Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding an Online Science Magazine article
While many futuristic science and technology articles are certainly fascinating just by the mystic, controversial, and dynamic nature of their topics, there is a strange irony surrounding the means by which these articles are communicated. Most of our information world has moved online, which means that not only is media accessed instantaneously but it can be re-read, copied, saved, and referenced with incredible ease and speed.
The Nautilus site frontpage.
Let’s focus on one article in particular, and analyze the way it performs its rhetoric with particular emphasis on its web-based approach to communication. The Nautilus science magazine has a very visual and design-based website, drawing its viewers primarily by artsy images abstracting the topics they proclaim. This is how I was drawn to the first article on the page at the time of writing, titled: “Artifical Intelligence: Is Artificial Intelligence Permanently Inscrutable?”
​
As an online text we can see immediately the power of the hyperlink: the small square image that drew me first is expanded to a huge banner-style artwork reminiscent of a large painted canvas:
Evidently, this science magazine’s design concentrates around visual representations and artistic tendencies to not only capture the audience, but (as we will see later) to illustrate the many abstract concepts that are perhaps just as perplexing in meaning as modern art. But first, let’s consider the rhetorical basics that make up the text: the purpose, genre, author, audience, and context.
​
The purpose of the article is two-fold, as we have observed above:
​
-
Engage and familiarize the reader to the scientific issue at hand as quickly as possible
-
Explain the issue and articulate its controversial complexities from a scientific perspective
​
Purpose is the driving force behind all texts, and because of the freedom of the internet to convey literally any form of media we understand from the fusion of paragraph-style text and diagrams that the main force behind this text is its intent to convey a highly complex and information-heavy issue. Thus, the purpose is closely tied to the genre: a web-based article, and in particle a scientific article.
​
The author, clearly stated as AARON M. BORNSTEIN, is only useful to the analysis in terms of the voice he brings to the words and images of the article. With a rich use of both scientific terminology, diagrams, anecdotes, and references to other scientists, the author seems to be both well-versed in the technology he mentions and has connections to the network of scientists behind this technology.
​
As not every person will be likely to be browsing a science magazine, the intended audience is the scientific community, or more precisely the part of the community interested in but not necessarily familiar with the development and practical use of AI. We have previously touched upon the context of this article; it belongs in a world where internet is the prime mode for communication of media. The cultural context is an extension of this idea; while our world is getting increasingly network-reliant, the use of networking “neurons” in artificial intelligence programs is becoming prevalent in a wide variety of fields from medical centers to insurance companies.
​
DESIGN
​
Now that we have established the groundwork of the article’s rhetoric, which is not too different from many science magazines and blogs in concept, let’s examine the most distinct and provocative rhetorical device of the Nautilus text: the design.
​
As we have already seen, the most prominent design element is the emphasis on images, which can be categorized based on their purpose as:
​
-
Hook images: The purpose of these images tend to draw the reader into the article, enticing the brain’s thinking processes with both visually striking and abstractly puzzling art
-
Conceptual images: These images are meant to explain a difficult concept or idea that is otherwise too difficult to explain with words, or are just highly visual in nature
​
These images are given their own line in the article, which in contrast to the typical wrap-around text approach gives further emphasis and creates an alignment break in the text. This break forces the reader to stop reading and processing the textual information, and then try to visualize the information they just read and take time understanding the idea just mentioned.
That banner is HUGE.
Much like in the article, this image comes after I’ve finished explaining the context around the image.
We do not see the context around this quote until five entire paragraphs later. Because the reader is ought to be puzzled by the use of this quote when the surrounding text seems to be unrelated, we can assume that this quote is a sort of hook image that is intended to engage and puzzle us so that we keep on reading. The lack of proximity between the visual and textual elements serves to create not only a contrast in pace, because the quote is also an alignment break like the other images, but also to simulate a sort of conversation between the “researchers” who are “not letting us have our many-layered cake” and the “us” who are attempting to understand the algorithms behind the neuron network.
​
Finally, to wrap up our rhetorical analysis, examine the size of the image in contrast to the size of the caption text:
In contrast to this, there is a strange organization of a key hooking quote that occurs before it actually appears in the paragraph text:
The quote in the center can be considered an image because of its visual intent to engage the reader into the conversation.
Small caption text is small.
The tiny text is barely visible, but the scientific and highly abstract cat faces are clearly emphasized, taking up a whole screen when scrolling down on a laptop.
​
With such clear emphasis on visual elements that are both artistically engaging as well as intellectually confounding, it is clear that the rhetoric of the Nautilus text is highly reliant on awe-inspiring and trip-inducing experiences rather than persuasive techniques.
​
September 6, 2016