Visual Modes Of Communication Research Articles

Visualizing dementia and stigma: a scoping review of the literature

Discursive choices are recognized by both academic and dementia communities as being central to the perpetuation (or challenging) of dementia-related stigma. Yet, the focus of the vast majority of research on the discursive dynamics of dementia stigma to date has been on the role of language only, effectively failing to regard the multimodal reality of discourse. The present study aims to address this gap by conducting a scoping review of the smaller, and relatively more recent, body of literature that has examined visual modes of communication. The authors ask the following questions: (1) What theories of stigma have informed or guided studies of visual representations of dementia and people with dementia? (2) What visual features of representations of dementia and people with dementia might contribute to and/or challenge dementia stigma? Using Scopus, PubMed, PsychInfo and Google Scholar, 10 papers published between January 2000 and July 2023 were selected and thematically synthesized. The authors found that most studies had limited or no engagement with specific stigma theories, although the general principle of establishing or challenging distance between an in-group (‘us’) and out-group (‘them’) informed many of the analyses. Visual features with the potential to contribute to stigma tended to impersonalize people with dementia through foregrounding visual markers of dementia (oftentimes emphasizing loss and/or the brain) and establishing symbolic distance between viewers/other represented participants and people with dementia. This distance could be achieved through visual framing techniques (regarding angle, gaze, colour, setting) which, for instance, could subtly position people with dementia as the ‘living dead’. There was much less focus on visual features with the potential to challenge stigma, which together emphasized social connection, transformation and taking the perspective of someone with dementia. Turning to reception, another potential aspect of challenging stigma was reinterpreting supposedly ‘stigmatizing’ images. In this article, these findings are interpreted in relation to the broader stigma literature and implications for future research and advocacy efforts are discussed.

Heterogeneous distributed problem-solving involving visual objects as boundary objects

Communication involving visualizations in science and applications involves or even requires coordination. Much visualization research focuses on tasks in research or applications and provides valuable insights that help improve these modes and means of communication. That focus and resulting benefits makes a reduction to tasks or defined goals seem amenable for a more thorough consideration of social and cultural aspects. This contribution to the focus topic Insights in Visual Communication suggests that the boundary object concept can greatly help deepen considerations of social and cultural heterogeneity and adds insights and perspectives to better consider social and cultural aspects of visual communication. The theoretical concept of boundary objects, originating in heterogeneous distributed problem solving research, offer a pragmatic basis for enhancing visual communication to improve meaning production. The overarching issue for developing this direction in visual communication can be formulated through a broad question: In heterogeneous situations, how can research enhance communication involving visual objects for problem solving through a consideration of social and cultural aspects? I consider an example of cooperative design of maps to show how research can benefit from a consideration of boundary objects. The example highlights a cooperative mode of visual communication used in decision making involving both explicit and implicit goals and aspects from a cognitive perspective. The potential for improvements and better solutions in visual communication can benefit from a stronger consideration of the boundary objects concept.

Developing Communication Competencies of Library Professionals Through Semiotics Theory Approach in the Contemporary Information System

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between semiotics theory and communication theory and focus on how semiotics could act as a useful tool to play a big role in the development of communication competencies of library professionals in the contemporary information system. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: The study is fundamentally analytical and qualitative in nature. The analysis of semiotic theory and communication theory is done one by one. In this paper, we use the semiotics theory approach in library services and propose an illustrative library classification list based on Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) for the development of an effective communication competency as well as improve the visual literacy skills of library professionals. Findings: After the study, we find out that the semiotic theory is a general and unrestricted model of sign whereas communication theory is also a general and unrestricted model of communication which is useful for every field of study including the LIS field. Semiotics theory and Communication theory both are very similar and Semiotics build a strong communication competency and improve the visual literacy skills of library professionals. Practical implications: This study will be helpful for library professionals to develop their competencies according to the needs of the hour. Users will be more beneficial and attracted to the library than the formal mode of communication. Those people who cannot communicate in an unknown language and are unable to articulate language can also communicate easily through the visual mode of communication with the help of semiotics. Originality: This paper is the first to combine the theories of communication and semiotics within the context of the competency development of library professionals.

