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[TITLE]

FA2: Think Paper 1

Amelia Shannen Dave C. Dela Cruz / 2019125601

Nadine Julia B. Dumasig / 2019134471
Aliza L. Pelobello / 2019147631
Hillarie M. Ualat / 2019129091
Malielle Kate B. Villano / 2019104051
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Far Eastern University

COMM1104 Communication Research
September 12, 2021

INTRODUCTION

There are a lot of ways that we can do to convey a message and the first thing

that you might think of is by verbally expressing a thought. While it is true that it is

much easier to understand something when it is being verbally explained to us, we

cannot also underestimate the power that visual presentations and images hold

when it comes to communication. When we look at a product, the first thing that we

notice is its packaging. When we look at a news, what we notice is its bold letters

and its layout, and when we scroll past our phones, our eyes stick on people that we

think are attractive. Now, these things might not be confined in words, but what we

do not often notice is that the moment we lay our eyes on these, they are already

communicating a message to us. The three studies given tackles the different

aspects of communication and how they are being presented to us in a non-

conventional way. It also presents how it affects us as consumers, as readers and

as audiences.

The first research entitled “Role of visual communication in Advertising: A study

of consumer Purchase Decision Making Behavior” tackles the importance of visual

communication presented through presentations in products as this affects the

decision-making process of a consumer. The research entails that aside from the
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quality of the product, it is most important that the way it is being presented to

people is appealing in order for them to purchase it. Verbal communication such as

promoting the product through word of mouth is not the only factor in the decision-

making process of customers, but visual communication through branding,

packaging, graphic design and illustration included in the product are just as

important as these things determine the branding of the product and how customers

will perceive them. There is a strong impact through these visual communication

aids.

The second research entitled “Beyond Misinterpretation: Visuals in COVID-19

Misinformation” tackles the false narratives circulating among different

medium/media during the Covid-19 crisis. Misinformation is so easy to go around

these days as people are very adamant in gathering news to help them keep updated

about the recent events. The verbal aspect of communication in this topic is flawed

as the credibility of the information being presented in visual aids is very weak as

they are often rooted in assumptions, not backed up by well-informed knowledge.

This false news victimizes a lot of people as they are presented in a very much

convincing manner, and a factor of this is the visual presentation being made. Fact

checking before publishing a material is extremely necessary and researching

thoroughly about the things you read online is a must in order for you to be well

informed and made aware whether the things you have read about are true. It is
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important, especially in these trying times, that correct information is disseminated

because the situation is already hard enough and people panicking over false news

is the last thing that we need right now.

The last research with the title “Instant Famous: Visual self - presentation and the

use of masculine and feminine issues by female politicians on Instagram” discusses

the noticeable trend going on in female politicians and their engagement on

Instagram. It has been studied and concluded that female politicians strengthen

their electorate strategies by posting photos of themselves. This is a way for them to

communicate with their target audiences as they want these photos to represent

feminism and female power. It has also been revealed in the study that when male

issues are being tackled, people become less interested compared to when female

issues are the ones being talked about. Communication in this whole process can be

found as female politicians use visual presentations to campaign themselves and to

reach out to people.

Through which paradigm/s were the research topics viewed?

The first research paper titled “Insta(nt)famous? Visual self-presentation and the

use of masculine and feminine issues by female politicians on Instagram” pursues a

positivistic approach. When we look at the content analysis of this research paper as

indicated in the abstract, this study looks at how female politicians use Instagram to

communicate with their constituents in terms of visual self-presentation, the use of

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feminine and masculine issues, and how that affects the audience engagement. This

means that this research paper is confined to data collection and objective

interpretation to reveal the true nature of the female politicians on Instagram.

The overall findings of this research paper indicated that politicians of various

genders and from many nations use similar social media strategies. However, what we

want to point out is that the results of this study are based on the quantitative method

of analysis through the collection and manually coding the Instagram posts (which

includes the visual as well as the caption) of Dutch and American politicians. Hence, the

methodology used in this study is leading towards a positivistic approach because the

results and conclusion are based on the data (Instagram post) collected and the

objective interpretation of how female politicians visually present themselves on

Instagram.

We have also found another research paper that uses a positivistic paradigm

which is titled “Role of Visual Communication in Advertising: A Study of Consumer

Purchase Decision Making Behavior”. The content analysis of this paper as indicated in

the objectives is to evaluate the role of visual communication in advertising and the

decision-making process of consumers. Hence, they have used questionnaires and in-

depth interviews for the selected or focused group of women in Salalah, Dofar

Governorate of Sultanate of Oman for data collection.

