COMM 5330 Visual Rhetoric and Political Argumentation - Preliminary Course Schedule

Aug 30, 2026

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COMM 5330 Visual Rhetoric and Political Argumentation examines how audiences and decision-makers use visual political argumentation across venues such as television, archives, documentaries, billboards, photography, blogs, campaigns, and museums, emphasizing both domestic and international contexts. The course trains students to critically analyze social media, perform close readings of images, identify the settings that give images political force, and build a creative-critical sensibility toward visual rhetoric. Weekly quizzes, a mid-term exam, and a final project shape assessment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatDOCX

Pages6

Reading Time2 min

AccessFree to download

Course Description

Course Outcomes and Objectives

Course Requirements

Grading Scale

University Policies

Preliminary Course Schedule

Week 1—Intro: Beyond Anthropocentrism (Jan 6)

Week 2—Images (Jan 13)

Week 3—Social Media Impacts (Jan 20)

Week 4—Thinking Photographs (Jan 27)

Week 5—The Age of Images (Feb 3)

Week 6—The Prophet of New Media—Marshall McLuhan (Feb 10)

Week 7—Seeing and the Force/Violence of Images (Feb 17)

Week 8—Images and Protest Politics (Feb 24)

Week 9—Mid-Term (March 3)

Week 10—Spring Break (March 10)

Week 11—The Environmental Force of Images and Social Media (March 17)

COMM 5330 Visual Rhetoric and Political Argumentation Spring Semester 2025 Course Description The course explores the ways audiences and decision-makers write and talk about visual political argumentation in a host of venues, including television, archives, documentaries, billboards, photography, blogs, political campaigns, and museums. The focus will be on both domestic and international political usage of visual rhetoric. Course Outcomes and Objectives [Learning outcomes should be phrased with active terminology. Ensure these learning outcomes map to course assessments, so you can measure student success in attaining these.] By the end of this course, you will be able to: • critically analyze social mendia •perform close readings of images •discern contexts that give images political force • develop a creative/critical sensibility with respect to images Course Requirements [This section should include the major expectations and activities for the course that are essential to earning credit and on which grading is based.] Quizzes (weekly) – 25% Mid-term exam – 40% Final Project – 35% Grading Scale A: 94-100 : 90-93 B+ : 87-89 B :83-86 :80-82 C+ :77-79 C :73-76 :70-72 D : 60-69 E : 59 or less University Policies Updated mandatory syllabus policies regarding the ADA Act, Safety at the U, Addressing Sexual Misconduct, and Academic Misconduct can be viewed at: HYPERLINK "https://cte.utah.edu/instructor-education/syllabus/institutional-policies.php" https://cte.utah.edu/instructor-education/syllabus/institutional-policies.php Preliminary Course Schedule Week1—Intro: Beyond Anthropocentrism (Jan 6) “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" by Nietzsche Week 2 –Images. (Jan 13) “The Image Culture” by Christine Rosen HYPERLINK "http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-image-culture" \t "_blank" http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-image-cultureLinks to an external site. On Photography excerpts by Susan Sontag (C) Errol Morris, HYPERLINK "http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/pictures-are-supposed-to-be-worth-a-thousand-words/?_r=0" \t "_blank" http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/pictures-are-supposed-to-be-worth-a-thousand-words/?_r=0Links to an external site. HYPERLINK "http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg-part-one/" \t "_blank" http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg-part-one/Links to an external site. Week 3 —Social Media Impacts—Changing the mediascape (Jan 20) “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by N. Carr HYPERLINK "http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google" \t "_blank" http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/googleLinks to an external site. “Has the smartphone destroyed a generation?” by Jean Twenge HYPERLINK "https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/" \t "_blank" https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/Links to an external site. "I used to be a human being" HYPERLINK "http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/09/andrew-sullivan-technology-almost-killed-me.html" \t "_blank" http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/09/andrew-sullivan-technology-almost-killed-me.htmlLinks to an external site. "Smartphones and social media are torturing us" HYPERLINK "http://thefederalist.com/2016/09/22/smartphones-and-social-media-torturing-us/" \t "_blank" http://thefederalist.com/2016/09/22/smartphones-and-social-media-torturing-us/Links to an external site. Week 4—Thinking Photographs (Jan 27) Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes Week 5 — The Age of Images (Feb 3) “The Annihilation of Time and Space” in River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit pp 1-24 (C) “The Age of the World Picture” by M. Heidegger pp. 128-135 (C) Ansel Adams- 21 st Century Image Activism- Ansel Adams: Photography with Intention HYPERLINK "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zxancgfDVg" \t "_blank" Ansel Adams: Photog

FAQs

What is the focus of COMM 5330 Visual Rhetoric and Political Argumentation?

The course focuses on how visual political argumentation is written and spoken about across multiple venues, considering both domestic and international political usage of visual rhetoric.

What skills will students develop by the end of the course?

Students will learn to critically analyze social media, conduct close readings of images, determine contexts that give images political force, and develop a creative-critical sensibility toward images.

How is student performance evaluated in the course?

Assessment includes weekly quizzes (25%), a mid-term exam (40%), and a final project (35%).

Aug 30, 2026

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