In Class: Visuals

When dealing with visual texts, the medium can be very important. My group is doing the project on the Texas college gun ban. I know that pictures of guns send very different messages to different groups of viewers. The atmosphere around a gun can also change someone's point of view drastically. If you have someone holding a hunting rifle in the middle of a field or forest, one might not make a big deal about it unless they love animals. But if you take guns and just put them next to each other in a store, they seem a bit more threatening because there is no context in which to put them. But if this picture were in an NRA magazine, then you know that the picture is going to make the gun seem cool and flashy to those in the U.S. who like them. But if you take a picture of guns and put it next to a picture of college students, you will more than likely think of the recent school shooting that have occurred. The presentation plays a big role in how viewers will be affected by what they see.