Week 7: Visual Narrative and The Media.

It is said that men are creative beings who spend most of their time employing different forms of narration possible to share a piece of their story during their life course.  According to Fisher’s book Narrative Paradigm, stories are shaped by history, culture and character. He believed that narratives are central to human life (p.298). It is in our very nature to be storytellers (Lemon, 2006) and these stories or narratives are being passed down from one generation to the next.  In some point, stories or narratives help document history so as to be remembered, heard and shown. From this, it allows us to be more imaginative; pushing our minds and thoughts to the limit (Pierzchala, Winter 2009).

There are different kinds of narratives; ranging from oral, written, visual, and photographic as to name a few. However, some people tend to over simplify the meaning of narrative and collapse all storytelling into a single category (Peter Lamarque, 1994. p. 131).

Narrative can be understood as “a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious”. (narrative)

All narrative has a dualistic nature that involves the story or content – also known as fabula in relation to events, actions, time and location; and the discourse – how the story is told in terms of arrangement and emphasis of any elements of the content (Narrative Theory: A Brief Introduction).

According to Lamarque (pg.131), the narrative content must consist of description of the events and not just a mere catalogue of descriptive sentences. Secondly, temporal dimension is essential for the shaping of events by calling to mind accounts of the past. This is so that experiences can be told in an orderly fashion. Once arrangements of events are in chronological order, it provides structure to the content. With this meshed together, you get a plot. - A structured series of interconnected events. Therefore, it is important to have structure in a story because it helps to connect the missing dots as well as records. Thirdly, for every narrative, there is a narrator; real or implied or both. Narratives don’t just exist; they are told and mediated from some perspective. Huisman named this phenomenon of focalization (pg.13). Thus, the four basic dimensions of all narrative are time, structure, voice, and point of view. Once these are in tack, it gives a beginning, middle and an end to the narrative as stated by Aristotle’s Dramatic Structure.  

According to Aristotle, he believes that the form of action can take the place of the process of telling. He stated “in the drama, there is no narration because the actors do the action.” Presumably narrative can be implied.  This is known as “mimesis” which in English means “showing”. However, when a narrator tells us both the story (action) and the speech of the characters (character’s speeches are spoken), this suggest to an overlapping concept of both diegetic and mimetic. - A ‘mixed mode’. For Plato, diegesis suggests that the poet himself is a speaker and mimesis explains that poet tries to give the illusion that another character speaks (Huisman 2005 p.18-19).

As stated in the book Narrative concepts by Rosemary Huisman, narrative is recognized in many different media such as films, in television and so on (p.11). This is indeed true as so to speak. For this reason, I have attempted to expand my investigation on narratives in the context of visual communication with an emphasis on video clip and pictorial, a medium that shapes our perception of stories told through it.

Enter, Royal Brunei Holiday Report

*

The motive of this video is to promote and show what Brunei has to offer for the people that have not yet (or wish to for that matter) step foot on Brunei’s soil. Thus, the reporter’s mission was to stay a couple of days in Brunei to draw up a visual report as she explored her way in the Heart of Borneo filled with cultural richness, breath-taking views of the rainforest and the amazing architecture. Since the report is mediated from her, she is the focalizer. Here, the reporter/narrator is the speaking subject whilst the subject of speech is on Brunei tourism.

The narrator was given the opportunity to visit the little wonders and aspect of Brunei Darussalam by visiting the museum, the palace (where she gets to see Her Majesty in person), Brunei’s most exquisite 7 stars hotel: The Empire Hotel and lastly, escaped into the beauty of god’s creation: the tropical rainforest. The reporter gave very descriptive sentences on each of the events she experienced to help increase the climax of the narrative by highlighting the tourist spots to captivate the audience’s attention.  

Finally, there is intertextuality found in the report. One of which is the ‘fairytale sultanate’ mentioned by the narrator at the end of the video. If we apply a semiotic approach, the pragmatics encoded on the term fairytale means being in a fictitious, magical and highly fanciful story. It is this predetermined or presupposed meaning embedded in any set of signs that provides the intertextual knowledge for the audience. Thus, this gives the viewer the idea that Brunei is truly a kingdom of unexpected treasure.

