Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The term “post-trust” (Maslansky et. al., 2010) representing consumer scepticism pervades not just the political sphere but increasingly, also the manner in which the wider range of communication practices are consumed by their audiences. Recommended practices in such “post-trust” usage are particularly focused on the linguistic choices that communicators make in these consumption spaces and point to the need for increasingly qualified descriptors to underscore the trust value of that which is being consumed. Here, we extend this understanding to the visual choices made in communication output by drawing attention to the role of analog visual elements in the use of digital persuasive content. We conceptualize an analogic schema through a comparative understanding of verbal and visual qualifiers to examine the impact of the modalities (Kress and Leeuwen, 2006) of compositional invariants such as line, shape, form, colour, perspective and space. We discuss theoretical and conceptual implications of this understanding of analog elements and experiences. To do this the study carries out a visual analysis of a range of communication outputs in the public sphere such as a company sustainability campaign, a social marketing campaign, a place branding campaign and a commercial advertising campaign. The study demonstrates how visual compositional elements and resultant cues are used to address consumer scepticism by identifying degrees of modality in these visual units. The study contributes to image studies and research and also has significant implications for communications professionals and planners engaging with issues of trust and impact.