| In today’s
multimedia world, effective arguments rely increasingly on the power of
images to persuade their audience. Think about the many different visually
based arguments that you encounter everyday: a television commercial showing
Michael Jordan sweating fluorescent Gatorade green; an editorial cartoon
of Harry Potter, his lightning bolt scar replaced with a large dollar
sign; war protest footage – in System of the Down’s music video
for “Boom”; the cover of Sports Illustrated, featuring
tennis star Anna Kournikova posed alluringly in an off-the-shoulder blouse
and a seductive smile. Each of these images presents an argument; each
of these texts uses visual rhetoric as a means of persuasion. In this
course, you will work toward creating your own powerful arguments, both
about and through visual rhetoric. You’ll begin by becoming proficient
readers of visual arguments. We’ll analyze comic strips and cartoons
on a variety of subjects –for instance, George Bush, education, cloning,
the War in Iraq, student life – and then move to advertisements –
from Got Milk spots to movie trailers for The Matrix Reloaded.
As we examine the ways in which images are used to persuade, you’ll
select your own example of visual rhetoric to analyze, first informally
in class, then more formally in an essay. In the second part of the quarter,
our attention will shift to different media (photography, propaganda,
architecture, and film) and to the complicated process of constructing
a research-based argument. You’ll generate your own research topic
on a subject that interests you. You might decide, for example, to look
at the media’s influence on public opinion about the war on Iraq;
the interrelationship between video games and high school violence; the
protest art of the Guerrilla Girls; Native-American team mascots and cultural
stereotyping; weblogs and modern self-expression – your topic can
focus on science, film, sports, advertising or even Stanford campus life
as long as long as it engages visual rhetoric as a form of argumentation.
The research process itself will involve many stages: from writing a proposal,
to selecting and contextualizing your sources, to outlining, drafting
and revising your paper. Our last day of the course will be devoted to
a showcase of student work and to reflecting about the principles and
uses of visual rhetoric at Stanford and in the world beyond. |
