Analysis of Infographics:
Information presented in visuals can be used to draw readers to the information for educational purposes or to specific position on the information in order to persuade the viewer that said position is the best position. The infographics analyzed were ‘Plastics Breakdown’ from the One World, One Ocean website as well as the infographic on landfills from the Metro UK website. The infographics both show an argument against waste within the world with influence from the rhetorical appeals of pathos, logos, and ethos.
From the perspective of ‘Plastics Breakdown,’ there is an emphasis on marine life and the ocean as the website’s name would imply. It uses illustrations of marine life affected by plastic pollution in the ocean to appeal to pathos, while it also includes statistics ad scientific findings to appeal to ethos and logos.
Within the infographic on landfills in the United Kingdom it shows a stronger focus on the statistics of landfills and how recycling can impact those numbers. It shows its appeal to logos by making statistical portions more visible, to ethos by showing clear and professional aspects of how landfills impact the earth, and to pathos by putting emphasis on how it impacts humans through its influential choices in photographs.
Visual Components:
The use of colour and images within infographics allows for the creator if the infographic to manipulate how the viewer is affected by the information presented. The use of blues in ‘Plastics Breakdown’ and images of cartoon-styled animals allows for the reader to gain an idea of the context of the infographic. Blue is often associated with water or the ocean, so adding blue helps to create an immediate connotation with water. The use of orange is to provide contrast to the blue, emphasizing important portions of the infographic in order to catch the viewer’s eye, drawing them to the highlighted portions. Use of cartoon images rather than photographs is due to the powerful ability of cartoons to be more memorable than a regular photograph.5 However, cartoons do add a less persuasive side to the infographic as they can make the viewer see the information as humorous or less important. The memorability of the cartoon affects the infographic’s impact on viewers. Use of the animals themselves appeals to pathos in that people see what they hurt with the excessive use of plastic and develop a sympathetic response. Ethos is also built by the professionalism displayed by the structure of the infographic, as well as the placement of the website name.
Within the landfill infographic, there is heavy use of the colour green displays a strong relatedness to nature. Colours like green that are associated with nature are also often used in advertisements or infographics related to recycling or helping the planet. As well, while there are many cartoon images—the fork, garbage can, and person throwing away garbage, for example—that can be used to easily convey ideas to the viewer,1 there are also many photographs of landfills that display the reality of what they do to the environment. The centre image shows what a landfill looks like to remind viewers of how much waste is really produced. The images chosen are all used to reflect the statistics that cloud the page. The use of so many statistics appeals to logos in that people can be persuaded by the impact of facts. Realistic images and photographs appeals, in contrast, to pathos and how when people see the impact that they have on the environment, they may be more likely to change behaviour.
Context:
Plastic pollution in the ocean has been recognized as an issue for a long while,4 but still, there is much to be done to improve the quality of our oceans. Plastic use has been on the rise since the early 1900s, and although its disposal has been more closely monitored as the ‘Plastics Breakdown’ mentions, still 73.9 million pounds of plastic waste are found in the oceans. Due to the durability of plastics, its place in the oceanic communities has been one that is quite destructive as it does not degrade quickly and without harm to organisms. Many times, organisms mistake the plastic for food or simply entangle themselves in it.1
Another major threat is different neurotoxins and carcinogenic toxins in plastics that the marine life consumes which are later consumed by humans,4 which builds pathos as people are affected personally and immediately by what they are doing, thus promoting an emotional response. The information in the infographic is not refuted sources even decades old which builds ethos as it promotes credible findings in the infographic. There are not any sources that seem to mention that plastics are beneficial to the ocean as well which causes the infographic to seem more persuasive to viewers.
The infographic on landfills demonstrates many ways that people have become more knowledgeable about landfills and their impact on the environment, but also shares ways that landfills could benefit society. This is supported by landfill gases, common greenhouse gases, being used as a resource to produce energy2 rather than being released into the atmosphere to harm the planet further. Options to utilize landfills as a benefit to society and the environment are an ideal reality, however, the infographic also shows that recycling is still important even with the advances and the ability to cause less harm. It shows this through its information on paper that has been recycled and how it is preferential in comparison to tree manufactured paper due to lessened energy and water used. One argument that can be made against recycled paper is that the sludge produced by the making of the paper is increased and can be more harmful due to ink-removing dyes and ink removed during the process.3 This alters some of the persuasive abilities of the infographic due to the missing information which does not build ethos.
However, the ‘Plastics Breakdown’ infographic still has weaknesses in that it doesn’t include the same heightened level of appeal to logos as the landfill infographic. Although, it does include more preventative strategies as well as more detailed information on the harmful chemicals that build ethos, and a more impressive, emotional appeal to pathos through the sad animals hurt by plastics in the ocean. The landfill infographic has a lot of statistical information from many sources which builds its logos and ethos as it helps with the credibility of the infographic and the factual aspects, however, it does not have the same impactful appeal to pathos in that many of the images used are things one would see on a daily basis and do not spark the same emotional influence as hurt animals would. As well, it is mainly quantitative in its displayed information and does not describe fully the ways that landfills benefit and harm, which results in less emotional appeal.
Conclusion:
Rhetorical appeals can be a beneficial tool for arguments as they provide a strong influence from a certain perspective, sometimes even without the knowledge of the viewer. The two infographics analyzed both used ethos, pathos, and logos to their advantage in order to draw viewers into their topic and allow them to form an opinion based on the information they provide.
The display of credibility through information that can easily be backed up with sources and professionalism in the structure of the infographics shown through ethos is easy to find in both infographics. The statistics and factual data demonstrated by logos is used carefully in the infographics to display their information in a persuasive manner. As well, pathos is built in both infographics by the use of emotional appeal through images and colour throughout. There are used in order to display a convincing and persuasive argument by the infographics.