Future Reflection

Figure 1. Justin MacLean, October 27, 2010

Source: with permission from Laura Salamanca

 Contemplating the future – it’s something we all do and wonder what will tomorrow will bring. Age has a lot to do with how we look at the future. The young man in the photo (figure 1), Justin, is deep in thought about his future as he is sitting on a park bench in Toronto, on a cold autumn day with trees towering above him. He is thinking about the past and the present, and what kind of future he will have based on what he has accomplished so far in his life. As a young boy, he remembers looking forward of being big enough to ride a bicycle to the convenience store to buy junk food and going to his cousins for weekend sleepovers. As he got older, the future began to take on connotations that are more serious. Although books, movies, and television revealed possible insights into his future during his teens, he was concerned with passing the next grade in school, finding the right university, and thinking about a career path.

Now, Justin, as an adult, has reached that stage in his life where the concept of the future changes. He finds himself becoming increasingly uneasy, even fearful of it. In the photo, the towering trees stretching into the sky behind him symbolize an enormous future, a future Justin harshly realizes he does not have the power to control as the falling leaves tremble to the ground around him but his outward serious gaze illustrates a determination of hope and dreams. He realizes it is up to him to map out his livelihood but he is hiding under the hood from the uncertainty and frightfulness of his future. While sitting on the bolted bench on the immoveable concrete pad, Justin yearns for the time when his future was solid, stabilized, and shaped by the people around him while living at home—a time the future seemed predictable and felt safe. A feeling of melancholy is illustrated by Justin’s facial expression and is further emphasized by other visual elements in the photo—the gray bench, his blue attire, and the bleakness of an autumn day. As Justin gazes onward, he is consoled with the fact that the past tradition of living right and doing right will influence his future. Alone, Justin continues to hope and dream as he struggles with decisions that will permanently shape his future.  

I wanna look like that, too!

Advertisements in magazines consist of photographs accompanied by text with the intention to capture the audience’s attention. Pictures of humans, especially a recognizable face, will gain maximum attention. The “Got Milk?” advertisement uses this strategy effectively by portraying celebrities, recognizable and real, wearing milk mustaches who like milk. To persuade and inform the audience, the celebrity shows how milk can play a role in maintaining a healthy weight.

Figure 1.  Serena Williams "Got Milk?" 2424 advertisement

The “Got Milk?” 2424 Milk advertisement (Figure 1) in the Shape magazine shows Serena Williams, a recognizable sport celebrity, as a sexy “Lean Machine” holding an hourglass shaped tumbler in her right hand. The advertisement purposely targets Shape’s audience who place a high priority on physical heath and beauty. The textual presentation “Milk your diet. Lose weight! 24oz./24 hours” in the bottom right hand corner provides a strong visual link between milk and weight loss by placing a narrow and curvy line between the text to indicate a physical result of weight loss and turning into a “Lean Machine.” The narrow and curvy line symbolizes a silhouette of a female body. The endorsement by Serena that “24 ounces a day of lowfat or fat free milk in their reduced-calorie diet” persuades the audience to drink milk so they can have a body like Serena Williams. The image of the hourglass shaped tumbler in Serena’s right hand and her stance emphasizes curves to show the audience the result—a specific body shape and a “Lean Machine” if you drink milk to lose weight. The curved tumbler in her right hand symbolizes it’s the right decision to drink milk for weight loss to achieve the perfect body shape.

The advertisement functions to inform and appeal to the audience’s needs and emotions by using both the words and photograph. The placement of this advertisement in the Shape magazine was strategically placed in the Look Great section, for here it contributes to the rhetorical situation.

  

 If you didn’t know:  Serena is notably called the Lean Machine by the sports community and the marketers of the “Got Milk” campaign capitalized on the reference for this advertisement.  

Sources:  “Got Milk?” 2424. Advertisement. Shape. Jan. 2006: 51.

Would you like that Supersized with or without text?

When intentional changes to an original image present a different interpretation for the writer’s purpose, the image is open to a variety of possible meanings. During lectures, we are presented the opportunity to view and interpret images in our textbook that are purposely resized to fit the page with the associated text. When the image is presented on a screen, it is larger, more details become apparent, and then, there is a realization we missed the illustrator’s point of view because of the smaller version presented in the textbook—somehow, in a twisted way, the audience was robbed of the opportunity to view the image as it was presented originally. The explanation in the textbook helps with the interpretation but the appreciation for the details in the image is lost—we can’t see them but we are relying on the writer’s credibility!    

Let us look at Figure 1 where resizing an image could lead to an interpretation when compared to the illustrator’s original explanation. The view of this image could provide an interpretation of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths.

Figure 1.

When viewing the (approximate) original size in Figure 2, then it could be a poor starving woman who is begging for money to buy food for her child and herself. The image could tell a story but it tells without the clarity provided by words. 

Figure 2.



James Mahoney, an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, provided the accurate explanation for this picture in 1847 during the potato famine in Ireland:

The horrors of the poverty became visible, in the vast number of famished poor, who flocked around the coach to beg alms: amongst them was a woman carrying in her arms the corpse of a fine child, making the most distressing appeal to the passengers for aid to enable her to purchase a coffin and bury her dear little baby (Mahoney par 3).

The opportunity to view the original image with the associated text, allows the audience to view it with a sense of reality for emphasis and clarity. Is it ethical to intentionally use and change an image and take it out of context to serve another purpose, for example, to gain a profit?   

Source for cited work and image:

Mahoney, James. “Sketches in the West of Ireland.” The Illustrated London News. 12 Feb. 1847. Vassar College 30 Jan. 2008 <http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/FAMINE/ILN/West/West.html>.

A Deadly Consequence - Texting & Driving at the same time!



Teen Texting and Driving
Published September 25, 2010
Source: http://www.dolighan.com/



Tim Dolighan makes a powerful statement with this cartoon by addressing the possibility of the final outcome of a female teen driver, behind the wheel of a moving car, who is texting on her cell phone to a friend while trying to keep her eyes on the road, the cell phone, and her passenger. Dolighan is targeting one specific group that appears to have the highest frequency of distraction—female teens. Female teens are often mentioned as the guilty party and the main subject in many stories such as the article featured in the London Free Press on October 7, 2010 (http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/10/06/15609411.html), the video released on You Tube on August 25, 2009  (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0LCmStIw9E) and various articles where the “person” is later referenced as “she.”  

In this single frame cartoon published in Canadian newspapers on September 25, 2010, both the text and visual provides the message, however, the visual itself has the main influence for persuasion.  The graphic image of the Grim Reaper symbolizes the imminent fate of the driver; he is waiting for the moment she causes an accident but doesn’t want to add to her distraction, which is supported by the Grim Reaper’s response “don’t let me distract you”—he is trying to dissuade her from reckless behaviour behind the wheel.

The comic has a serious tone to it and creates a powerful impact on readers by coinciding with the recent publication of statistics citing the increasing number of distracted teens charged with careless or dangerous driving and causing deadly accidents, specially in parts of North America where cell phone usage is banned while driving (Ontario passed this legislation Feburary 2010). The characters and setting are very realistic—we see it everyday while driving to and from school or work on a busy four lane street.  We pass a car with a young person driving below the speed limit and, with a sideways glance, we discover the driver is conversing on a cell phone and is not paying attention to their surroundings. Sometimes, there are passengers in the car, which is depicted by the Grim Reaper, who adds to the driver’s distraction.