THE MERGE OF TEXT AND IMAGE

The Merge of Text and Image Troy E. Gibson, Jr. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

THE MERGE OF TEXT AND IMAGE The Merge of Text and Image

As a species defined by social interaction, i.e., communication or narrative language, rhetoric becomes an important component of how humans interact and convey information. Rhetoric as defined by Sonja K. Foss (2004) states that it is merely the way we as humans use symbols to communicate. It seems these symbols over time have become more complex and compelling. It now becomes more necessary to understand that our communication does not just provide a means of conveying information to one another, but also a means to persuade. This is particularly evident in advertising. Foss (2004) quotes Douglas Ehninger defining rhetoric by stating it may influence each others thinking and behavior through the strategic use of symbols (p. 141). Using the Rhetorical Triangle, as pointed out in class, this basic rhetorical approach attempts to persuade starting with ethos and continuing to logos, then pathos (M. Martin, personal communication, September 24, 2013). In other words the rhetoric of language persuades first by changing our beliefs therefore altering our rational and emotion about that particular topic. For years rhetoric has been analyzed in this way. Also the idea of visual media as a symbol utilized in rhetoric has been ignored until recently. Sean Morey (2009) points out that we are now in a culture where visual media is dominant and text is trying to find its way to fit in with it. Now it becomes increasingly necessary to focus and understand the visual aspect of rhetoric as we move into a more visual based society. With the creation of visual rhetoric we are able to describe and understand the visual aspects related to narrative rhetoric (Foss, 2004). This allows linguists to analyze not only the language part of rhetoric but also its forgotten sister, image. In contemporary society visual rhetoric has found its way into all aspects of media such as advertisements, television, movies, art, and more (Foss, 2004). As Foss (2004) points out, image has become the important focal point of rhetoric

THE MERGE OF TEXT AND IMAGE almost replacing language. Similar to the Rhetorical Triangle described above, the Visual Rhetorical Triangle also utilizes ethos, logos, and pathos. Visual rhetoric starts with pathos focusing on the emotional appeal of the information to then alter the audiences rational and

subsequently their beliefs (i.e., logos and ethos) (M. Martin, personal communication, September 24, 2013). With the emergence of technology and the need to create emotionally aesthetic motivation, it is no surprise that contemporary society is more visual. As outlined in the book Ecosee our culture is on the fast track to being completely dominated by visual rhetoric because most of our communication now happens with visual based media (Morey, 2009). Therefore, in an attempt to keep up with societies hunger for visual rhetoric there are more visual aspects available as means to persuade and convey information. This is why understanding Visual Rhetoric has become important for understanding rhetoric as a whole. Although it may seem that the narrative side of rhetoric has disappeared and the visual side has taken over, I believe that the narrative side has transformed itself to mimic the visual. According to Jean Y. Audigier quoted by Foss (2004), narrative language is now obsolete because of its fixed meaning and limited usefulness. However, this is referring to plain written text. To avoid the limitations of narrative language described by Audigier there is little to no written text compared to image. This is especially the case in advertising. Despite this change all language cannot be eliminated from rhetoric because it is a vital means to get information to an audience directly. Therefore, instead of eliminating all narrative rhetoric advertising has altered what little narrative rhetoric it has. Narrative rhetoric is more elaborate in design and aesthetic appeal. In some cases the text even mirrors the focal image it is representing. This creates unison between image and text. One cannot be interpreted without the other because they are the same

THE MERGE OF TEXT AND IMAGE thing. Simply put they are two ingredients of a whole that only when viewed together create the entire image. I find the change from separate entities to the same whole to be particularly relevant in the advertising used for musical artists such as Madonna. Throughout her 30 year music career the type of rhetoric used in her album advertisements has changed. Her earlier advertisements had a clear separation between image and language, while keeping the focus on language. The commercial advertisements for her 1986 album True Blue and her 1987 album You Can Dance display this separation the best. These commercials are done in a more inductive exploration of rhetoric. Therefore, the images used are viewed as separate from the narrative symbols and the images do not convey any information of their own without the implied interpretation of the audience (Foss, 2004). This is seen in the way the commercials used plain text as well as a narrator to explain the meaning of the commercial. For example, in the commercial for Madonnas True Blue album the narrator describes her album release and the notable songs on the album (I Am Breathless 1, 2012). The narrators voice is more dominant than the music in the background and has the sole purpose to persuade the audience to buy the album (I Am Breathless 1, 2012). Without the image the audience would still understand the purpose of the commercial. This is because the images used were random clips that had no connection to what the narrator was saying or what the text was saying unless the audience implied they went together. This is also the case in the commercial for Madonnas album You Can Dance. In this commercial the text is shown separately from the images for a brief period; this is done so the images do not distract the audience from what the words say (Jonus 30, 2011). This implies that the main source of information is the words and it is important for the audience to focus on reading/listening instead of viewing the images. The use of both text and narrator puts more

THE MERGE OF TEXT AND IMAGE emphasis on narrative language rather than the image which reinforces their separation. In this method it is more important to read and hear the narrative language instead of see the visual language. This way of rhetoric appears old fashioned and unappealing if viewed today. Because the old method of separating narrative language and image for rhetoric does not

work today, things have changed. Now there is significantly less text and the text that remains is more visual than informative. The main source of information is the visual element of the advertisement not the words. However, without the visual elements of the words the advertisement would be lacking a major part of its aesthetic appeal. Since the image is seen as a symbol similar to text and language, these commercials take a more deductive approach to rhetoric (Foss, 2004). In the commercial advertisement for Madonnas 2003 album American Life this is the case. The text is shown as an element of the image with aesthetic appeal or a more interesting font. The text and image also mirrored each other in how they were shown on the screen and how they looked stylistically. If one element was taken away the purpose of the commercial would not make sense to the audience. The best example of this is shown once again in the commercial advertisement for Madonnas American Life album. In this commercial there was a plain red background with the image of Madonna and text flashing around on the screen (Dotty Duke, 2009). Madonna and the text had the same jagged look to them and flash on the screen in a similar way (Dotty Duke, 2009). Also, the image that the audience was viewing went directly with the words of the song playing in the background. The words in this case were chosen to amplify the persuasion of the image. Examples included I live the American dream, best thing Ive seen, and Im gonna be a star all said while Madonnas face was clearly visible (Dotty Duke, 2009). If one of these elements were separated from the other the audience

THE MERGE OF TEXT AND IMAGE

would not fully understand the purpose of the commercial. The narrative language and the visual images need to be viewed together because they are the one in the same. In summary, rhetoric can no longer be viewed as only including narrative language. As our culture becomes more obsessed with visual media it becomes more necessary to understand how image plays a role in rhetoric. Combining narrative language and visual images to create visual rhetoric is the best means to understand the ways in which these two elements are necessary together. Two key components of rhetoric that were once separate are now only comprehendible when viewed as one entity.

THE MERGE OF TEXT AND IMAGE References Dotty Duke. (2009, October 16). Madonna American Life Commercial. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNrJs_NRg. Foss, S. K. (2004, November 3). Theory of visual rhetoric. In Handbook of Visual Communication: Theory, methods, and media (ch. 9). Retrieved from

https://bolt.bloomu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=1457683&tId=72 37149. I Am Breathless 1. (2012, December 14). Madonna True Blue Album Official 1986 commercial. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuOL-l3QI. Jonus 30. (2011, August 12). Madonna You Can Dance (US Album Commercial)1987. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMzKCkoqcq4. Morey, S. (2009). A rhetorical look at ecosee. In S. I. Dorbrin & S. Morey (Eds.), Ecosee (pp. 23-52). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.