Comics and graphic texts require complex engagement from readers, engagement that relies on a developed understanding of text and image, and how they interact to create meaning. There are several theories about how readers engage with comics, many from comic creators themselves, and some from scholars in literature and composition. This project introduces an approach to comics utilizing visual rhetoric, which reconsiders the stricter text/image dynamics often conceptualized in Comics Studies, includes the reader as creator, and explores comics as collaboratively created texts. This approach is applied to Superman: Red Son, a popular text that focuses in on Superman, and Cold War politics, producing a critical conversation about American and Russian relations and their influences in a global context. This project has several goals: to legitimize the superhero comic as a place of important cultural power, to show the collaborative nature of comics, placing writers and artists in equal standing to the work they produce, and to introduce the reader as creator.

Since the late 1800s, public data visualizations displaying election forecasts and results—such as the red and blue map of the United State—have presented an irreparably divided country. However, on November 8, 2016, the New York Times published a data visualization on their live presidential forecast page that broke over a century of visual expectations, inspiring many to tweet reactions to what popular media has dubbed the "jittery gauges." Not surprisingly, the tweets about this unique and difficult-to-interpret display were mostly negative. This paper argues, though, that the negative feedback indicates that the gauges, while imperfect, represent an important step away from visualizations that support the growing perception of party polarization. The key factor present in the gauges is the data design principle of uncertainty or possibility. If major news outlets were more thoughtful about introducing uncertain elements into visualizations of American politics, perhaps the nation could begin to imagine a political landscape that moves beyond red vs. blue, me vs. you.

<p>Title: ”Du kommer väl ihåg hur det var att gå i skolan?” – En visuell retorikanalys av fem av Friends antimobbningsfilmer</p><p>Number of pages: 75</p><p>Authors: Radhika Bhasin and Christoffer Orre</p><p>Tutor: Marinette Fogde and Gudrun Weiner</p><p>Course: Communication, Advanced Course</p><p>Period: Spring 2007</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Humanistic Science, Örebro University</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose with this essay is to examine in what ways the Swedish organisation Friends advertising films against bullying rhetorically and visual rhetorically intend to convince their audience of their message.</p><p>Material/Method: We have been studying five of Friends advertising films against bullying. The five films were chosen because they all originated from the same campaign against bullying amongst schoolchildren. The methods used were partly rhetoric analysis and partly visual rhetoric analysis.</p><p>Main results: The conclusion we can draw from this study is that Friends anti-bullying films uses several rhetoric methods, both classic and visual, to convince their audience. Occurrence of pathos (emotions) arguments as convincing method was most commonly used, followed by ethos (sender trust) and only a few logos (fact) arguments. These arguments combined with a strong evidentia and style figures such as metaphors and metonyms concluded in the assume that the films at least fulfilled their purpose to inform the audience about the anti-bullying message in an appealing way. However if the films resulted in any behaviouristic changes we can not say.</p>

Title: ”Du kommer väl ihåg hur det var att gå i skolan?” – En visuell retorikanalys av fem av Friends antimobbningsfilmer Number of pages: 75 Authors: Radhika Bhasin and Christoffer Orre Tutor: Marinette Fogde and Gudrun Weiner Course: Communication, Advanced Course Period: Spring 2007 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Humanistic Science, Örebro University Purpose/Aim: The purpose with this essay is to examine in what ways the Swedish organisation Friends advertising films against bullying rhetorically and visual rhetorically intend to convince their audience of their message. Material/Method: We have been studying five of Friends advertising films against bullying. The five films were chosen because they all originated from the same campaign against bullying amongst schoolchildren. The methods used were partly rhetoric analysis and partly visual rhetoric analysis. Main results: The conclusion we can draw from this study is that Friends anti-bullying films uses several rhetoric methods, both classic and visual, to convince their audience. Occurrence of pathos (emotions) arguments as convincing method was most commonly used, followed by ethos (sender trust) and only a few logos (fact) arguments. These arguments combined with a strong evidentia and style figures such as metaphors and metonyms concluded in the assume that the films at least fulfilled their purpose to inform the audience about the anti-bullying message in an appealing way. However if the films resulted in any behaviouristic changes we can not say.

