Blog Three -- Foss, Foss, and Trapp

In previous courses I have been taught that humans are symbol using and misusing creatures. Additionally, I have learned that rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Thus, it stands to reason that rhetoric would be persuasion through the use of any sort of symbolism. And visuals, particularly multimedia images, would be great representations of such symbolic rhetoric.

Foss, Foss, and Trapp briefly describe such interaction: "How we perceive, what we know, what we experience, and how we act are the results of our own symbol use and that of those around us; rhetoric is the term that captures all of these processes. For us, rhetoric is the human use of symbols to communicate" (1).

Images, just as words, have the ability to influence the audience's perspective. Visuals are incredibly important to clear and concise communication. They are, many times, more straightforward than text. "[R]hetoric is symbol, by which we mean somthing that stands for or represents something else by virtue of relationship, association, or convention" (2). Images allow for a certain degree of personal interpretation that does not necessarily come with text. Viewers are free to associate the image with their own inferences. And as much as rhetoric is the persuasive abilities of the author, it also involves the interpreation of the audience.