Application of visual communication in digital animation advertising design using convolutional neural networks and big data.

In the age of big data, visual communication has emerged as a critical means of engaging with customers. Among multiple modes of visual communication, digital animation advertising is an exceptionally potent tool. Advertisers can create lively and compelling ads by harnessing the power of digital animation technology. This article proposes a multimodal visual communication system (MVCS) model based on multimodal video emotion analysis. This model automatically adjusts video content and playback mode according to users' emotions and interests, achieving more personalized video communication. The MVCS model analyses videos from multiple dimensions, such as vision, sound, and text, by training on a large-scale video dataset. We employ convolutional neural networks to extract the visual features of videos, while the audio and text features are extracted and analyzed for emotions using recurrent neural networks. By integrating feature information, the MVCS model can dynamically adjust the video's playback mode based on users' emotions and interaction behaviours, which increases its playback volume. We conducted a satisfaction survey on 106 digitally corrected ads created using the MVCS method to evaluate our approach's effectiveness. Results showed that 92.6% of users expressed satisfaction with the adjusted ads, indicating the MVCS model's efficacy in enhancing digital ad design effectiveness.

Destroy All Humans: The Dematerialisation of the Designer in an Age of Automation and its Impact on Graphic Design—A Literature Review

AbstractDigital automation is on the rise in a diverse range of industries. The technologies employed here often make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and its common form, machine learning (ML) to augment or replace the work completed by human agents. The recent emergence of a variety of design automation platforms inspired the authors to undertake a review of the research literature on the impact of Automation, AI and ML on visual communication, and its subset practice of graphic design, with a view to understanding the implications for the education of practitioners entering that specific field. This review discovered that there was relatively little research published on the topic but what did exist noted that graphic design as we have known it has an uncertain future. Furthermore, the scant literature argued for a shift in educational and professional focus away from the aesthetic and technical skills required to design visual modes of communication and towards a deeper engagement with the softer, more human skills associated with negotiation, facilitation and judgement. The paucity of literature on this topic suggests to the authors that visual communication design education and the industry are poorly prepared for the impact of automation, AI and ML on them.

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Visual Illustrations Related to COVID-19 Awareness in Nigeria

The current paper aims to discuss the impact of visual illustrations related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. To embark, this study utilizes visual resources, precisely images to facilitate a massive audience by incorporating various modes of visual communication, such as graphics, typography, and attractive layouts to engage the public. This study deploys a multimodal discourse analysis of selected COVID-19 pandemic visual illustrations. The current study examines ten (10) COVID-19 visual illustrations. These /visual illustrations were collected from the official website of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). This research identified that in creating awareness concerning the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its mitigation, there is a dire need to enhance modes of communication using multiple modes of awareness, such as images such as graphics, typography, and other semiotic resources. To elaborate further a large range of visual resources were utilized to analyse the linguistic efficiency of selected visual resources to communicate with the larger audience with concise language and expression. When multiple modes are used effectively in the images, they become audience-affective, such that the attention of the reader or target audience is drawn to the content of the image. Moreover, this study recommended that to achieve the maximum effect of awareness concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple modes model should be used by communicators to facilitate the larger audience Furthermore, it should be used in such a way that they are harmonised and interrelate, contributing to the realisation of meaning throughout the text.

A framework for understanding and evaluating news infographics

There is a lack of definitional rigour for journalism infographics that allows ambiguity in their evaluation and research. This study is an attempt to remedy this imprecision to understand how the form differs from other visual modes of communication, and to more clearly establish criteria for its analysis. We argue that a news infographic is grounded on three essential criteria—integration, abstraction, and extension. We test the validity of our framework by applying it to case studies of infographics recognized for their excellence. We discuss how our criteria represent an elaboration of a two-part concept of appearance and explanation, and suggest ways in which the framework can be used to judge existing infographics and to guide the creation of future infographics for the news.

