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9: Visual Media 9-1

Chapter 9: Visual Media

This chapter introduces students to visual communication, including the principles of visual design, the

full range of charts and graphs, tips for integrated visuals with text, and the production of business video.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

Understanding Visual Communication

The Power of Images

The Visual Evolution in Business Communication

Visual Design Principles

The Ethics of Visual Communication

Identifying Points to Illustrate

Selecting Visuals for Presenting Data

Tables

Line and Surface Charts

Bar Charts, Pictograms, and Gantt Charts

Scatter and Bubble Diagrams

Pie Charts

Data Visualization

Selecting Visuals for Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas

Flowcharts and Organization Charts

Maps

Illustrations, Diagrams, Photographs

Infographics

Producing and Integrating Visuals

Creating Visuals

Integrating Visuals with Text

Maintaining a Balance Between Illustrations and Words

Referencing Visuals

Placing Visuals

Writing Titles, Captions, and Legends

Verifying the Quality of Your Visuals

Visual Media on Mobile Devices

Producing Business Videos

Step 1: Preproduction

Step 2: Production

Step 3: Postproduction

Learning Catalytics is a “bring your own device” student engagement, assessment, and classroom

intelligence system. It allows instructors to engage students in class with real-time diagnostics. Students

can use any modern, web-enabled device (smartphone, tablet, or laptop) to access it. For more

information on using Learning Catalytics in your course, contact your Pearson Representative.

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LECTURE NOTES

Section 1: Understanding Visual Communication

Learning Objective 1: Explain the power of business images, discuss six principles of graphic design that

help ensure effective visuals, and explain how to avoid ethical lapses when using visuals.

Many businesses look for new ways to connect and explore business ideas through creative visuals,

helping clients see important concepts and relationships that aren’t obvious using text alone.

Visual communication has become an important skill for today’s business professionals and managers.

The Power of Images

Well-designed visual elements can enhance the communication power of textual messages or even

replace textual messages:

• Visuals can often convey some message points more effectively and efficiently than words.

Many colors, shapes, and other design elements have visual symbolism:

• Their symbolic, connotative meaning can mean different things in different cultures.

Because they have so much power to communicate, visuals must be carefully planned, competently

created, and seamlessly integrated with text.

The Visual Evolution in Business Communication

Thanks to advances in technology and changing audience expectations, business communication is

becoming much more visual.

Design and production tasks that used to take days can now be completed in hours or even minutes.

Two changes in the business environment continue to increase the importance of quality visuals:

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Visual Design Principles

Just as creating effective sentences and paragraphs requires working knowledge of the principles of

good writing, creating effective visuals requires some knowledge of the principles of good design.

By thinking about your own reactions to visual designs, you can become a more effective designer

yourself.

Six fundamental principles help distinguish ineffective and effective designs:

• Consistency. Audiences assume that design elements will be consistent from one page to the

next.

• Contrast. To emphasize differences, depict items in contrasting colors, shapes, or sizes.

• Balance. Balance can be either formal, in which the elements in the images are arranged

symmetrically around a central point or axis, or informal, in which stronger and weaker

elements are arranged in a way that achieves an overall effect of balance.

The Ethics of Visual Communication

The potential power of visuals places an ethical burden on every business communicator.

Avoid ethical lapses by following these guidelines:

• Consider all possible interpretations—and misinterpretations. View your visuals from the

audience members’ perspective, considering their biases, beliefs, or backgrounds.

• Provide enough context and background information to help audiences interpret the visual

information correctly.

• Don’t hide or minimize negative information that runs counter to your argument.

• Don’t exaggerate information that supports your argument.

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Section 2: Identifying Points to Illustrate

Learning Objective 2: Explain how to choose which points in your message to illustrate.

To help identify which parts of your message can benefit from visuals, consider the flow of your message

from the audience’s point of view.

When you’re deciding which points to present visually, think of the five Cs:

• Clear. If you’re having difficultly conveying an idea in words, consider whether a visual element

will do the job instead.

• Complete. Visuals, particularly tables, often serve to provide the supporting details for a main

idea or recommendation. A table or another visual can provide these details without getting in the

way of your main message.

Make sure that each visual you decide on has a clear purpose.

Section 3: Selecting Visuals for Presenting Data

Learning Objective 3: Describe the most common options for presenting data in a visual format.

Once you have identified which points would benefit most from visual presentation, it’s time to choose

the visual for each message point.

There are many choices for business graphics, which can be roughly divided into those for presenting data

and those for presenting information, concepts, and ideas.

Tables

When you need to present detailed, specific information, a table is often the best choice.

