Visual Rhetoric 1

        

     The image above shows how the media and the way society criticizes homeschooling. It shows a man of the media trying to convince society that homeschoolers are hiding evidence that it does not work. When in fact there is no bad evidence. On one table there are cobwebs showing nothing has been on that table in a while, meaning there has not been any bad evidence on homeschooling because the webs have not been disturbed. When right across from that table is another table showing all the good evidence on home schooling, and it’s actually overflowing into another box with no cobwebs. When they both are compared, homeschooling turns out to be good instead of bad even though society is trying to make it look bad with no evidence. I think the objective in this image is to convince society that home-schooled children are not hiding anything and that the proof of good evidence outweighs the bad. Even though society still tries to point out the bad even though there is no evidence to prove it!


     The man pointing and trying to convince society that homeschoolers are hiding something is meant to provoke our feelings of outrage (pathos). Pathos is used to engage TV audiences on the news channels, which presents the news with the dramatic feel (pathos). This picture also shows how good homeschooling is when compared to the bad. This makes me feel happy when seeing this. Although the character almost seems frustrated because there is no evidence that proves homeschooling is bad. Because I am a home-school teacher, the cartoon shows the truth and how society tries to make homeschooling look bad, but never seems to find the evidence to prove that. Thus, the cartoon is arguing its case to an audience of reason and intellect (logos), because this cartoon about homeschooling only shows good evidence when compared to the bad evidence (logos). The counter message in this cartoon is that society wants a way to prove the good evidence wrong, and the medial supports the negative image that homeschooling must be hiding something. The counter message is saying, “Don’t trust homeschooling” (ethos).Finally, the message of logic and reason to support homeschooling is geared towards the community of homeschooling families and those who are undecided (mythos)!

    I would say this is a great comic and made me smile because it is very true in many ways because a many in the society don’t even do the research but yet listen to the negative claims; many do not look at the evidence that discusses why homeschooling is good. Research is a good thing and, believe it or not, this comic has a lot of truth about it. I do like the added sarcasm to make the message to have a feel-good feeling for a homeschooling family when we are presented to the public eye.





Source Cited:


Brittany (2012). Adult homeschoolers speak out: college? Prepared or not? BAM. Retrieved from the web on November 17, 2012 at
http://mengalings.blogspot.com/2012/06/adult-homeschoolers-speak-out-college.html