Interactive Mode of Visual Communication Based on Information Visualization Theory.

In the modern environment, visual communication design has become a comprehensive subject that combines technology and art. The development of various technologies has promoted the emergence of new design art forms, and at the same time, it has also promoted the change of design concepts and thinking modes. Visual representation, as a representation practice to express the meaning of information in the form of visual symbols, is a method and means to realize information visualization. Based on visual interface design, this article takes interactivity and user experience as innovation points and digs into the design process of interactive information visualization to achieve the purpose of information transmission. By analyzing the cognitive tasks of users in each stage of visual thinking activities in visual terminals, this article proposes to optimize the interactive design of visual communication from the key points of attention, consciousness, and memory. In order to verify the feasibility of the interactive mode of visual communication based on information visualization theory, this article has carried out several comparative experiments with different models. Experimental results show that this algorithm has a faster convergence speed and a greater generalization ability, the accuracy of the algorithm reaches 96.03%, and the highest evaluation of user satisfaction is 95.93%. The interactive mode of visual communication in this article can provide means and reference value for the development direction of visual communication design.

TWO MODES OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION: PICTOGRAMS AND BRAZILIAN SIGN LANGUAGE - LIBRAS

TWO MODES OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION: PICTOGRAMS AND BRAZILIAN SIGN LANGUAGE - LIBRAS

Showing Legitimacy: The Strategic Employment of Visuals in the Legitimation of New Organizations

Entrepreneurs commonly engage in discursive activities to pursue the legitimacy of their new organizations. Previous studies on this pursuit have essentially been focused on verbal language and there is limited understanding of how other communication modes, such as the visual, offer specific potentials for influencing legitimation audiences. With the contemporary pervasiveness of digital documents and online environments that often employ the visual mode, this gap has become more relevant. To address it, this study is guided by the following research question: how do entrepreneurs use the visual mode of communication to legitimize their new ventures? Building on the case of a new organization, this study shows that specific features of the visual mode of communication are especially well suited to sustaining legitimation in particular ways. While previous research has mostly remained on a conceptual level, this study empirically advances the understanding of visual discursive legitimation.

Online machine drawing pedagogy—A knowledge management perspective through maker education in theCOVID‐19 pandemic era

Drawing is a visual mode of communication. Teaching drawing requires one‐to‐one personal interaction among the tutor and the learner. The technical drawing is no exception, and it requires a considerable amount of imagination skills. On‐line mode of pedagogy shall be occupying a substantial portion of the mode of delivery in teaching and learning during, as well as, after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic era. This work focuses on the training and knowledge sharing of machine drawing skills through online mode, which is the requirement of the present era. A knowledge management perspective for machine drawing pedagogy is involved in this work. Challenges in the online pedagogy of machine drawing are deliberated through Ishikawa diagram and service Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. A maker education perspective of online machine drawing pedagogy is delineated. An approach toward knowledge workforce, knowledge transfer, and tacit knowledge is adopted for online teaching of machine drawing. Finally, conclusions are drawn in context of online pedagogy for a spatial visualization–based course like machine drawing.

The grass is always greener: Envy in social anxiety disorder

In the present study we examined envy in social anxiety disorder (SAD) and its potential role in maintaining the disorder. In addition, we examined social contexts and modes of communication that may serve as moderators of envy in SAD, and the temporal relationship between envy and anxiety in the disorder. Our sample included 88 individuals (44 with SAD and 44 without SAD) who underwent an experience sampling procedure in which participants received daily measures of emotions for 21 days. Using multilevel linear modeling we found that individuals with SAD experienced elevated envy compared to individuals without SAD and this was enhanced in social (compared to non-social) contexts. For individuals with SAD, visual modes of communication were associated with elevated envy compared to voice/text communication. Finally, envy predicted subsequent anxiety above and beyond previous anxiety and additional negative emotions. The role of envy in the psychopathology and maintenance of SAD, as well as clinical implications are discussed.

