The Article “The Visual Rhetoric of Data Displays:
The Conundrum of Clarity” by — Charles Kostelnick reviews the utilization of visual rhetoric of data display in the context of a 50 year process of democratization of rhetoric analysis. One of the main points which Kostelnick emphasizes, is the importance of clarity in relation to graphs, charts and visual representation of information. The culture in which this new generation of people are emerging into, will be filled with humans who respond more quickly and accurately to visual representations of information.
One example of this type of cliche visual representation of information is Social Media Revolution 2012 on You Tube
These type of posts perpetuate a visual culture which has existed in Art, since the renaissance: visually speaking to the uneducated masses. The type of information which Tufte conveys, speaks exaclty to the population which can afford internet access, yet are not rich enough to afford private education.
This rational, efficient rhetoric of data design
embodies an intrinsic ethical component because it
implies that readers deserve a full, unadulterated
disclosure of the data and that designers have a
moral imperative to provide it. This imperative was
illustrated at least as early as 1914 by Brinton’s
Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts [17], in which
he exposed deceptive practices of displaying data
by explaining the underlying flaws and how readers
could identify them to avoid being hoodwinked.
The moral imperative of clarity culminated in the
early 1950s with Huff and Geis’s classic How to
Lie with Statistics [18], which demonstrated how
designers, unconstrained by graphical standards or
professional oversight, can manipulate charts and
graphs for their own ends. Caveat rhetor: Unwitting
readers need to protect themselves from these
practices and arm themselves with the interpretive
tools to unmask deceptive data design.
Another prevalent point which Kostelnick brings up, is the type of aesthetic desing, modern internet users are experiencing. The desing theme that many contemporary web designers are incorperating into their designs adheres to post modernism. Some progressive artists and critics would even claim that people are interacting with more minimalist themes and post-post modern themes. One website which really supports this argument is the Mercedes Benz sponsered website The Avant Garde Diaries.
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