SCOM 3050 on Keren Wang

Lesson 7: Rhetorical Artifacts

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 21:00:04 +0000

Posted by: Keren Wang

Before you start this lesson, please READ: Berger, Arthur Asa. 2024. Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 3rd ed. Chapter 4, “Rhetorical Analysis.” Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071939017.

1. Overview

What do you think of when you hear the word “artifact”? In rhetorical scholarship, the term “artifact” is not limited to historical objects or museum pieces. Instead, it encompasses various texts, speeches, symbolic objects, and events produced by humans.

In communication research, one key difference between rhetorical and critical methods and other qualitative research methods is that, while qualitative methods such as interviews, observations, and focus group studies revolve around studying human subjects, rhetorical scholars analyze rhetorical artifacts, or “texts” that have already been produced.

Lesson on Data Visualization and its Misuses

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 01:05:28 +0000

Posted by Keren Wang, FA 2024

In this session, we aim to achieve several key learning objectives:

Understand the fundamental principles of framing and visual rhetoric, exploring how they shape the design and interpretation of data visualizations.
Examine the art of designing and manipulating graphic systems of signs that disclose or conceal specific quantitative or qualitative information.
Identify common types of data visualizations, such as bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and network graphs, along with their appropriate applications.
Recognize the advantages and potential misuses of data visualizations, including manipulative techniques like framing and scaling distortions.
Critically analyze real and hypothetical examples to detect misleading or biased visual representations.
Develop best practices for creating clear, honest, and effective data visualizations, ensuring accuracy and ethical integrity.

Photography and Visual Rhetoric

To truly grasp the fundamental principles and perils of data visualization, we must journey back to the birth of photography and photojournalism. When photography was first employed in news reporting, it carried an inherent demand for credibility. Unlike paintings or sketches, photographs were perceived as unfiltered, unmediated representations of reality. Ironically, as our discussion will reveal, even from its inception, photojournalism was subject to rhetorical manipulation.

Lesson on Statistical Evidence

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 18:04:48 +0000

Lesson on Statistical Evidence - Survey and Opinion Polling

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 18:01:49 +0000