Maps as Inscription of Power: Imposing Visibility on New York’s “Shadow Transit”

ABSTRACT This article examines a digital map depicting paratransit in New York City as an example of work that, in not taking into account how impositions of visibility might impact vulnerable populations, risks exposing users of paratransit to the gaze of more powerful lookers. Building on the literature of maps coming out of visual studies, rhetorical studies, and technical communication, this examination shows how maps, as modes of visual communication, participate and extend a dominant visual culture that too often extends power into the spaces and places populated by vulnerable populations. It concludes with recommendations for how to avoid these exposures.

Artes gráficas mayas precolombinas: consideraciones semióticas sobre el continuo escritura-imagen

The writing-image association is one of the fundamental characteristics of art in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. This combination was particularly developed and used by the Maya for almost 20 centuries. Far from constituting only an artistic process, the joint use of these two modes of visual communication allowed the transcription of a very complex symbolic thought and was one of the main tools of the propaganda of the (political) power of the Maya elites. In this article, the main principles that govern the pre-Hispanic Maya scriptural and iconological systems will be exposed, especially insisting on the continuum comprised by text and image in their artistic expressions. Here will be particularly examined and discussed the swinging and mixing games between iconic or non-iconic figurativeness and symbolism in the construction of the signs used to generate meanings with which they entertain relationships of different kinds, often metaphorical, based on cultural conventions, rich of teachings for our understanding of the ancient Maya.

What Was History Painting and What Is It Now? ed. by Mark Salber Phillips and Jordan Bear

Reviewed by: What Was History Painting and What Is It Now? ed. by Mark Salber Phillips and Jordan Bear Alejandra Gimenez-Berger What Was History Painting and What Is It Now? Edited by mark salber phillips and jordan bear. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019. viii + 311 pp. ISBN 978-0-7735-5896-0. $135.00 (hardcover); $44.95 (paper); $31.69 (ePDF). History painting, as a mode of visual communication, reigned at the European art academies and set the tastes of elites as the highest form of expression from its inception in the early modern period to the rise [End Page 188] of modernism in the late nineteenth century. As the royal academies were challenged and superseded by modernist individualism, the interest in history painting and its subjects declined. Narrow definitions that reduced the genre to a tool for the powers of church and state, for didacticism turned indoctrination, and for the preservation of the power of authoritarian states contributed to the growing disinterest on the genre. As this volume makes clear, however, these are not the only contributions of the genre to the history of visual expression. In tracing the ways in which artists utilized the mechanics of the genre outside of the constraints set by the European academies, this volume may serve world historians in finding creative ways to decode the visual structures of history painting as they served not only to support, but to critique or subvert ideologies and artistic concepts. This volume aims to show the ways in which the elements of history painting have persisted, and how, though much changed, the genre not only survives but affords artists means to call attention to "the great moral issues" of our time (p. 158). This argument is predicated on a revision of the definition of history painting as a whole, rejecting a rigid and all-encompassing understanding in favor of a heuristic approach, what Mark Salber Phillips calls "re-distancing." The essays follow the formal, material, and theoretical transformation of history painting chronologically, simultaneously organizing the timeline into three major themes. Appropriately, the first section is devoted to the role of the human as subject and viewer. Stuart Lingo's essay sets the stage as it demonstrates the tensions between visual narratives and the figures that were to enact them—arising as the original Albertian definition met artistic competition for creative figuration—as early as the sixteenth century. Then Susana Caviglia turns to the beholder in a brilliant reception study that challenges saccharine understandings of how the genre operated in the Rococo. Mark Salber Phillips' own essay looks at an important change in subject, from the grand to the mundane and from elevation to satire. Here we begin to see how demand shaped the genre—the theme of Part Two—as patronage shifted from church and state to competitive markets. The studies by Cynthia Ellen Roman, Jordan Bear, and Tim Barringer in this second section share a focus on audiences: their desires for particular imagery and the ways in which paintings mediated their anxieties. Here Jordan Bear deploys the idea of re-distancing most strongly. The third section traces a greater geographic, thematic, and theoretical variety in the development of the genre. Six essays analyze the ways in which artists, working with some or many of the rudiments of history painting, responded to modernist aesthetics and later to postmodernist critique. James Nisbet and Mary K. Coffey explore the [End Page 189] encounter with, and destabilization of, the salient aesthetics of each period. Coffey's essay is particularly interesting as it analyzes Orozco's work at Darmouth from internally shifting distances: the local, the national, and the international. This section also includes two essays that delve into the appropriation of tropes of history painting in self-critical and strongly subversive ways: Elizabeth Harney's explores the ambiguity of Julie Mehretu's use of the genre for a critique of neoliberalism, while Michael Godby focuses on the explicit ways in which William Kentridge engages in a formalist and historicist critique. The volume also includes two powerful essays on the evolution of history painting into art forms that, going beyond traditional media and defunct academic hierarchies, address the...

