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Young Adult: Visual Communication 445 Views
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Description:
Not a believer in the power of visual communication? All right; go ahead and watch this video with your eyes closed. We'll let you know when it's over. In the meantime, try not to bump your knee on a table.
Transcript
- 00:04
Visual Communication, a la Shmoop. Who doesn’t like a book with pictures?
- 00:08
Come on, Tolstoy… where are the doodles? All right, so some works can stand on their
- 00:13
own without the aid of illustrations or graphics.
- 00:16
But when you do come across a book containing… pretty pictures… they aren’t necessarily
- 00:21
there just to distract the reader’s eyes for a few moments…
Full Transcript
- 00:24
…or to give them a break from reading all those tedious words.
- 00:28
Just as with language, visual communication can be used to convey ideas, evoke emotions,
- 00:33
or enhance a story.
- 00:35
You’ve heard that… a picture is worth a thousand words?
- 00:38
Well, it’s true. And if that can trim down a few pages in the long run, then there’s
- 00:44
a tree somewhere who feels exceedingly grateful. Images can be pretty powerful.
- 00:51
An author can go on for pages and pages describing the utter horror and desolation of Nazi Germany…
- 00:56
…but just one image can drive it all home. Or, better yet… a whole bookful of images.
- 01:01
Otherwise known as a graphic novel. They’re like comic books for adults.
- 01:06
Although, we’ve been in those stores, so let’s be honest.
- 01:09
Comic books are comic books for adults.
- 01:14
Graphic novels use illustrations to communicate same tough issues…
- 01:18
…like Maus by Art Spiegelman…
- 01:20
…and American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.
- 01:24
Although even in graphic novels, words aren’t wholly absent.
- 01:27
They still pop up in the occasional dialogue bubble.
- 01:31
On a smaller scale, editorial cartoons have used images to make their points since the
- 01:35
days of Ben Franklin…
- 01:36
…who is credited with creating the very first political cartoon back in 1764.
- 01:44
It was a great day for him… until he tied the cartoon to a kite and was struck by lightning.
- 01:49
That guy and his electrical experiments… Ever been watching your favorite series…
- 01:54
…and next thing you know you’ve got a hankering for Taco Bell?
- 01:58
Advertisements… both in print and television media… use images to influence consumers
- 02:03
and convince them to…
- 02:04
…make a run for the border… or whatever. Doesn’t watching that mouth-watering taco
- 02:09
help you work up an appetite better than if they simply splashed the words…
- 02:14
TACOS ARE DELICIOUS, TRUST US… up there on the screen?
- 02:17
It may be true, but… we want to see that ground beef falling out of a flaky shell.
- 02:27
Look at Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian as an example.
- 02:32
How do illustrations play a key role in communicating the narrative?
- 02:35
If you can come up with a brilliant answer, Shmoop just might hire you.
- 02:41
Part-Time, of course.
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