Graphical DataOften a graph or chart depicts data more effectively than just

statistics would.

“In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.”

– Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Your Online Source for Credible Health Information. “U.S. Obesity Trends: Trends by State 1985-2008”

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

Percent of people per state with a BMI greater than 30 from 2008. Date from: Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009-08-19). Retrieved on 2009-08-21.

Image and Self

Images help create our sense of identity.

Image vs. Reality

Click for real Faith

Dove Evolution Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Director Tim Piper Ogilvy, Yael Staav (soft citizen).

Soho - post production, Rogue - editing, Vapor music sound and mixing, Gabor Jurina - photography, Makeup - Diana Carreiro, music - Flashbulb and Vapor.

Ogilvy creative team: T Piper & M Kirkland.

Image and the World

Often images are needed to help us understand situations that are happening in our world.

Information may seem remote without images to back it up.

Reading vs. Seeing

The current water crisis in Sudan• • 12.3 million people only have access to contaminated

water• • 30% of the rural population and 40% of the urban

population have clean drinking water• • Only 5% of Khartoum’s population has access to a central

sewage system• • Only 20% of rural dwellers have some form of sanitation

services (usually pit latrines)• • In 2004, 700,000 people in Darfur didn’t have access to

clean drinking water– http://blueplanetrun.org/youthboard/sudan

Knowing vs. Seeing

Water Crisis in Sudan

“Torn by civil war between its Muslim North and Christian South, Sudan, the largest country by area on the African continent, faces tremendous challenges ensuring its nearly 40 million people have adequate access to safe water. The situation is particularly dire in the refugee-packed south where UNICEF estimates more than 17 million people have no safe drinking water.”

– http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/04/0410_world_water_crisis/20.htm

•

“A woman is filling a bowl with a dirty, undrinkable water at Boromata’s well. The Vakaga region, close to Sudan, suffers from a high incidence of environmental diseases. Rate of diarrhea, which was found to be high amongst children under 5, affects up to 50% of children per week.”

© Pierre Holtz | UNICEF

A woman is filling a UNICEF jerrycan at the Boromata well.© Pierre Holtz | UNICEF

Girls are drawing water from the Boromata’s well. Most of the wells are traditional and dangerous to use in the Vakaga region, close to Sudan.

© Pierre Holtz | UNICEF

A little girl with her bottle of water is coming back from the well, Boromata, northeastern CAR, close to Chad. The incidence of diarrhea is extremely high amongst children under 5© Pierre Holtz | UNICEF

A woman is filling an UNICEF jerrycan at the Boromata well. The Vakaga region, close to Sudan, suffers from a high incidence of environmental diseases. Rate of diarrhea, which was found to be high amongst children under 5, affects up to 50% of children per week.

© Pierre Holtz | UNICEF

Images and Values

Images have been used for centuries to persuade the public and affect the people’s sentiments toward particular issues.

“Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) and either William Hackwood or Henry Webber; "Josiah Wedgewood...produced the emblem as a jasper-ware cameo at his pottery factory. Although the artist who designed and engraved the seal is unknown, the design for the cameo is attributed to William Hackwood or to Henry Webber, who were both modelers at the Wedgewood factory.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h67.html

“No Nothings” Caricature from 1850, reprinted in Smithsonian Magazine in 1996.Irish immigrant in whiskey barrel and German immigrant in beer barrel run off with ballot box in US election.Date 1850

Anti-Irish propaganda from Punch magazine, published in August 1846. A cartoon is depicting the Irish as violent.

U.S propaganda from the WWII, urging citizens to increase production.

“The Two Platforms” “The two platforms" From a series of racist posters attacking Radical Republican exponents of black suffrage, issued during the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. The poster specifically characterizes Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer's platform as "for the White Man," represented here by the idealized head of a young man. (Clymer ran on a white-supremacy platform.) In contrast a stereotyped black head represents Clymer's opponent James White Geary's platform, "for the Negro."

Rosie the Riveter

US PsyOps leaflet used in Afghanistan ] http://www.psywarrior.com/

Images as Symbols

1,000 Words?

What images stand out to you as being the most effective? Why? Which images are ineffective? Why?

What are some of the most influential images you encounter on a daily basis? What stands out about these images? Why are they effective?

How can understanding the rhetoric of images affect the way you see and relate to images?

How can you apply the rhetoric of images to your video?