Science in the Public Eye: Communicating and Selling Science Through Images

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dc.contributor.advisorFahnestock, Jeanneen_US
dc.contributor.authorGigante, Maria Elenaen_US
dc.contributor.departmentEnglish Language and Literatureen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2012-10-10T11:25:29Z
dc.date.available2012-10-10T11:25:29Z
dc.date.issued2012en_US
dc.description.abstractScientific visuals designed to capture the attention of nonscientist audiences appear everywhere — from magazine covers to Internet blogs, from billboards to the Discovery Channel — and yet they have not received the critical attention they deserve. Situated at the crossroads of the rhetoric of science, communication studies, visual design theory, and the still emerging field of visual rhetoric, this dissertation seeks to shed light on the persuasive function of visuals in communicating science to non-experts. Occupying a grey area between scientific visualizations and art, the visuals used to communicate science to nonscientists should be classified, I argue, as scientific advertisements. Their purpose is to sell a positive and supportive attitude toward science, and since this need for support has existed since the scientific revolution, scientific advertisements have existed in different guises at least since the seventeenth century. Their form, however, differs, depending on the available technology and modes of representation. In this dissertation I explore how such images as frontispieces, portraits, magazine covers, and aestheticized visualizations have contributed to the legitimization of science across temporal and cultural boundaries by influencing public attitudes towards scientists and their research. This project addresses the concern surrounding the public's current disengagement from science by considering whether science can be sold visually in a more responsible way.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/13041
dc.subject.pqcontrolledRhetoricen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledCommunicationen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledImageen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledRhetoricen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledScienceen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledVisualen_US
dc.titleScience in the Public Eye: Communicating and Selling Science Through Imagesen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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