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Seeing Reasons: Visual Argumentation in Advertisements

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Abstract

It is a commonplace of discussion about the impact of visual media, whether visual images in print, televisual images or the images of the internet, to claim that it functions irrationally. This paper argues against that claim. First, the assumptions about the connection between rationality and linear, written, unemotional prose are unjustified. Secondly, using analytic techniques analogous to those used in identifying argumentation in verbal text, is possible to discern arguments in visual text, in particular in image based advertisements.

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  1. Division of Communication and Education, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Christina Slade

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  1. Christina Slade
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Slade, C. Seeing Reasons: Visual Argumentation in Advertisements. Argumentation 17, 145–160 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024025114369

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024025114369

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