Modern societies are generally becoming increasingly capitalist in nature and economies of these societies are thus likely to become more focused on consumer consumption. Advertising plays a vital role in contemporary society where we, as consumers and citizens, are surrounded by it everywhere we look and everywhere we go. This puts pressure on advertisers to become more creative and to explore new ways of marketing their products and services in an already saturated environment. We believe that the added pressure and the already established role of marketing in society make advertisements an interesting and telling object for analysis. This is particularly the case with regards to the concept of selling and marketing products that have qualities that are known to be less than beneficial for our health. This paper analyzes four commercial advertisements marketing beer; a product that we argue has qualities that can be seen as potentially bad for the health of individuals and for societies. The brands advertising the products, which are subject to our analysis, are Pripps Blå and Norrlands Guld. The aim was to use rhetorical and semiotic analyses to find which strategies had been employed in the advertisements to sell the above-mentioned brands, thus allowing us to study rhetorical techniques drawing on cultural conventions. Our analysis showed that each of the four advertisements in our study contained rhetorical arguments; of which a recurring argument in all of the advertisements was pathos. This was strengthened by the semiotic analysis which showed that the majority of connotations found were of an emotional character. Our conclusion is therefore that Pripps Blå and Norrlands Gulds strategy for selling their beer is to appeal to our senses and emotions rather than our logic and rationality. This strategy we believe to be founded in the cultural conventions and ideological beliefs currently existing in Swedish society.

Despite the prevalence and ubiquity of media in North American culture, educators still show reluctance to embrace media literacy as a necessary literacy. This study examines two media literacy activities using descriptive teacher research, and defining usefulness based on student response and applicability to composition objectives in the English 1101 classroom. Both lessons produce useful findings, with students rating the second activity as more useful than the first activity. This research lends sample assignments and confidence to instructors seeking to employ simple media literacy tactics in the introductory composition classroom.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze DVD covers for the genre romantic comedy from the 2000s as a way to obtain patterns and codes provided by the genre. The theoretical framework consists of previous research that analyzed various posters, theories about semiotics, genre, and visual rhetoric.  These theories will help answer the main question and help with the analysis. The objects for observation are ten DVD covers from the genre romantic comedy and a qualitative content analysis is used for this thesis. The movies are from the US and they are all high in Box Office. Box Office stands for how many tickets were sold and how much money a film has earned. The use of numbers from Box Office shows that the movie had a successful marketing prior coming out as DVD. The analysis focuses also on movies from the year 2003 – 2012 as a way to get a ten years gap and also get the contemporary movies. The results show that there are codes and patterns provided from various DVD covers. Visual expressions as clothing, angles, perspectives, postures, facial expressions and colors say a lot about how the genre is visualized. It's also important for these visual expressions to work together – as they tell a story about the relationships and the characters, and also what the movie is going to be about. The main conclusion is that the woman is usually the one who is in focus and she is the active one. This doesn't necessary mean that the woman is in a higher position when it comes to the society or that she'll always have the upper hand in the relationship, but she is the one that has the upper hand right now. It's also clear that the DVD covers show when the couples aren't happily ever after. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera DVD-omslag för genren romantisk komedi från 2000-talet för att få fram mönster och koder som ges från genren. Det teoretiska ramverket består av tidigare forskning som analyserat olika affischer - samt teorier om semiotik, genre och visuell retorik. Dessa teorier används för att svara på frågeställningen och för att hjälpa till vid analysen. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys har analyserat tio olika DVD-omslag för genren romantisk komedi. Filmerna som analyserats är från USA och anses som höga inom Box Office. Begreppet Box Office står för hur många biljetter som har sålts och hur mycket pengar en film tjänat in. Användingen av siffor från Box Office visar att filmen hade en lyckad marknadsföring innan den kom ut på DVD, vilket gör att den används för denna analys. Analysen fokuserar sig också bara på filmer från år 2003 – 2012 då man får ett mellanrum på tio år och filmerna blir samtida. Resultatet från den kvalitativa metoden visar att det finns koder och mönster som ges från olika DVD-omslag. Visuella uttryck som kläder, vinklar, perspektiv, kroppshållning, ansiktsuttryck och färger påverkar mycket hur ett DVD-omslag uppfattas och säger mycket om hur genren visualiserats. Det är också viktigt att dessa visuella uttryck arbetar ihop då de tillsammans berättar något om relationerna, karaktärerna och vad filmen kommer att handla om. Slutsatsen visade att kvinnan oftast är den som är i fokus och aktiv. Detta betyder inte nödvändigt att kvinnan är i en högre position i samhället eller att hon kommer alltid att ha övertaget i relationen, men att hon styr just nu. Det är också tydligt att DVD-omslagen inte visar när paren är lyckliga i alla sina dagar.

Typically, when considering Adolf Hitler, we see him in one of two ways: A parodied figure or a monolithic figure of power. I argue that instead of only viewing images of Hitler he wanted us to see, we should expand our view and overall consideration of images he did not want his audiences to bear witness. By examining a collection of photographs that Hitler censored from his audiences, I question what remains hidden about Hitler’s image when we are constantly shown widely circulated images of Hitler. To satisfy this inquiry, I utilize rhetorics of display to argue that when we analyze and include these hidden images into the Hitlerian visual discourse, we further complicate and disrupt the Hitler Myth. This study aims to contribute to recent scholarship that aims to learn more about the “hidden” Hitler as well as to rhetorical studies of display.