Online engagement as a multimodal discursive practice: The case of Dubai Cares’ Facebook page

The paper examines the role of social media platforms in public relations engagement, focusing on the case of a leading non-profit organization in the UAE, namely Dubai Cares. Drawing on multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), the paper analyses the textual, paratextual, and visual modes of communication deployed by the organization, and investigates their role as (multimodal) discursive practices in constructing engagement and shaping power relations between the organizations and its publics. A key finding of the paper is that Dubai Cares’ online public relations efforts to promote its international recognition and legitimacy often come at the expense of addressing multiple power differentials between the organization and its stakeholders. The paper demonstrates how approaching engagement as a multimodal discourse, where power relations are at play, helps transcend the limitations of instrumental interpretations of the notion of engagement, thus obscuring its inherent discursive and social dimension.

A Semiotic Study of Selected Political Cartoons in Nigerian Newspapers

Communication has become inextricable part of human lives and the visual modes of communication has been employed in the print media as a veritable means of communicating very serious issues metaphorically. Thus, Semiotic study constitutes a form of discourse which requires visual display of knowledge to understand and interpret any given text. Thus, several attempts have been made on the study of political cartoons using the canonical classifications of Austin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1969) speech acts, implicature, contextual variables as well as Pragmatic Acts theory. However, little attention has been given to van Leeuwen & Gunther kress’ Semiotic Theory in analysing political cartoons in Nigerian newspapers. Hence, this study explores social semiotic theory perceived with the use of language in political cartoons in order to bring to the fore the covert meanings concealed in it, and to correct the societal ills in witty and humorous ways. The study is anchored on van Leeuween and Gunther Kress’ Social Semiotic theory as the theoretical appurtenance. A total of ten (8) political cartoons were selected and analysed from three Nigerian daily newspapers (The Nation, The Sun & Daily Trust). The study revealed that more meaning would have been lost, if not for the advancement of scholars on the exponent of multimodality. This was because people tend to be more concentrated on the monomodal; linguistic approach to meaning, whereas study of data as newspapers’ cartoons and other visual designs transported more than one mode of meaning to communicate a more complete, coherent and complementary meaning. It was also discovered that cartoons enable the readers to understand the difference between the linguistic and non-linguistic resources and how they are used together to create meaning. The study concludes that cartoon has become a haven for journalists in unveiling and satirising delicate political issues. Keywords: Social Semiotic Theory, Political, Nigerian Newspapers, Cartoons and Datum.

Other-initiations of repair in Norwegian Sign Language

During the last five decades, a substantial amount of research has been conducted into conversational repair (Schegloff, Jefferson, & Sacks, 1977), and especially other-initiation of repair (OIR). A vast part of the research has been on spoken English, without considering or having access to embodied practices. Through a series of examples, this explorative paper provides a brief overview of formats and subtypes of other-initiation of self-repair employed in Norwegian Sign Language (NTS). Special attention is given to the implicit open-class repair-initiation “freeze-look”, as identified by Manrique (2016), Manrique and Enfield (2015), and Manrique, Enfield, Levinson, Crasborn, and Floyd (2017) in Argentine Sign Language, and to the subtype of restricted repair-initiations categorized as candidate offers. The data has been extracted from a corpus of informal multi-person conversations among deaf adult co-workers, recorded at their workplaces.
 The results show a high degree of overlap with formats found in spoken languages, but also highlight features that seem to be unique to signed languages and the visual mode of communication. The examples presented take the form of summaries, transcriptions, uncensored video clips, and series of stills. 
 

