Women Will Get Cancer: Visual and Verbal Presence (And Absence) in a Pharmaceutical Advertising Campaign About HPV

Designing public communication about doulas

“…Presence is the audience's feeling or "affective experience" with particular elements of an argument or text (Pezzullo, 2007, p. 9). Importantly, the use of presence to emphasize certain parts of an argument has implications for the audience's judgment and future actions (Landau, 2011). In our evaluation of promotional materials about a volunteer doula program, the use of presence to emphasize certain message design elements has consequences for how a lay audience judges the use of doulas, and may infl uence their decision on whether or not they might use a doula.…”

“…Recently, scholars have used these concepts in evaluating a rhetor's strategies in various multi-media advertisements and campaigns. For example, Landau (2011) wrote that "an analysis of verbal and visual presence and absence in advertising can specify the multi-mediated strategies for gaining the attention of audiences who are saturated with images and struggling with data selection and distraction" (p. 42). The emphasis on presence, and the role of the audience in selecting and interpreting information based on message design choices, is especially well-suited for use in analyzing promotional materials for a volunteer doula program, because lay audiences are constantly targeted through health pamphlets and advertisements.…”

“…In this essay, we demonstrate that beyond studying public argument, presence and absence can be a useful rhetorical lens for analyzing promotional materials related to health behaviors such as choosing to use a doula. Such rhetorical analysis shows the material consequences of health and medical discourses for lay audiences, and how the expert discourses found in different message design elements can shape how audiences receive health messages and ultimately decide whether or not to enact a particular health behavior (Landau, 2011).…”

“…Indeed, in emphasizing the presence of the mother, the texts strongly indicate the absence of a father or partner. This absence is important to understand in considering a lay audience's judgment of the argument and future actions (Chidester, 2008;Landau, 2011). Because fathers or partners are an integral part of the birthing process with doulas (Klaus et al, 2012), their absence makes these narratives lack fi delity (Fisher, 1984).…”

Absence, Revision, and the Other: Rhetorics of South Carolina Antebellum Tourism Sites

“…Many scholars have documented the power of the invisible, the rhetoric of the absent (Bracy 1998;Chidester 2008;Goodwine and The Clarity Press Gullah Project 1998;Holdstein 2011;Jackson 1999;Kly 1998;Landau 2011;Nakayama and Krizek 1995;Scott 1993;Smallwood 2007;West 2001). As Foucault (1972) reminds us, historical discourse constructs knowledge through the power of language, and what is absent from that discourse often constitutes a powerful rhetoric about the dominant culture.…”