Visual Communication. Janis Teruggi Page
as scientists. And it obscures the value of diversity in the field and how it shapes breakthroughs.
iBiology's open‐access free videos in this series provide a broader picture using a variety of visual storytelling strategies focusing on how the race, identities, cultures, and backgrounds of underrepresented scientists fire up their ingenuity and approaches to problem solving. In Burchard's videos, he's not only seen as a researcher but as a mentor and activist. The essential message is that diversity enhances scientific research so that it helps people of all backgrounds.
Visual Storytelling Strategies
Make a direct connection: Burchard directly asks the viewer, “If you were a parent, would you let your child use this?” “This” is a drug that significantly increases the risk of death in African Americans. With the question, Burchard, an expert on asthma health, builds a one‐on‐one rapport with the audience, engages them emotionally, and communicates care and credibility.
Use visual comparisons: Race is a “shopping cart that contains lots of information that is relevant for clinical and biomedical research,” explains Burchard. An animation illustrates the relationship between race and biology and its complexities – creatively explained in a compelling and accurate way.
Show visual evidence: Rather than defining Burchard as an underdog who rose to the top, the producers explored how he overcame the challenges he faced. They looked at hundreds of old photos to show and tell a more nuanced story of how Latino culture gave him unique perspectives in science research – bringing to life the many mentors who gave him the confidence, support, and guidance throughout his journey
Source: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/rethinking‐the‐narrative‐of‐diversity‐in‐science
The Potter Box
The Potter Box is a useful tool to guide us in answering ethical questions in visual communication and incorporates the values suggested by Ross. Devised by theologian Ralph Potter, it provides a step‐by‐step process to weigh varying situations and values. As you can see, the Potter Box (Figure 2.9) visually shows a process that involves four major elements of ethical decision‐making. The four steps are:
1 Definition: identifying the facts of a given problem or situation.
2 Values: considering what issues and outcomes are most important to you.
3 Principles: thinking about the ethical philosophies you subscribe to.
4 Loyalties: considering your loyalty to various stakeholders.
Let's take a closer look at each step:
Figure 2.9 The Potter Box.
Source: © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Definition
In the case of the children's anti‐obesity campaign, the facts of the situation are that the state of Georgia faces a public health crisis. The children who are obese face the likelihood that they will experience disease and shortened life spans. The state faces the problem of increased health care costs and potentially unsustainable budget expenditures.
Values
The second step is more difficult because the meaning of the concept “values” is often unclear for many people. Patterson and Wilkins (2002) point out that when we discuss ethical values, we need to be clearer about their meanings: “when you value something – an idea or a principle – it means you are willing to give up other things for it” (p. 77). An important value for government leaders is positive health outcomes for the people in the state. Another value would be effectiveness in that state leaders would want to know and be able to tell others that funds invested in this strategy actually worked to improve health and reduce obesity. Some in government might highly value what they perceive as honesty and truth in telling people “like it is” rather than sugarcoating issues to protect their feelings. Still other values could be protecting vulnerable populations such as children from psychological harm from hard‐edged or even cruel messages. As Patterson and Wilkins (2002) point out, “values often compete and an important element of using the Potter Box is to be honest about what you really do value” (p. 77).
Principles
The third step is a careful examination of ethical principles that underpin values and ethical decisions. Someone who is a consequentialist might insist that even if someone's feelings get hurt in the process, more people will benefit from tough anti‐obesity messages. Someone who is a deontologist or absolutist might argue that it is never acceptable to injure others psychologically or physically regardless of the potential outcome. Someone following Ross's principles on prima facie duties would consider what values are in conflict in this particular case and which should be most important, and these can help you be more systematic in reasoning through ethical dilemmas. Ross's approach is helpful, we think, because it offers guidelines for this reasoning rather than rules that are expected to apply in any given situation.
Loyalties
The fourth step involves loyalties, an area that Christians et al. (1987) suggest deserves the greatest attention because it's easy to deceive ourselves about the loyalties that are most important to us. Assume that you are a Georgia health policymaker. You may have loyalty to your own ethical beliefs, to the people of Georgia, and to your department. You may also be loyal to your own self‐interest, to be and to be seen as effective at your job and worthy of recognition and possibly promotions. Other likely loyalties may be to your family's well‐being, to your coworkers in the department, and so on. If you're committed to the duty of “non‐injury,” then you may be weighing the potential harm that campaign images might do against the possibility that such messaging might be effective. Again, having your campaign shown to be effective could also be a strong benefit to you.Last, you come to some conclusions about the proper course of action in this particular case. Reject the campaign because it unfairly targets vulnerable children and may cause them to feel hurt and ashamed? Go forward with the campaign because it is the most likely to result in better long‐term health for these same children? Ethical decision‐making is a real‐world activity with genuine consequences for real people. What is the right decision in the case of the Georgia obesity campaign? Reasonable people can disagree, but at the very least, the choices made would be based on a systematic and thoughtful process.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
You are a creator, consumer, and distributor of visuals in today's world of instantaneous communication and sharing through social networks and digital devices. Your job as a consumer or creator of visuals has never been more challenging from an ethical standpoint. In the future, it will be even easier and cheaper to create and disseminate images, apps, videos, and remixes. Photography once had a more obvious referent to real life in that a photo of an event was relatively difficult to alter, filter, or otherwise manipulate. In the future, we will all be consuming and evaluating many images that are created primarily from people's imaginations and combinations of materials of all kinds. However, regardless of changing technologies, new and unexpected events, and even more instant and sophisticated sharing capabilities, we can still apply systematic ethical reasoning and consider our duties to ourselves and to others.
KEY TERMS
HeuristicsMental