This dissertation studies visual artifacts associated with early modern theatre and book culture, and through them examines acts of communication in the marketplace. These artifacts, illustrated play-text title pages from the period 1600 to 1660, provide scholars with an opportunity to better understand the discursive power of theatre and subjects associated with drama in seventeenth-century London. This work offers a set of case studies that demonstrate how title page imagery and its circulation can contribute to our understanding of contemporary theatre culture, and addresses questions of intention, production and distribution. As well, it offers insights into early modern modes of constructing visualization. These artifacts served not only as visual reminders or interpretations of the dramatic works they represented, but were also used as powerful marketing tools that enhanced the cultural capital of the plays throughout London. The title pages were used as posters, tacked to the walls of the booksellers’ shops; the woodcuts were also repurposed, and incorporated into other popular publications such as broadside ballads, which retold the plots of the plays in musical form and were sold on city street corners. These connections raise questions about early modern forms of marketing used by publishers, and challenge the widely accepted belief that images held little value in the society and in the culture of print of the period. In addition, the distribution of these illustrations challenges the widespread conviction that early modern English culture was iconophobic, and suggests that seventeenth-century English society embraced rather than spurned visual media. Methodologically, this study is built on the foundations laid by scholars of English theatre and print culture. Within those fields, however, it has been customary to view these title page illustrations as inferior forms of representation, especially in comparison to their continental counterparts. By using tools from visual rhetoric to expand on how and what these images communicate, I am able to show the important functions they performed, and the distinct and playful way they represent complex relationships between stage and page, audience and performance, reading and spectating. These readings, in turn, enrich our historical understanding of the cultures of print and theatre, and build upon our knowledge of the interactions between these rich and important fields. Each chapter explores theoretical and contextual questions that pertain to some aspect of each illustration, as well as examining whether individual illustrations can inform us further about early modern theatrical performance practices. The introduction surveys the relevant field and introduces the theoretical resources that will be used in the subsequent chapters. Chapter Two examines the 1633 edition of Arden of Faversham and the question of whether the action in the illustration pertains to the play or to a broadside ballad that appeared in the same year. The third chapter provides a theoretical analysis of the performance of violence in the woodcut for The Spanish Tragedy, and how emphatic elements in the image may demonstrate the influence of theatrical performance upon the artist. Chapter Four explores the relationship between the title page of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and the concept of celebrity in relation to the Tarltonesque clown character who dominates the action of the image. Chapter Five considers the problematic relationship between theatre, politics and satire in the competing engraved title pages for A Game at Chess. The conclusion draws together the findings, and points to other aspects of early modern print and theatre cultures to which they pertain.

<p>I vår tid omges vi av reklam nästan överallt. I hemmet till exempel i form av TV-reklam, dagstidningsreklam och direktreklam. På stan till exempel i form av utomhusreklam och flygblad. I SOM-undersökningen 2005 visade det sig att endast 14 procent av de tillfrågade hade en positiv inställning till TV-reklam. Om det är så få som uppskattar TV-reklam, hur ska en reklamfilm utformas för att fler ska bli positiva?</p><p>Syftet är att undersöka hur medie- och kommunikationsstudenter upplever storybaserade respektive informativa reklamfilmer ur ett retoriskt perspektiv. Vi vill undersöka vad som upplevs som bra respektive dåligt i reklamfilmerna och få fram åsikter om hur förbättringar kan göras.</p><p>För att göra detta satte vi samman tre fokusgrupper med sex studenter i varje grupp. Valet av medie- och kommunikationsstudenter gjordes för att de har en god inblick i reklambranschen utan att ha jobbat i den och på det sättet tappat en del av sin objektivitet.</p><p>Genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys utifrån ett visuellt retoriskt perspektiv har vi analyserat respondenternas svar och placerat dessa under tre olika kategorier, målgrupp, budskap och utformning. Vi har kunnat utläsa kopplingar mellan respondenternas diskussioner kring reklamfilmernas utformning och visuell retorik, med fokus på etos, patos logos och metonymi och metafor.</p><p>Intressanta resultat som framkom var att de flesta av respondenterna menade att båda formerna av reklamfilmerna uppfyllde ett visst syfte. De tyckte dock att målgruppen kunde bli mer specifik och tydlig i båda reklamfilmerna. Den stora skillnaden mellan kategorierna var underhållningsvärdet och trovärdigheten.</p>