2nd Edition
Handbook of Visual Communication Theory, Methods, and Media
This Handbook of Visual Communication explores the key theoretical areas and research methods of visual communication. With chapters contributed by many of the best-known and respected scholars in visual communication, this volume brings together significant and influential work in the discipline.
The second edition of this already-classic text has been completely revised to reflect the metamorphosis of communication in the last 15 years and the ubiquity of visual communication in our modern mediated lifestyle. Thriteen major theories of communication are defined by the top experts in their fields: perception, cognition, aesthetics, visual rhetoric, semiotics, cultural studies, ethnography, narrative, media aesthetics, digital media, intertextuality, ethics, and visual literacy. Each of these theory chapters is followed by an exemplar study or two in the area, demonstrating the various methods used in visual communication research as well as the research approaches applicable for specific media types.
The Handbook of Visual Communication is a theoretical and methodological handbook for visual communication researchers and a compilation for much of the theoretical background necessary to understand visual communication. It is required reading for scholars, researchers, and advanced students in visual communication, and it will be influential in other disciplines such as advertising, persuasion, and media studies. The volume will also be essential to media practitioners seeking to understand the visual aspects of how audiences use media to contribute to more effective use of each specific medium.
INTRODUCTION
Visual Communication Dominates the 21st Century
VISUAL PERCEPTION
1. Perception Theory: A Neurological Perspective on Visual Communication
Ann Marie Barry
2. Using Eye Tracking to See How Children Read Interactive Storybooks with Supplemental or Incidental Digital Features
Stacey Tyler and Sheree Josephson
VISUAL COGNITION
3. Visual Cognition
Maria Elizabeth Grabe
4. Visual-Verbal Redundancy and College Choice: Does the Level of Redundancy in Student Recruitment Advertisements Affect High School Students’ Decision-Making Process?
Tracy M. Rutledge
AESTHETICS
5. Aesthetics Theory: Aesthetic Experience as a Communicative Tool in the 21st Century
Suzanne Mooney
6. Applying Aesthetic Principles to Tell Stories through Photojournalism: Taking a Look Back at my Memorable Images
Kim Komenich
VISUAL RHETORIC
7. Visual Rhetoric: Theory, Method, and Application in the Modern World
Tracy Owens Patton
8. Trump as Global Spectacle: The Visual Rhetoric of Magazine Covers
Janis Teruggi Page
VISUAL SEMIOTICS
9. Visual Semiotics Theory: Introduction to the Science of Signs
Dennis Dunleavy
10. Jordanian Banknote Design: A Social Semiotic Analysis
Shaima Elbardawil
11. The Myth of the American Landscape: Photography and the Semiotics of Nature
Kathleen M. Ryan
CULTURAL STUDIES
12. Cultural Studies Theory: The Production and Consumption of Meaning
Victoria O’Donnell
13. Altering the Body/Altering Communication: Using Cultural Studies Theory
to Examine Interactions Related to Body Modification
Julianne Friesen Atwood and Cindy Price Schultz
VISUAL ETHNOGRAPHY
14. Visual Ethnography: From Visual to Networked to Multimodal Practice
Matthew Durington and Samuel Gerald Collins
15. Oppositional Articulations: An Ethnographic Study with Black Artists in Austin, Texas
Krishnan Vasudevan
VISUAL NARRATIVE
16. Narrative Theory: Visual Storytelling
Trischa Goodnow
17. Performing the Past in the Present: Prosperity Junction, Public Memory, and American Identity
Travis L. Cox
MEDIA AESTHETICS
18. Applied Media Aesthetics: Encoding and Decoding Meta-Messages
Herbert Zettl,and James D. Kelly
19. Understanding X-ray Images: A Medi(c)a(l) Aesthetics Approach
Lawrence J. Mullen
DIGITAL MEDIA
20. Digital Media Theory: From One Way to Multidirectional Communication
Megan A. Moreno and Jonathan D. D’Angelo
21. Google Doodles and Collective Memory-Making
Bob Britten
22. Profile Pictures Across Platforms: How Identity Visually Manifests Itself Among Social Media Accounts
T. J. Thomson and Keith Greenwood
VISUAL INTERTEXTUALITY
23. Visual Intertextuality Theory: Exploring Political Communication and Visual Intertextuality through Meme Wars
Sherice Gearhart, Bingbing Zhang, David D. Perlmutter, and Gordana Lazić
24. What Makes an Internet Meme a Meme? Five Essential Characteristics
Maria D. Molina
VISUAL ETHICS
25. Visual Ethics: A Dynamic of Process and Meaning
Julianne H. Newton
26. "Stolen Valor," Moral Panic, and the Ethics of Digital Vigilantism
Christine M. Miller and Nicholas F. S. Burnett
VISUAL LITERACY
27. Visual Literacy Theory: Moving Forward
Maria D. Avgerinou and Rune Pettersson
28. Fakes, Forgery, and Facebook: An Examination of Visual Literacy in the Era of Manipulated Images, Fake News, and Alternative Facts
Anthony Cepak and T. J. Mesyn
Biography
Sheree Josephson is a presidential distinguished professor of communication at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, where she also serves as department chair. She is an eye-tracking researcher who has published numerous scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and the book Visualizing the web: Evaluating Online Design from a Visual Communication Perspective.
James D. Kelly is the director of Journalism at Indiana University Bloomington where he teaches photojournalism and healthcare reporting. He is a former editor of Visual Communication Quarterly and researches the influence of digital imaging technology on news photo credibility and audience understanding of photojournalism ethics.
Ken Smith was publisher of the Green River Star in Wyoming prior to receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Utah. He served on the faculty at the Department of Communication & Journalism in the University of Wyoming for 26 years and was head of the department for 15 of those years.