Influence of the Prominent Representations of Domestic Products Advertisements in Kass TV on to Kipsigis Consumers in Belgut Sub-County, Kericho, Kenya

Marketing and trade advertising are part of our day to day lives. This study, therefore, intended to study television (TV) advertisements. Television advertisements come in both visual and verbal modes of communication. Meaning is achieved by sounds and images, which in turn influence the viewers’ choice. This study sought to investigate how adverts in Kass TV use music, textual and visual images to create meaning and its influence on Kipsigis consumer. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of prominent representations of domestic products advertisements in Kass TV on Kipsigis Consumer in Belgut Sub-county, Kericho, Kenya. This study aimed at analysing the verbal and visual modes of communication in TV advertisements in order to determine their influence on Kipsigis viewers. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study was Kass TV viewers in Belgut sub-county because it is among the Kass TV coverage areas and also due to the fact that a wide population in the sub-county is Kipsigis speakers. Simple random sampling was used to identify the subjects. Descriptive research was carried out amongst Kass TV viewers and consumers of the advertised products in Belgut sub-county. The researcher designed a structured questionnaire which was self-administered to the Kass TV viewers and buyers of the advertised domestic products. The research used 186 respondents and related questionnaires were administered to collect data. Data was analysed using content analysis with the use of Frith’s table for the analysis of layers of meanings (surface meaning, advertiser’s intended meaning and cultural meaning) by employing descriptive statistics. The study will hopefully make some contributions to the studies of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA). It also makes consumers be aware of the multiple modes that television advertisement producers use to influence their buying behaviour.

Determination of Prominent Representations of Domestic Products Advertisements in Kass TV on to Kipsigis Consumer in Belgut Sub-County, Kericho, Kenya

Commercial advertising is part and parcel of our day to day lives which bears vast meanings, thus drawing a great discussion. This study, therefore, intended to study television (TV) advertisements. Television advertisements come in both visual and verbal modes of communication. Meaning is achieved by sounds and images which in turn influence the viewers’ choice. This study sought to investigate how adverts in Kass TV use music, textual and visual images to create meaning and its influence on Kipsigis consumers. The objective of this study was to: determine the prominent representations of domestic products by Kass TV to Kipsigis consumer in Belgut sub-county, Kericho, Kenya. To establish if the prominent representations of domestic products in Kass TV influence consumer choice within Belgut sub-county and to evaluate the extent to which the prominent representations of domestic products reflect the socio-cultural context of Kenya as far as Belgut Sub-County is considered. The study used Kress and van Leeuwen’s Multimodal Discourse Analysis theory, the theory of semiotics and information processing theory. ‘Multimodality’ typically refers to the use of both verbal and non-verbal modes of communication. This study, therefore, analysed the verbal and visual modes of communication in TV advertisements in order to determine their influence on Kipsigis consumers. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The target population was Kass TV viewers in Belgut sub-county because it is among the Kass TV coverage areas and also due to the fact that a wide population in the sub-county is Kipsigis speakers. Simple random sampling was used to identify the respondents. A structured questionnaire which was self-administered to the Kass TV viewers and buyers of the advertised domestic products was used. 186 respondents were sampled. Data was analysed using content analysis with the use of Frith’s table for analysis of layers of meanings (surface meaning, advertiser’s intended meaning and cultural meaning) by employing descriptive statistics. The study was aimed at contributing to the studies of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) since it sought to analyse how information is presented in Kass TV advertisement of domestic products. It also aimed at shedding more light on letting consumers be aware of the multiple modes that TV producers of television advertisement use to influence their buying behaviour. Television adverts were found to blend visual and verbal modes of communication.