Tables are ideal when your audience needs information that would be difficult to handle in the text.

Follow these guidelines to make your tables easy to read:

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• Provide totals or averages of columns or rows when relevant.

• Document the source of the data, using the same format as a text.

Line and Surface Charts

A line chart illustrates trends over time or plots the relationship of two or more variables.

In line charts showing trends, the vertical, or y, axis shows the amount, and the horizontal, or x, axis

shows the time or other quantity against which the amount is being measured.

Because they often show trends based on historical data, line charts often prompt questions about

what comes next:

A surface chart, also called an area chart, is a form of line chart with a cumulative effect:

Bar Charts, Pictograms, and Gantt Charts

A bar chart portrays numbers by the height or length of its rectangular bars, making a series of

numbers easy to read or understand.

Vertical bar charts are sometimes called column charts.

Bar charts are particularly valuable when you want to:

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Bar charts can appear in various forms:

• Grouped bar charts compare more than one set of data, using a different color or pattern for

each set.

• Deviation bar charts identify positive and negative values, or winners and losers.

A chart that portrays data as symbols instead of words or numbers is known as a pictogram.

Scatter and Bubble Diagrams

Scatter or XY diagrams compare entities against two variables.

Pie Charts

A pie chart is a commonly used tool for showing how the parts of a whole are distributed.

Data Visualization

Conventional charts and graphs are limited in several ways:

• Most types can show only a limited number of data points before becoming too cluttered to

A diverse class of display capabilities known as data visualization work to overcome all these

drawbacks.

Unlike charts and graphs, data visualization is less about clarifying individual data points and more

about extracting broad meaning from giant masses of data or putting the data in context.

Data visualization has become an important tool for companies working with big data.

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In addition to displaying large data sets and linkages within data sets, other kinds of visualization

tools combine data with textual information to communicate complex or dynamic data much faster

than conventional presentations can.

Section 4: Selecting Visuals for Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas

Learning Objective 4: Describe the most common options for presenting information, concepts, and

ideas.

In addition to facts and figures, you’ll need to present other types of information, from spatial

relationships to abstract ideas.

Flowcharts and Organization Charts

Flowcharts illustrate a sequence of events from start to finish.

Maps

Use maps for such tasks as representing statistics by geographic area or showing spatial relationships.

Illustrations, Diagrams, and Photographs

Use illustrations and diagrams to show how something works or how it is made or used.

Illustrations are sometimes better than photographs because they let you focus on the most important

details.

To use photographs successfully, consider these guidelines:

• Consider whether a diagram would be more effective than a photograph; sometimes

photographs communicate too much information.

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At a more sophisticated level, software enables the creation of multimedia files that include computer

animation, digital video, and other elements.

Classroom discussion question: With image manipulation tools such as Photoshop so prevalent today,

do you trust photographs you see in news media, product advertising, real estate listings, and other

places? Where would you draw the line in terms of how much manipulation is ethical? For example,

would it be ethical to subtly improve the look of a real estate listing by using camera lens filters or digital

postprocessing to make the sky bluer or the landscape colors more intense?

Infographics

Infographics are a special class of diagrams that can convey data as well as concepts or ideas.

Section 5: Producing and Integrating Visuals

Learning Objective 5: Explain how to integrate visuals with text, and list three criteria to review in order

to verify the quality of your visuals.

Creating Visuals

Computers make it easy to create visuals, but they also make it easy to create ineffective, distracting,

and even downright ugly visuals.

By following the basic design principles, you can create visuals that are both attractive and effective.

In addition to helping ensure an effective design, using templates saves you the time of making

numerous design decisions every time you create a chart or graphic.

Learn how to use your tools to help save time and produce better results.

Take care to match the style and quality of your visuals with the subject matter and the situation at

hand.

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Integrating Visuals with Text

For maximum effectiveness and minimum disruption for the reader, integrate visuals carefully.

Successful integration involves four decisions:

• Maintaining a balance between visuals and text

• Referring to visuals in the text

Maintaining a Balance Between Illustrations and Words

Maintain a balance between text and visuals, and place visuals so that they help emphasize the

key points.

Take into account the audience’s specific needs:

Referencing Visuals

Unless a visual element clearly stands on its own, it should be referred to by number in the text of

your report.

Whatever scheme you use, make sure the scheme for numbering is clear and easy to follow.

Placing Visuals

Place each visual as close as possible to its in-text reference to help readers understand the

illustration’s relevance and to minimize the effort of reading.

• Place each visual within, beside, or immediately after the paragraph it illustrates so that

readers can consult the explanation and the visual at the same time.