  

Now, let’s examine a much different medium.

The photo above shows the Brunei Tourism advertisement poster; hence the genre: tourism advertisement. Again by applying the semiotics approach, it demonstrates that the word play of a few vowels and consonants being filled with vibrant colors of signs are very well presented. They filled in images within each letters because it helps with memory. According to Jerome Bruner educational psychologist of New York University, he found out that a person’s brain only can remember ten percent of what they hear, thirty percent of what they read but significantly eighty percent of what they see or do (Bruner, 2006) . These individual signs were chosen because it relates very much to the country Brunei. It represents Brunei’s rich malay culture and its lavished greeneries.   

In conclusion, it is clear that narrative can be presented through various mediums. I believe narrative is realized in many of the media context due to its importance when shaping visual images to a diverse audience. After writing this, I have established a basis of the power of visual narrative in different media context.

Works Cited

Bruner, J. (2006). A brave new (visual) world . In P. Paul Martin Lester, Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication. Fullerton California.

Fisher, W. Narrative Paradigm. In E. Griffin, A first look at communication theory (pp. 298-299). New York, NY.: Frank Mortimer.

Huisman, R. (2005). Narrative concept. Cambridge University Press.

Lamarque, P. (1994). Narrative and Invention: The Limits of Fictionality. In N. C., Narrative in culture (pp. 131-132). New York and London: Routledge.

Lemon, N. (2006). Retrieved october 7th, 2010, from Using Visual Narrative for reflection: http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/lem06537.pdf

narrative. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2010, from Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/narrative

Narrative Theory: A Brief Introduction. (n.d.). Retrieved october 7th, 2010, from courses.nus.edu.sg: http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellibst/NarrativeTheory/chapt1.htm

Pierzchala, J. (Winter 2009). Visual Narrative and photography. Retrieved october 7th, 2010, from http://narrativemachine.com/documents/Visual-Narrative-and-the-Photographer.pdf


Brunei Tourism logo. Retrived October 7, 2010, from executivemasterclass.com:  http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.executivemasterclass.com.my/marketroot/executi/catalog/page_images/Brunei_Tourism_Logo2.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.executivemasterclass.com.my/executi/catalog/exchange/11907806840/11908630743/&h=1000&w=2400&sz=678&tbnid=lQhVjYkJXV4V0M:&tbnh=63&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbrunei%2Btourism&zoom=1&q=brunei+tourism&hl=en&usg=__cilrEd1Hz2qygVOnP8f7VhQdmq8=&sa=X&ei=yEW0TJaXIcePcfucrPAI&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQ9QEwBA

week 6: The ancient art of rhetoric and persuasion.

The distinctiveness of Camel no.9 (pink and black campaign) has swayed the youth especially girls of age 12 to 16 according to the statistics found in Pediatrics. As you can see in the magazine ad, it is bordered by hot-pink fuchsia or minty-green teal that specify independent flavors complemented by the flowers around the cigarette packs with ‘light and luscious’  as their fancy slogan. This cigarette brand has definitely embedded femininity on it which creates an ideology for young teens.

David Howard stated that this ad was geared only for adults since Tobacco companies took part of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement as to exclude kids as their target audience. However, according to Cheryl Healton (president of anti-smoking group the American Legacy Foundation), she asserted that this cigarette brand has far more appeal to younger girls.

This ad is very much persuasive itself because initially, Tobacco Industry aim was only to convince smokers to switch brand. In spite of this, it has drawn in non-smokers as well.

Co-author John Pierce of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California-San Diego.

 “Being able to remember a tobacco ad shows that kids are taking an interest in cigarettes. Non-smoking teens who can name a favorite ad are 50% more likely to begin smoking than other kids.”

Rhetorical scholars had lean closer to focusing on style rather than the content. From what I can deduce, Tobacco Company is trying to target a wider audience with its subtle argument. The inductive argument of its slogan, style and smart packaging all contributes to a hidden agenda that says “It’s more than just a cigarette, it’s all wrapped up nicely, cool and hip just for you, so take a puff.” This is also known as enthymemes.

