Persuasion and Visual Images
Television Images
Television images are quite different from film images. A film uses a series of still images that are projected very rapidly on a screen. We only think the images are moving. Television images are made up of tiny dots that are constantly in motion. The smaller size of the television screens also influences the meaning we attach to the images that we see. For example, horror movies are scarier when we see them on a large movie screen than on our smaller television screen. The smaller size of the screen and the shorter distance we sit from the screen when we watch television give us the illusion that we are being with others when we watch television, that we have an "electronic intimacy." The smaller screen also means that the action moves toward and away from us. On a theater screen the action moves from side to side. Television images draw us in because of the intimacy of our relationship with the screen and because of the direction in which the action takes place. Also, camera angle influences what we see and how we relate with those images.
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Interactive Multimedia
Interactive multimedia, including the World Wide Web is a medium that combines many elements, such as:typography, photography, video and computer-generated images. A website such as CNN.com typically employs text, photographs, video and charts. A CD-ROM that a company distributes to potential customers includes the same type of images. Yet there are some important differences in how viewers use these images. With interactive multimedia, the user controls which images to look at, the size of the images and the camera angle. The user navigates the website or CD-ROM without the presence or the direction of the persuader.
Attracting attention
Messaris (1997) argues that persuaders must must get the attention of the audience if they are to be successful. The use of celebrities who look into the camera and talk directly to us about a particular product is an example of the attention-getting function of images. This approach works because we like to look at people who are looking at us. Images attract attention in several ways, contends Messaris: violating reality, using a metaphor, playing on a visual parody and direct eye gaze.
First, images can violate reality in an attempt to get us to look at them. When an image appears to differ from reality, we are drawn to it. We expect one view of reality and the image provides another. That incongruity attracts our attention. An advertisement showing a sport utility vehicle impossibly perched high on a rock cliff draws your attention to the powerful engine and off road performance qualities of the truck. With computer-generated video technology it is quite easy for persuaders to create ads that violate reality.
Second, Messaris contends that images contain metaphors for what they are supposed to mean. We are again drawn to the image because it is different from what we expect.
Images also attract our attention when they make use of visual parodies. Visual parodies use well-known images in new ways. Grant Wood's painting American Gothic has been used in countless ways by advertisers trying to get us to take notice of their product.
Direct eye gaze is another way of attracting attention. We look at people who are looking at us. We give them our attention. The well-known poster of Uncle Sam calling to potential army recruits is a classic example of using direct eye gaze to attract attention. The covers of popular magazines often use direct eye gaze by featuring a model who is looking at as. We look back and are drawn to the magazine.
In the News
Gizmodo - 2 days ago
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