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Writing Titles, Captions, and Legends

Titles, captions, and legends help connect your visual and textual messages and ensure a seamless

reading experience.

A title identifies the content and purpose of the visual, along with whatever label and number

you’re using to refer to the visual:

A caption usually offers additional discussion of the visual’s content and can be up to several

sentences long.

Captions can also alert readers that additional discussion is available in the accompanying text.

Verifying the Quality of Your Visuals

Visuals have a particularly strong impact on your readers and on their perceptions of you and your

work, so verifying the quality of your visuals is an essential step.

Ask yourself three questions about every visual element:

• Is the visual accurate? Check for typographical errors, inconsistent color treatment, confusing

or undocumented symbols, and misaligned elements. Also verify that visuals and text match

and that formulas used are correct.

• Is the visual properly documented? Visuals based on other people’s research, information,

and ideas require full citation.

• Is the visual honest? Step back and verify that your visuals communicate truthful messages.

Make sure they don’t hide information the audience needs, imply conclusions that your

information doesn’t support, or play on audience emotions in manipulative or coercive ways.

Visual Media on Mobile Devices

More and more employees need to consume visual media on smartphones and tablets.

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Section 6: Producing Business Videos

Learning Objective 6: Identify the most important considerations in the preproduction, production, and

postproduction stages of producing basic business videos.

Step 1: Preproduction

For any video, be sure to think through the following seven elements:

• Purpose and scope

• Scene composition

Step 2: Production

These four tips will help you collect great footage:

• Frame each shot carefully to direct the viewer’s eye where you want and create the desired

emotional impact.

• Keep the camera still unless you absolutely need to move it in order to get the footage you

need.

Step 3: Postproduction

Postproduction is where you assemble your video by combining and arranging sections of video,

audio tracks, titles, and other elements.

Here is a general overview of the postproduction process:

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Team Challenge

Students should have some fun with this challenge, but they might be surprised at how much planning

and work is involved in creating even a short and informal video. Remind them that the emphasis is on

effective communication, so they’ll need to think through the scope of their video carefully so they don’t

get bogged down in details of the phone’s operation.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

9.1. Simplicity in visuals is important because it can help enhance the reception and understanding of

9.3. To illustrate trends over time, use a line chart or a bar chart. [LO-3] AACSB: Written and oral

communication

9.4. A bubble diagram is useful when you need to show a third variable (represented by the relative

9.6. Titles identify the overall content of a visual and in some instances highlight a specific message

9.7. To check a visual for quality, first make sure it’s accurate and contains no typographical errors,

inconsistent color treatment, confusing or undocumented symbols, or misaligned elements. Next,

9.8. Videographers recommend against using the microphone built into a video camera for two

9.9. B-roll footage can be edited in during postproduction to add visual interest, smooth over

transitions, and otherwise improve the flow of the finished product. [LO-6] AACSB: Written

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APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE

9.10. Like nonverbal communication, visual aids convey meaning independently of words and are

therefore not hindered by differences between the sender’s and the receiver’s interpretation of

9.11. It is acceptable to add interactivity to a website to increase its persuasiveness as long as it’s done

in an ethical manner. In fact, one of the reasons interactivity is effective is that it allows each

9.12. The best choice for depicting changes over time would be a line chart, using a separate line for

each department. The vertical axis would indicate the absenteeism rate, and the horizontal axis

would indicate the passage of months. However, for more than three departments, a single line

9.13. In-text references to illustrations help readers understand the relationship between the textual

9.14. A typical classroom lecture is going to have at least three views of primary interest: the instructor,

the students in the class (particularly those who are interacting with the instructor), and whatever

display system the instructor might be using (whiteboard, etc.). Therefore, one camera should be

positioned on the instructor and fairly close to get maximum visual impact of his or her facial

9.15. Message 9.A

This bar chart has several problems:

• The bar colors are too similar to clearly differentiate years.

9.16. Message 9.B

This line chart is almost unreadable:

• The use of a three-dimensional graph—particularly given the skewed viewing angle—makes it

9.17. In explaining why a visual worked better to achieve a particular purpose, students should consider

the amount of text that would’ve been required to convey the same information and the burden

that a text-only treatment would’ve placed on the reader (e.g., to visualize the “big picture” or to

9.20. This exercise offers several opportunities to discuss the effectiveness and ethics of data

presentations. For example, does a pictogram (perhaps using partially filled/emptied wallets to

represent taxation percentages) really communicate the ideas better than a simple bar chart, or is

it simply more interesting to look at? Regarding ethics, the scales chosen for the bar charts could

9.21. This information would probably be most useful presented in a line chart similar to the following: