Voices and Visions Come Together

The University of Wyoming hosted the 38th annual VisCom Conference at the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort from June 17-20. Scholars and professors from UW and other universities shared their work and ideals on social, political, cultural, and sexual issues through visual communication.

At the end of each presentation, scholars and professors answered questions from the audience about the research they put into their project. Professor Cindy Price Schultz, head of communication and journalism at UW, said for the last 38 years scholars from UW and other states have gone to different locations each year.

“Each year this conference brings scholars from all over the U.S. to present their work-related projects to visual communication, " Schultz said. “The students and professors all do their research, visual communication, or teach it. When they do their presentation it will be either about their research or how they teach with different visual communication methods.”

Schultz also did a presentation on how NCAA student-athletes express visual messages. In her lecture, she said she did some research on social media, read tweets on X (formerly Twitter), and read posts on Instagram by NCAA students on the issue of social justice through visual communication.

“I wanted to do something about the voice of the student-athlete," Schultz said, “I found these tweets on X from these women's basketball teams. I was researching and I said to myself ‘What is going on with these women's basketball teams.’ I noticed something as I was observing their tweets. I was thinking and said this seems like social justice-type content.’”

When she looked at the official accounts of the NCAA women's basketball and accounts from NCAA male athletes, Schultz discovered she was correct. For her project, she showed pictures of college women's athletics using visual messages of political protest on their shoes and clothing such as Black Lives Matter, Black Power, or the LBGTQ movement.

Schultz also talked about how the University of Missouri football team boycotted playing in a football game in 2015 due to racial injustice. Students and athletes were protesting because UM President Tim Wolfe was not being held accountable for what was going on campus. Schultz used visual images of the protest. She said the visual images speak about how students reacted to the injustice at UM.

“In 2015 there were several racial incidents at UM,” Schultz said “The football team decided not to play football because the university president was not doing anything to resolve the racial injustice. After protests by students and student-athletes, he resigned from his post as university president.”

Schultz also showed visual communications from the NCAA website of its support for diversity and the fight against racial injustice. The NCAA website of diversity and inclusion showed visual images and support for the former University of Iowa women's basketball player Catlin Clak, who broke Pistol Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record, gave a visual message is about how women can compete in sports and they are capable of breaking records the same way men can.

UW graduate student Nur Hanisah Binte Hassim made a visual presentation on the romantic horrors of Hollywood. Hassim said romantic horrors are disguised as harassment under portrayals of romantic courtship. She said romantic horrors can influence sexual harassment by making people think what happens on the big screen is appropriate in real life.

Hassim used romantic comedy in the movie “Notting Hill” with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts as part of her presentation. Hassim said the visual communication in the movie sends the wrong message about making sexual harassment normal and acceptable. She said the movie scene where Roberts kisses Grant off guard is an example of how it encourages people to think harassment is ok.

“What I was showing in my presentation is romantic movies influence people to believe sexual harassment is ok when it is not,” Hassim said. “People should understand that romantic movies give the wrong message about falling in love. If you don't know the person, don't do those things you see in movies.”

Hassim said movie directors should make changes to how they present romantic movies. She said not all the blame goes to Hollywood directors but also to movie directors outside of Hollywood.

If I was talking to a director, I would try to convince them to try to make romantic movies more interesting by having a man or woman ask someone out on a date,” Hassim said. “It should be done respectfully with consent.”

Hye Soo Nah, an assistant professor of journalism and communications at UW, made her presentation on “How Political Affiliation and Emotions Shape Responses to Politically Divisive News Images.” Nah said she is still working on her project and is looking for important facts on how society responds to news both positive and negative in the political scene. She said her visual presentation demonstrates how people would react to news such as the debate on gun policies where there are two different arguments from the pro and con side.

Nah said she wants to be as fair as she can without any bias. She said she is still looking at both sides of the argument on gun policies and talking to people about what they think on the issue.

“What I am doing is a proposed study and I will be doing these experiments online,” Nah said. “I have a photojournalism background and I studied photojournalism when I was a master's student at the University of Missouri. Afterward, I worked as a news photographer for a couple of years before I went on to earn my PhD. Photojournalism is still part of me even though I am not a photographer anymore so I like to study the effect of news photos and it is the reason why I decided to do this project.”

Eleazar Yisrael, an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, presented a visual communications project called Black Wall Street. Yisrael said being born and raised in North Carolina he noticed the town of Durham—which was once a populated Black American Community—is slowly disappearing.

“When I was a sophomore in college I started to look and learn where I was and who was there and the history of our community,” Yisrael said. “What I discovered was there was once a prominent Black American community in Chapel Hill and Durham and it seems like everyone is either disappearing or being pushed out.”

According to Yisrael, the purpose of his project is to give a visual view of what life was like for the Black American community in Durham. He said Durham was symbolized as the Black Wall Street.

“We know about Tulsa, Oklahoma but we don't know about Durham, North Carolina,” said Yisrael. “What I have done in my project is photographing the present day Durham but also convey history and try to build awareness in the fourth fastest growing city in America.”

Yisrale said the reason why he decided to do this virtual project is because he believes it's important that people are aware of what is going on in their community. He said raising awareness is a step in the right direction. During his lecture, Ysrael showed images of when Durham had black businesses. He said it is lost history and everyone in his community should learn about Durham’s rich history.

Shane Epping, an assistant professor of Bobby Model Photojournalism and Communication & Journalism at UW, did a visual communication project called Made in Peru. Epping said his trip to Peru was an amazing experience, especially using the visual images of what life is like in another country.

“My visual project was about my trip down the Amazon jungle in a village called Chino which had about 200 residents, “ Epping said. “I wanted to tell the story of a group of sixteen predominantly women artisans who made crafts and empowered themselves and their family financially.”

Epping showed pictures of cultural images of Peru during his presentation. Epping said the visual communication in his project helps the audience understand Peru’s cultural way of life. He said he wanted to do this project so people in America could see the world from a different perspective but most of all be appreciative of other people's cultures.

“My experience in Peru was a white male working with Peruvian women,” Epping said. “These women are low-level, financially, living in housing significantly different from myself. So As an outsider, it is special to me. I was welcomed by the people in Peru and they gave me gifts. They also embraced me with hugs and handshakes and they saw me as a person paying attention to them and helping them out a little bit.”

Epping said his project is all about commitment. He said it is a lot of work but if it is something you like to do, you have to stay focused.

According to Epping, he said the best way to learn and understand the world is to travel. He said it is the only way to be educated.

“Traveling is the best way to learn and understand but it also depends on how you travel, “ Epping said. “Let's say I were to stay at a Five Star Resort in Peru. You are isolated from the Native Community, you will not learn a lot. In this instance, I was able to come inside people's homes and I saw how they lived. I talked to people and sat on the floor in their homes. This type of traveling will change your perspective of the world.”

Christine Miller, professor of communication studies at Sacramento State University did a presentation called Crime Fighters Unite. According to Miller the best way to solve unsolved crime is through visual communication to understand forensic linguistics. Miller also used examples of emojis in her presentation which criminals may use on social media or text messaging.

“I was on sabbatical where I was looking at the connections of text messages used in court cases such as ransom notes and bomb threats,” Miller said. “I also looked at other texts used in criminal trials and, while I was doing the research, I found there was a body of research connected to visual text. In this presentation, I explored the dimensions of the visual text.”

Miller said what she finds interesting in the work she has done, not many educators in the communication university field have done this type of research. She said there are more Law Enforcement agencies doing this type of research than those who are in the education field.

“Law Enforcement is getting in tune with visual communication.," Miller said. “For instance, I used examples of how emojis are now examples where courts are looking at the visual side which might contradict the language.”

According to Miller, emojis are used as visual communication where they can be used as evidence against a suspect who is accused of a crime. She said the emoji texts could add up as a treating message in a court case.

“So for instance a person's name right has a skull emoji next to it, it would sound threatening, or a picture of a bomb next to the name,” Miller said “The name is denied. and nobody thinks much of it because it's just a name. But then you start adding all these emojis and it becomes a threat message. The courts are now starting to say we are not just going to look at the language of the text but we are going to look at the visual of the message.”

Miller said she has not worked with law enforcement on visual messages but has taken courses on visual messages from text and emojis.

Miller also said due to her expertise in visual communication, she can be called upon as an expert witness in a criminal trial but can not be involved in an ongoing criminal case.

Michael Brown, an emeritus professor of communication and journalism at UW, did his presentation on the visual culture of the Glulag. According to Brown, the Gulag was a forced labor camp established during Joseph Stalin’s reign as dictator of the Soviet Union.

Brown said he has been to Kazakhstan four times to research the Gulag. He said his goal was to find answers about the internment camps controlled by the Soviet Union.

“Several years ago, I had an opportunity to go to Kazakhstan to sign a cooperation agreement. between UW and the Kazakh National University about 12 years ago,” Brown said. “As a result, I have been to Kazakhstan four times to help do research with the University’s journalism faculty.”

According to Brown, he worked with KNU faculty members to determine how the Soviets controlled these camps. He said he also learned about the ethnic roots of German-Russians and how they became connected during World War II.

Brown said he did a presentation about the artists who were prisoners in the Gulag, He said these artists did artwork when the Soviets locked them up in the internment camps.

“The Soviets locked up prisoners who were artists in the Gulag, " Brown said. “They produced propaganda artwork for the Soviet Union. These artists would later document their experience in Gulag”

Brown also said there is limited information on social media about the Gulag because some of the information is classified.

“There is some information on the Gulag and quite a bit of it is now showing up,” Brown said. “However, there is still a lot of information from the Russians, and the former Soviet countries have their documents and information which are considered classified.”

Brown said he believes the reason why the Russian Government and the former Soviet countries are classifying this information on the Gulag is because it could be possibly connected to human rights violations.

“The Gulag was a brutal organization,” Brown said. “They want to be careful because there is a lot of important information they are trying to hide. They are not releasing any information and I don't think they ever will. It could also be possible if the Russian Government and the former Soviet countries allowed this information to go public they could be giving away secrets and it would show the full horror of what they did because millions of people have died.”