Because of this, the number of women diagnosed with cancer has skyrocketed according to statistics. Thus, this show how powerful visual rhetoric can be as it influences one’s beliefs. 

Week 5: Gestalt effect and Schema theories.

Anderson and Pearson (1984) explain that Bartlett viewed a schema as (p.52):

“An active organization of past reactions, or past experience”

It is basically referring to background knowledge or information. And each individual certainly have different background information. One’s schema may be more elaborated than the other. For example, a firefighter has a more elaborated schema on fire safety and regulation than someone who rarely or never deals with it. Without existing schemas, one may find it difficult to grasp new information on a topic.

Nonetheless, schema can expand through accretation, tuning and restructuring. This is done by taking in new information; modify existing schema to fit in new information and abandoning old irrelevant schema for a much more relevant one.

Application of schema theory on ‘fire safety and prevention for kids’.

I remembered when I was a kid; other than looking forward to receiving presents, I was always excited to blow out the candles. I was so fascinated by the yellow glowing flames that I tried to touch it with my bare hands - fortunately, my parents stopped me. Then again, I kept doing it year after year after year, until I was old enough (prolly 7 years old) to realize that it was dangerous – when I finally had a taste of it - and from then on, I became fearful. Once fear is incorporated in one self, it’s hard to subdue it. 

http://www2.scholastic.com/content/media/products/22/0545178622_xlg.jpg

http://stopdropandblog.com/2009/10/06/fire-prevention-week-storybooks-with-fire-safety-tips/

This children literature book is based on a dragon named Sparks who, strangely as it sound, is afraid of fire. In order to overcome his fear of fire, he joined the fire department and went through all the training. In the end, it paid off as he conquered his fear and became a firefighter himself. (Hatfield, 2009)

The reason why I chose this photo is because I believed that children work better with meaningful visual images as we link them with words and expression. According to Jerome Bruner, educational psychologist of New York University , he carried out cites studies that showed people only remembered 10% of what they hear, 30% of what they read, but 80% of what they see or do. Thus, visual images aid the improvement of the memory of an individual. (Improve memory: Helping your children develop memory skills)

In terms of the level of schematic process, I believed that it falls in the top level. The children can relate to this because, like Sparks, some kids are just as frightened as he is. They will then put themselves in the dragon’s shoes; trying to overcome the fear of fire by understanding the safety rules and prevention. With this, it actually helps them tune their schemas by modify existing schema to fit in new information.

Although we are highly aware the importance of fire safety, putting fear into their system isn’t always a great idea. - They might end up freaked out. Different children learn differently. I think raising the awareness on what to do in case of a fire in a non-threatening way help prepare the children better. Hence, I believe the schema chosen is highly congruous. 

Works Cited

Bruner, J. A brave new (visual) world . In P. Paul Martin Lester, Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication. Fullerton California.

Hatfield, J. (2009, october 6). Fire Prevention Week: Storybooks with Fire Safety Tips. Retrieved september 6, 2010, from stop, drop and blog.: http://stopdropandblog.com/2009/10/06/fire-prevention-week-storybooks-with-fire-safety-tips/

Improve memory: Helping your children develop memory skills. (n.d.). Retrieved september 6, 2010, from Brainy-Child: http://www.brainy-child.com/articles/improving-child-memory.shtml

Pearson., & Anderson. (1984). Lenses on reading. In D. H. Tracey, & L. M. Morrow, An introduction to Theories and Models (p. 52). New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.

Week 4: Visual Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics : Structure, meaning and context.

Syntax -in terms of language- is a systematic form of conventional symbols to create sentence structure; how words can be organized to create meanings. (Miller, 2009)  It comprises of common elements such as grammar and vocabulary which forms word structure.  Language is culturally based; it changes overtime as people negotiate and renegotiate. Hence, this explains the shared meaning (consensus) within different culture and society.

