Anne Frances Wysocki’s article, “The Multiple Media of Texts,” opened my eyes to the role of visual presentation in texts and the many different ways it can impact those texts and convey contextualized meanings about the information being transmitted. Previously, from a lack of exposure to such forms, I didn’t consider fully the myriad of purposes visual images serve. At best, I saw them as playing a supplemental function, adding “spice” or “liveliness” to a work. At worst, I saw them as being just something that is, for the most part, unnecessary or superfluous. Wysocki makes it clear that, depending on the context, visual images can be as integral to the message being conveyed by the author as the words on the screen themselves. Moreover, visual aids are not haphazardly strewn across the page; but, instead, there are a number of intricate considerations that go into their creation, in everything from using decorative typeface to the use of video and sound. By using multiple forms of media it seems that a product will attract a greater number of viewers and will have a greater capacity for persuasiveness. This seems important for anyone who wants to use the web for social engagement and to advance social causes.
Equally important, visual media should not be (as a novice like myself would have believed before reading this article) lumped together as it constitutes a wide range of expressive and meaning-making devices that fulfill a variety of roles. I agree with Wysocki in that the choice of visual images used is critical to conveying a wealth of information. I think that for its author it can help identify, target, and cater to his or her desired audience. For a reader, visual images can help him or her determine whether he or she wants to be included as part of that discourse community and, thereby, would decide on whether to invest his or her time in reading the piece; or, alternatively, they could select something else on the web that fits their interests more.
I thought Wysocki’s point about how visual images convey the genre of a piece was a simple point but one that often goes unnoticed, as a strategy, by a typical reader. This makes me wonder if the placement of visual images isn’t as rule-governed and strategically enacted as the rhetoric of standard writing (which, incidentally, would choose to exclude or hide visual images for the most part if not altogether). Graphs for instance would depict that a piece is serious and based on hard facts that can be manipulated and organized into a visual presentation. In this case, although they are displayed by a visual image, it is a very conventional one and the numbers that it arranges and depicts are still the focal point of the piece, which the intended audience can easily deduce as being a sales pitch or a report on a corporate company’s activity or proposed activity. At the other extreme, animation is a visual image that is much more experimental and, thus, I feel has the power, through creativity of color and movement and other things, to be just as convincing if not more so than graphs. This is especially true with certain information. Also, it has the capacity, if done right, to bring the author closer to the intended audience by bringing about emotions or feelings that graphs can hardly elicit. The article leaves one with a number of questions, such as: assuming that the use of visual images is rule-governed, to what degree is this the case and who defines these rules. Are these rules self-contained or are they constantly changing in deference to the strides made by technology. Also it would be interesting to learn more about the history of visual media, including the formative and transformative points in its existence. Finally an exploration of where visual media is heading to in the future seems highly important; as does the question of whether it will be available to underprivileged groups or just to those with the resources to learn and harness its powers in meaningful, creative, professional, and intellectual contexts. I feel strongly that new technology should be used for the purposes of improving society, and including people who have been traditionally excluded from the mainstream discourse. The question of how it can do this or how it is being done already is an intriguing one. In other words, does new technology promise to widen or narrow the digital divide both in today's and (assuredly) tomorrow's stratified society.
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