Florence Dujardin's List: visual communication

Key informant interviews and focus groups assist in eliciting qualitative data from the community in order to develop educational programs. This article describes how an additional methodology, illustrated story maps, are used to obtain context-specific information on what African American and Hispanic men need to know to make an informed decision about prostate cancer screening. These maps are created as a result of key informant interviews and implemented during focus groups. Twenty focus groups are conducted using the story maps, which depicts scenarios of how men make medical decisions, possible influences on medical decisions, and potential consequences of these decisions. The illustrated story maps prove to encourage directed discussion during the focus groups, while still allowing for open sharing of personal experiences. The authors recommend the use of maps when adapting and planning communication and educational programs, particularly where participant dialogue is central to success of the endeavor.

While there has been extensive work on the textual realizations of climate change in the media, there has been little on the way such discourses are realized and promoted visually. This article addresses this using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to examine a new collection of images from the globally operating Getty Images intended for use in promotions, advertisements and editorials. Getty is promoting this collection in terms of Green Issues being a `marketing opportunity'. In this article we consider the results of these issues being recontextualized through this process, where they are shaped to fit the culture of branding. Analysis is of the images and the search terms where Getty lay out what can be said with the images

Florence Nightingale was a master in visualising statistics - see how she did it + interactive updates to her coxcomb diagram

Create an Animoto digital book trailer video during to motivate others to read a book that you recommend.

This paper examines the effectiveness of multimodal texts used in HIV/AIDS campaigns in rural western Kenya using multimodal discourse analysis (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006; Martin and Rose, 2004). Twenty HIV/AIDS documents (posters, billboards and brochures) are analysed together with interview data (20 unstructured one-on-one interviews and six focus groups) from the target group to explore the effectiveness of the multimodal texts in engaging the target rural audience in meaningful interaction towards behavioural change. It is concluded that in some cases the HIV/AIDS messages are misinterpreted or lost as the multimodal texts used are unfamiliar and contradictory to the everyday life experiences of the rural folk. The paper suggests localization of HIV/AIDS discourse through use of local modes of communication and resources.

'Facing the consequences… a social networking horror story!' http://is.gd/CqSWTm via @fleapalmer great storybook to demonstrate pitfalls

The goal of rhetorical theory is always to organize the possibilities for persuasion within a domain and to relate each possible stratagem to specific desired outcomes. In this article we develop a visual rhetoric that differentiates the pictorial strategies available to advertisers and links them to consumer response. We propose a new typology that distinguishes nine types of visual rhetorical figures according to their degree of complexity and ambiguity. We then derive empirically testable predictions concerning how these different types of visual figures may influence such consumer responses as elaboration and belief change. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance of marrying textual analysis, as found in literary, semiotic and rhetorical disciplines, with the experimental methodology characteristic of social and cognitive psychology.

No video camera? No problem! Create original videos with your own photos, clips or just an idea http://goo.gl/njqLn

What does the conceptual indebtedness to visual metaphors portend for the study of communication? And what can be learned about the metaphoricity of concepts, and their impact upon analytical discourse, from the use of images and visual tropes in communication studies? Focusing on the place of the visual within the theoretical discourse of political communication research, this article asks whether reliance on key visual metaphors tends systematically to encourage certain kinds of thinking about communication—and the kinds of power relationships that communication seemingly entails—while discouraging others. Exploring two interrelated terms—“picturing” and the ubiquitous “framing”—it attempts to shed light on their conceptual proclivities by taking cues from their operations as modes of visual representation.

The bullet graph was developed to replace the meters and gauges that are often used on
dashboards. Its linear and no-frills design provides a rich display of data in a small space, which
is essential on a dashboard. Like most meters and gauges, bullet graphs feature a single
quantitative measure (for example, year-to-date revenue) along with complementary measures
to enrich the meaning of the featured measure. Specifically, bullet graphs support the
comparison of the featured measure to one or more related measures (for example, a target or
the same measure at some point in the past, such as a year ago) and relate the featured
measure to defined quantitative ranges that declare its qualitative state (for example, good,
satisfactory, and poor). Its linear design not only gives it a small footprint, but also supports
more efficient reading than radial meters.

Network-based interventions are gaining prominence in the treatment of chronic illnesses; however, little is known about what aspects of network structure are easily identified by nonexperts when shown network visualizations. This study examines which structural features are recognizable by nonexperts. Nineteen nonexperts were asked to pile sort 68 network diagrams. Results were analyzed using multidimensional scaling, discriminant analysis, cluster analysis, and PROFIT analysis. Participants tended to sort networks along the dimensions of isolates and size of largest component, suggesting that interventions aimed at helping individuals understand and change their social environments could benefit from incorporating visualizations of social networks.

Based on an interpretive study, this article focuses on visual composition within the workforce as perceived by individuals who use visuals to instruct, persuade, or inform while speaking to an intended audience. Tabulated and evaluated responses to survey statements relate the presenter’s perception of a visual’s function, the presenter’s sensitivity to and the use of the audience perspective in visual composition, and training received in researching an audience. Data also provides a comparative analysis among respective organizations categorized by career interests: administrative or managerial positions within product-oriented business, people-oriented business, and educational institutions. Survey statements reflect the frames of reference that regulate visual design: the color spectrum, gender, cultural sensitivity, structural organization, semantics, and adherence to ethics when applying technological enhancements. Practical information based on the results of this study can help a presenter incorporate audience sensitivity into visual design.