Keywords
Visual Rhetoric, Color, Technical Communication, Design, Emoticons, Multicultural
Abstract
Various cultures interpret visual rhetoric differently; therefore, technical communicators must adjust their rhetoric accordingly by creating effective visual rhetoric for their international and multicultural audiences. Although there is a great deal of research in the field regarding how to create effective visual rhetorical rhetoric, this research often fails to take into international and multicultural audiences into consideration. Many visual rhetoric solutions proposed in technical communication involve 'catch all' approaches that do little to communicate to people of non-Western cultures and can even serve to offend or confuse international and multicultural audiences. These solutions are generated by a globalization mindset, but are not realistic when we acknowledge how varied technical communication audiences are with regard to culture. The globalization approach also fails unless technical communicators intend to limit the reach of their communication to certain types of Western audiences. To create the most useful visual rhetoric, technical communicators must learn to use color, graphics, icons/symbols, and layouts (web and print) appropriately for audiences. They must learn more about different types of cultures (individualistic or collectivistic, universalist or particularist, high-context or low-context, high uncertainty avoidance or low uncertainty avoidance, monochronic or polychronic, linear thinking or systemic thinking, masculine or feminine), and they must address these different cultural expectations accordingly.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2010
Advisor
Jones, Daniel
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
College
College of Arts and Humanities
Department
English
Degree Program
English
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0003036
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003036
Language
English
Release Date
May 2010
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Masters Thesis (Open Access)
STARS Citation
Moore, Bridget, "Designing For Multicultural And International Audiences: Creating Culturally-intelligent Visual Rhetoric And Overcoming Ethnocen" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4374.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/4374