Credit: WFTV
Some people will do just about anything to get attention. In a culture where "images" are the message, it's important to recognize how people use images to compete with other images. In other words, one of the more interesting sociological aspects of this visual culture is the idea of perceptual competition. For example, the juxtaposition of an image showing the burning World Trade Center of September 11th against an anti-democratic message serves as an example of the increasing perceptual competition in an society inundated with visual imagery.
In order to be effective, the message must trump all others in its proximity. Today this billboard is making news around the country because of its "shock" value, but will we remember it a month from now. Probably not. The message competes for and gains our attention perceptually and then we let it slip away as other messages come into our consciousness.
Visual messages do not operate by the same semantic properties as verbal messages. We read the image of the burning World Trade Center differently than we read the words "Please don't vote for a democrat." The reason for this is, according to Paul Messaris, "Verbal language is characterized by arbitrary, purely conventional relationships between individual elements (sounds or words) and their meanings, and it has a highly explicit and relatively inflexible syntax (i.e., set of rules governing the ordering of sounds, words, and phrases)."
For instance, the relationship between the words "please" and "don't vote" connotes the implicit demands of the speaker. Using "please" implies the convention of civility, etiquette and manners, while the accompanying words suggest a directive. When used together, however, the words combine to convey a sentiment which implores the viewer to take action. Juxtapose the verbal against the visual the message becomes even more complex. The signification of the message becomes more fluid and open to an array of interpretations. In fact, this is why the billboard has become controversial. Values and beliefs are challenged as by the communication and this where much of the ambiguity and controversy resides.
Understanding the relationship between signs, visually and verbally, is critical for understanding the deeper more complex political, social, economic, and cultural issues at stake here.