As modernity progress, there has been an on-going debate whether visuals can be considered as a language or not. Linguists strongly believed that it cannot be because visuals have no syntax (structure) or grammar. Also, it is not a widely shared concept - no universal concept. Interpretation is subjective to each individual.

However, some may argue that syntax can be used in visuals.


American philosopher Suzanne Langer:


"Grammatical structure is not a symbol of itself, but it ties together several symbols, ... to make one complex term."


With that being said, it can be applied to images as well since the features such as shapes, borders, colors, features and layouts are as complex as language itself. These factors substitute for linguistic grammar which all make up to the syntax of the visual. And so, if more people agreed to the shared meaning of the visual then, it can be considered as a language.

Let’s take a look at the photos below.

http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/2007/06/24/screen-chinese.characters.PNG

http://img.chinaa2z.com/uploadpic/learn/Sinology/2008/20081226/20081226131155678765/1230268878.jpg

As you can see here, the Chinese characters take shape of the iconic features. It has been standardized as to make them easier to remember and write. Though, only a small fraction of the Chinese characters are pictographic, it is still considered as a form of language. (四月雪, 2007)

When it comes to visual syntax, some ground rules are needed to be taken into account such as color, form, depth and movement. When we look at a photo, we don’t look at it randomly but rather focus at certain areas that grab our attention.  It is an involuntary action where our brain tells us where to start and end an image.

Example of Jimmy Choo spring-summer 2009 Ad campaign.

http://frillr.com/files/images/Jimmy%20Choo%20-%20SpringSummer%202009%20-%20Angela%20Lindvall.jpg

Our level of eye fixation varies from the strongest to the weakest point. 

The seal brown heel stands out the most because it is found in the centre. This is called the point of interest or centre of interest. Subject placement is important as it helps create the feeling of balance in the composition. (Basic photography technique) Different tones of color also contribute to our eye movements. When a darker shaded color falls in a dull background, it sticks out more. Moreover, lighting and shadow gives the heel a sense of depth which creates an illusion of a killer high heel. Each element in a picture has a certain amount of value in respect to all the other elements.

According to Morris, in order to understand the language of visual, it takes more than just syntactic but semantics and pragmatics to aid the study of signs. These three elements help advertisers and communication professionals channel specific interpretation to the receiver. 

Semantics is the study of compositional meaning. It refers to the connotative meaning of a sign; what the image represents. Pragmatics on the other hand is the study of interactional meaning. It helps determine the origin of the meaning of a sign by understanding some of the factors such as codes, modality, sender, receiver and context.

For example,

http://media.photobucket.com/image/chanel%20logo/Jords6/chanel-logo.gif?o=19 

 

What are the syntax and semantics of Chanel?

• ·         It represents simplicity.
• ·         Black and white colored; classy, timeless stigma.
• ·         The double C markings are symmetrical.
• ·         it gives a harmonious weight of composition.

With syntax and semantics, you can conclude its pragmatics.

A timeless watch from Chanel premiere collection

http://www.geekwatches.com/wp-content/gallery/7/chanel-premiere-collection-3.jpg

Chanel pragmatics:

The context of this print fits the logo. The monochrome color creates a “back to basics” look which, as you can see, is incorporated into the features of the timeless watch premiere collection. The simplicity and elegance of the watch creates a sophisticated and chic look. As a whole, it gives the receiver the feeling of timelessness. – The idea that Chanel never goes out of style.

Works Cited

Basic photography technique. (n.d.). Retrieved september 2010, from Photoin: http://photoinf.com/General/NAVY/Photographic_composition_Balance.htm

Langer, S. the syntax of symbols. In P. M. Lester, Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication. Fullerton, California.

Miller, G. A. (2009). define: language. Retrieved september 2010, from WordNet. princeton university.: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=language

Morris. The syntax of symbols. In P. M. Lester, Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication. Fullerton, California.

四月雪, A. (2007, april 9). pictograms in chinese characters. Retrieved september 2010, from My Opera: http://my.opera.com/Aprilsnow/blog/pictograms-xiangxingzi-in-chinese-characters