Critical Thinking Through Viewing
Images are created to communicate, just as words are. Most images in everyday life are made ko communicate very quickly—magazine covers, ads, signs, movie trailers, and so forth. 'Other images require contemplation, such as the Mona Lisa. When you view an image, view actively and critically.
Actively view images. ■ ■
Survey the image. See the image as a whole so that you can absorb its overall idea. Look for the image’s focal point—what your eye is drawn to. Also consider the relationship between the image’s foreground and background, its left content and right content, and its various colors.
Inspect the image. Let your sight touch every part of the image, as if you were reading Braille. Hints of its meaning may lurk in the tiny details as well as in the relationship between the image’s parts.
Question the image. Think in terms of each part of the rhetorical situation.
■ Sender: Who created the image? Why did the person create it?
■ Message: What is the subject of the image? What is the purpose?
■ Medium: How was the image originally shown? How is it currently shown?
■ Receiver: Who is the intended viewer? Why arc you viewing the image?
■ Context: When and where did the image first appear? When and where does it appear now? How does the image relate to its context?
Understand the purpose. Different images have different purposes. Ask yourself,
“What is this image meant to do?” and then decide on an appropriate response:
■ Arouse curiosity? Open your imagination, but stay on guard.
■ Entertain? Look for the pleasure or the joke, but be wary of excess or of ethically questionable material in the image.
■ Inform or educate? Search for key instruction, noting what’s left out.
■ Illustrate? Relate the image to the words or concept being illustrated:
Does the image clarify or distort the meaning?
■ Persuade? Examine how the image appeals to the viewer’s needs, from safety and satisfaction to self-worth. Are the appeals manipulative, cliched, or fallacious? Do they play on emotions to bypass reason?
■ Summarize? Look for the essential message in the image: Does that main idea correspond with the written text?
VIASUAL
■ Sender: Who created the image—a photographer, a painter, a web designer? Why did the person create it? What other people might have been involved—editors, patrons?
Complications: The sender might be unknown or a group.
■ Message: What is the subject of the image? How is the subject portrayed? What is the main purpose of the image—to entertain, to inform, to persuade, to entice, to shock?
Complications: The message might be mixed, implied, ironic, unwelcome, or distorted. The subject might be vague, unfamiliar, complex, or disturbing.
■ Medium: What is the image—a painting, a cartoon panel, a photo? How might the image have been modified over time? What visual language has the sender used? Complications: The medium might be unusual, unfamiliar, or multiple. The visual languages might be literal, stylized, numeric, symbolic, and so on.
■ Receiver: Whom was the image made for? Are you part of the intended audience? What is your relationship with the sender? Do you agree with the message? How comfortable are you with the medium? What is your overall response to the image? Complications: You might be uninterested in, unfamiliar with, or biased toward the message.
■ Context: What was the context in which the image was first presented? What context surrounds the image now? Docs the image fit its context or fight it? Complications: The context might be disconnected, ironic, changing, or multilayered.
INSIGHT: Like words, visuals can be cliches—trite, misleading, or worn-out expressions of concepts or ideas. For example, TV ads for weight-loss drugs commonly picture scantily clad, fit young people, deceptively linking use of the drug to beauty, youth, and sex.
Images are created to communicate, just as words are. Most images in everyday life are made ko communicate very quickly—magazine covers, ads, signs, movie trailers, and so forth. 'Other images require contemplation, such as the Mona Lisa. When you view an image, view actively and critically.
Actively view images. ■ ■
Survey the image. See the image as a whole so that you can absorb its overall idea. Look for the image’s focal point—what your eye is drawn to. Also consider the relationship between the image’s foreground and background, its left content and right content, and its various colors.
Inspect the image. Let your sight touch every part of the image, as if you were reading Braille. Hints of its meaning may lurk in the tiny details as well as in the relationship between the image’s parts.
Question the image. Think in terms of each part of the rhetorical situation.
■ Sender: Who created the image? Why did the person create it?
■ Message: What is the subject of the image? What is the purpose?
■ Medium: How was the image originally shown? How is it currently shown?
■ Receiver: Who is the intended viewer? Why arc you viewing the image?
■ Context: When and where did the image first appear? When and where does it appear now? How does the image relate to its context?
Understand the purpose. Different images have different purposes. Ask yourself,
“What is this image meant to do?” and then decide on an appropriate response:
■ Arouse curiosity? Open your imagination, but stay on guard.
■ Entertain? Look for the pleasure or the joke, but be wary of excess or of ethically questionable material in the image.
■ Inform or educate? Search for key instruction, noting what’s left out.
■ Illustrate? Relate the image to the words or concept being illustrated:
Does the image clarify or distort the meaning?
■ Persuade? Examine how the image appeals to the viewer’s needs, from safety and satisfaction to self-worth. Are the appeals manipulative, cliched, or fallacious? Do they play on emotions to bypass reason?
■ Summarize? Look for the essential message in the image: Does that main idea correspond with the written text?
VIASUAL
■ Sender: Who created the image—a photographer, a painter, a web designer? Why did the person create it? What other people might have been involved—editors, patrons?
Complications: The sender might be unknown or a group.
■ Message: What is the subject of the image? How is the subject portrayed? What is the main purpose of the image—to entertain, to inform, to persuade, to entice, to shock?
Complications: The message might be mixed, implied, ironic, unwelcome, or distorted. The subject might be vague, unfamiliar, complex, or disturbing.
■ Medium: What is the image—a painting, a cartoon panel, a photo? How might the image have been modified over time? What visual language has the sender used? Complications: The medium might be unusual, unfamiliar, or multiple. The visual languages might be literal, stylized, numeric, symbolic, and so on.
■ Receiver: Whom was the image made for? Are you part of the intended audience? What is your relationship with the sender? Do you agree with the message? How comfortable are you with the medium? What is your overall response to the image? Complications: You might be uninterested in, unfamiliar with, or biased toward the message.
■ Context: What was the context in which the image was first presented? What context surrounds the image now? Docs the image fit its context or fight it? Complications: The context might be disconnected, ironic, changing, or multilayered.
INSIGHT: Like words, visuals can be cliches—trite, misleading, or worn-out expressions of concepts or ideas. For example, TV ads for weight-loss drugs commonly picture scantily clad, fit young people, deceptively linking use of the drug to beauty, youth, and sex.
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