Date: | Wednesday 21 Nov, 11am - 12pm |
---|---|
Location: | AUT City Campus WF Building, 611 Auckland New Zealand |
Contact: | accountingseminars@aut.ac.nz |
The aim of the paper is to propose a framework for examining the nature and extent of visual persuasion of photographs in sustainability disclosures. Specifically, the paper determines the elements of visual persuasion in sustainability related photographs and measure the level of persuasion of these photographs.
The paper analyses how sustainability related photographs are being presented by corporations in a visually persuasive manner. Aristotle’s (1984) persuasive appeals of ethos, pathos and logos and Peirce’s (1991) semiotic system of icon, index and symbol are drawn to build a visual persuasion framework to determine the elements of visual persuasion that present in sustainability related photographs. By extending the visual persuasion framework, a visual persuasion scoring is constructed to measure the persuasion level of the photographs.
Aristotle’s ethos, pathos and logos can be applied effectively to visual persuasion by identifying and categorising the semiotic characteristics of icon, index and symbol signs of the photographs. These categorisations render the photographic images as credible, capable of emotion elicitation, and logical. A visual persuasion scoring is constructed and subsequently tested on its applicability. Visual persuasion level of sustainability related photographs can be determined and measured when their content images are deconstructed using the semiotics of icon, index and symbol into persuasion elements of ethos, pathos and logos.
The study contributes to a greater understanding of the power of sustainability related photographs in visual persuasion. By exposing companies’ visual persuasion strategy underlying the utilisation of photographs in sustainability reporting, the paper creates awareness amongst the stakeholders about the need to bring about changes to improve the quality of sustainability reporting.
By proposing a method of systematic analysis of the nature and extent of visual persuasion, the paper provides a solution to methodical understanding of visual persuasion in sustainability reporting.