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The positivism paradigm emphasizes the necessity of doing quantitative

research in which this study adapts through the use of questionnaires and focus group

interviews to gain an overview of the impact of visual communication in the decision-

making process of consumers. Through the collected data, the overall findings of this

study stated that the brand preference and the visual display influence the purchase

decision-making of the consumers. Trends and patterns (which is the brand name and

the visual aspects of the presentation of a product), rather than people, are the focus of

this research which leads to a positivistic approach.

Lastly, in “Beyond (Mis)Representation: Visuals in COVID-19 Misinformation”, the

paradigm used in this study is quite different from the previous discussions of

paradigms which is Pragmatism. This study has formulated research questions that

pertain to visuals containing COVID-19-related misinformation, and to address these

questions, this study has conducted a mixed-method analysis of a collection of the

written text of COVID-19 misinformation which was identified on existing fact-checking

articles. In the literature on mixed methods research, pragmatism has frequently been

identified as the suitable paradigm for doing mixed methods research (Brierley, 2017).

As a research paradigm, pragmatism also refers to the method that solves problems, it

is oriented toward resolving real-world problems (Kaushik and Walsh, 2019). Hence, we

can see this approach in the general findings of this research paper as stated by the
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authors is that recommend that scholars of misinformation should be aware of the

variety of functions that visuals can perform.

The three research papers that was chosen showed ethical considerations that were

used in their research.

The first research entitled “Role of Visual Communication in Advertising: A Study of

Consumer Purchase Decision Making Behavior” demonstrated the respect and

confidentiality of their respondent wherein they said in their paper that they've randomly
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selected 150 women consumers to be interviewed, but they selected 127 women out of

150 that ages 16 and above, they didn't mention personal information about their

respondents and what is the reason why the 23 women weren't selected to be part of

their respondents. They focused on knowing what drives the consumer to buy the

product and how effective is visual communication on advertisements and with that

there is no need to disclose any confidential information about their respondents.

The second research entitled “Beyond (Mis)Representation: Visuals in COVID-19

Misinformation” thoroughly discussed the intellectual property or usage of existing

materials that they gathered and gave copyrights to the owner of the sources they used

in order to complete their table to visualize and find the misinformation about the

COVID-19 since they've used mixed-method to analyze the misinformation that they've

gathered, they also made sure to tap into ethics resources wherein they used two

coders to minimize errors as they finish creating the table to maintain it as factual as

possible and avoidance of falsifying of the outcome of the interpretation that they've

gathered and analyzed.

The last research entitled “Insta(nt)famous? Visual self-presentation and the use of

masculine and feminine issues by female politicians on Instagram” the last research

similarly used the same ethical consideration same as the first research paper. The

researchers also respect the confidentiality and privacy of the politicians by only

mentioning their nationality, which is American and Dutch politicians, both men and
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women. The researchers are also cautious about the multiple roles that the politician

portrays as a public figure and as an official that serves the country, they also treated

their participants with justice by treating both genders equally, and both nationalities are

western democratic countries.

The importance of being aware of this ethical consideration as a researcher is to

always be aware of the rights of the participants that will be included in the research

and obligations as a researcher to prevent causing harm not only to the participants but

also to the community that maybe affected of the outcome of the research that was

conducted. It will also help the researchers to not be biased and to set aside their

personal issue about the research that they are conducting. It will also help make the

research more factual and credible.

REFERENCES
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Brands, C., Kruikemeier, S., & Trilling, D. (2021). Insta(nt)famous? Visual self-
presentation and the use of masculine and feminine issues by female politicians
on Instagram. Information, Communication & Society, 1–21.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2021.1962942

Brennen, J. S., Simon, F. M., & Nielsen, R. K. (2021). Beyond (Mis)Representation:

Visuals in COVID-19 Misinformation. The International Journal of Press/Politics,
26(1), 277–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161220964780

Brierley, J.A. (2017) The role of a pragmatist paradigm when adopting mixed methods
in behavioural accounting research. International Journal of Behavioural
Accounting and Finance, 6 (2). pp. 140-154. ISSN 1753-1969

Kaushik, V., & Walsh, C. A. (2019). Pragmatism as a research paradigm and its
implications for social work research. Social Sciences, 8(9), 255.

Kumar, K. (2014). Role of Visual Communication in Advertising: A Study of Consumer

Purchase Decision Making Behavior. Role of Visual Communication in

Advertising: A Study of Consumer Purchase Decision Making Behavior, 2(3).

http://www.adjournal.net/articles/23/234.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1aPQdpc_NJCAoZJX-

gll0rklU_vmSKFEC2grL8oRoqD2bUWGmL1OyIHIo