Social media and the rise of visual rhetoric

Abstract

The distinctive characteristics of the Internet and the rapid growth of social media have enabled a social world where images and imagery-based narratives travel freely across linguistic, national and cultural borders, leading to the creation of nouveau global publics acclimatized to a culture of visual rhetoric. Although a socio-cultural phenomenon of tsunamic proportions, much more theory-based empirical research on social media and visual rhetoric needs to be done. Visual rhetoric, 'the actual image rhetors generate when they use visual symbols for the purpose of communicating', which considers images as key tools of persuasion, was identified as the most widely used approach to visual studies in communication. Research findings have been confirming the greater impact of images and narratives on persuasion/decision-making, compared to logic and rationalist argumentation. Rhetorical theory seems well suited to understand visual messaging and storytelling, through which organizations can reach out to, and build relationships with, global publics conditioned to the visual.