Reflecting on Visuals: Their Impact on Communication with Audience

This reflective essay explores the profound impact of visuals on an individual's life, particularly focusing on a photograph of the Pacific Ocean. The author reflects on how the visual image of a lone ship struggling against stormy waves evoked a sense of astonishment and curiosity, leading to a deeper understanding of the ocean's vastness and the ship's resilience. The essay argues that visuals possess a unique ability to communicate with an audience, creating a lasting impression that may not be achieved through auditory means alone. The author concludes by acknowledging the experts' viewpoint on the significant role visuals play in communication, emphasizing that the visual experience had a more profound effect than simply hearing about it would have.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF VISUALS IN COMMUNICATING WITH AN AUDIENCE
Importance of Visuals in Communicating With an Audience
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1IMPORTANCE OF VISUALS IN COMMUNICATING WITH AN AUDIENCE
Visuals are something which the audience sees instead of listening or sensing it. It is
being said by many experts that the visual images of an object or a person or a place
sometimes do have certain impact on an individual and his or her life. The same thing can be
said about me. I have also had a significant impact in my life caused by certain visual.
The purpose of this reflective essay is to talk about the visual which had an effect
on my life and whether it would have had the same effect if I had heard about it instead
of experiencing it.
The visual which have had a deep impact on my life was a photograph of the Pacific
Ocean. As I was very young then, that was the first time when I saw a picture of any kind of
ocean. The image showed a lone ship struggling against the waves of the ocean and a very
dark sky, which is symbolic of the coming storm. I got curious and asked my parents about
the picture. They explained to me that the ocean was called the Pacific Ocean and that was
how an ocean looked before the coming of the storm itself. I was hit with a wave of
astonishment and I started thinking about how could the ocean be so huge and how that ship
is going to survive against such a storm. Being young that I was back then, I was really
affected by the dark sky and the waves crashing on the sides of the ship trying its best to stay
on its course.
Now that I think of that visual of that ocean, I understand that the experts are right
when they say that the visuals do have some way in which they communicate with the
audience. Today I realize that I probably would not have been that much affected if I had
heard about the visual instead of seeing it with my own eyes.

2IMPORTANCE OF VISUALS IN COMMUNICATING WITH AN AUDIENCE
Reference List
Block, B. (2013). The visual story: Creating the visual structure of film, TV and digital
media. Routledge.
Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2013). Researching visual environmental communication.
Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 7(2), 151-168.