Hocks, M. (2003). Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments. College Composition and Communication, 54, 629-656.

Hocks – whose fields of expertise are digital rhetoric, visual rhetorics, and computers and composition studies – points out that new media and their visual and interactive nature amplify the importance of visual rhetoric. “Interactive digital texts can blend words and visuals, talk and text, and authors and audiences in ways that are recognizably postmodern” (629-630). The rhetorical features of interactive digital media can help us understand visual rhetoric. Hocks uses the terms audience stance, transparency, and hybridity to describe the visual rhetoric we find in digital writing environments. Audience stance refers to how online documents do or do not encourage participation. Transparency refers to an artifact’s resemblance to previous modes of communication (print documents, etc.) Hybridity refers to the construction and combination of visual and verbal designs. Hocks examines two scholarly hypertexts: A. Wysocki’s (1998) “Monitoring Order” and C. Boese’s (1998) “The Ballad of the Internet Nutball.” Wysocki points out that we based our interpretation of Web pages on that of books. In other words, we expect a similar format based on our own cultural assumptions. She asks how design might reinforce or reshape our concept(s) of order. Wysocki encourages audience participation through transparency, but she also asks how design might reinforce or reshape or concept(s) or order, and plays around with cultural expectations. Boese’s work studies an implicit lesbian subplot on Xena: Warrior Princess and, more broadly, fandom. Through hybridity, she encourages audience participation for those who would likely identify as Xena fans. However, the multidimensional structure takes away from its transparency.

Hocks’ research will benefit my research since she focuses on visual representations in digital spaces. Her simple but poignant work will be useful in setting up a framework for my thesis. As for my related research project in this class, Hocks’ research should. It should also be a good addition to my lit review.

Schroeder, J.E. (2007). Critical visual analysis. In R.W. Belk (ed.), Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing (303-321). Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Schroeder, who specializes in psychology and has published on visual rhetoric, relays qualitative methods for researching images. He “show[s] how cultural codes and representational conventions inform contemporary marketing images, infusing them with visual, historical and rhetorical presence and power” (303). Managers and consumers produce their own meanings of advertisements, but neither group has complete control over them, as cultural codes work toward determining meaning(s).

Schroeder looks at the following as “key variables for critical visual analysis: description, subject matter, form, medium, style, genre and comparison” (304). Naturally, the first step in critical visual analysis is to describe the image, reminiscent of R. Barthes’ denoted image. Then, we move on to subject matter – what we see beyond the surface, reminiscent of Barthes’ connoted image. After that, we explore form, or the presentation of the subject matter. Then comes the medium, the method through which we observe the artifact (canvas, television, computer screen, etc.). We move to style, which recalls artifacts’ resemblance to each other (e.g. Woody Allen made Interiors in the style of Ingmar Bergman). Genre, which refers to type or category, comes next. Further, we can compare similar visual artifacts; Schroeder seems to imply that this regards artifacts of the same kind (photos with photos, films with films, etc.). He then discusses a CK One ad for Calvin Klein through lenses of gender, race, and class.

While Schroeder looks specifically at an ad and speaks mostly to ads, his research is relevant to mine, as it focuses on creating solid methods of visual analysis. Additionally, this might help me discover why so little scholarship has been devoted to smileys and emojis.