"Our Visual Persuasion Gap" by Martin Gurri, Craig Denny, and Aaron Harms

The article “Our Visual Persuasion Gap” by Martin Gurri, Craig Denny, and Aaron Harms focuses on the importance of visuals in conveying a message and how much they influence people’s opinions. The authors of this article are focusing on showing how persuasive different kinds of visual pathways can be and how these pathways deliver different messages.

This article does not include a statistical study or survey but it does show relationship between the author’s concepts and real life events. This relationship describes how different visual channels influence memorable historical events. A limitation that can be seen in this article is that the study is based on a governmental aspect and focuses mainly in this. Ways that visual channels impact society and other ethical issues are not described.

Visuals, according to Gurri et al., are powerfully persuasive because it creates a more personal connection from the audience to the issue in hand. Visuals introduce a link where instead of just hearing about an issue, the audience feels part of the issue as if they were bystanders.

The author’s concern regarding visual rhetoric and government communication practices lies in the power used through this channel. Government can take this channel and corrupt it and abuse by promoting certain ideals and beliefs that are anti self-governing and encourage misconduct and criminality.

The author locates many aspects of visual rhetoric, some of them are “…persuasive themes, master narratives, content and technical signatures, and indicators of audience resonance and effects.” (Gurry et al., 2010, pg. 104) Persuasive themes describe how visuals are used to target a certain audience to persuade it in maintaining certain ideals. Master narratives appeal to the audience through touching relatable stories such as martyr stories. Content and technical signatures demonstrate certain artistic and atmospheric patterns that are significant of a media. The indicators of audience resonance and effects focus on the response of the audience on certain visual media. The audience’s response helps the media understand and strategize visual connection.

The author’s suggest that understanding visual communication will help the government decipher more accurately foreign messages and prevent further attacks on the US. The author expects for the audience to understand the importance that visual communication plays in today’s society. Although an important communication channel, it can also be corrupted and used negatively to induce disaster. These ideas will help us use visuals effectively in our documentary and website.

Reference

Gurri, M., Denny, C., & Harms, A. (2010, Spring). Our Visual Persuasion Gap. U.S. Army War College, 40(1), 101-109. Retrieved from http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/Parameters/Articles/2010spring/40-1-2010_GurriDennyAndHarms.pdf