Visual Situations: A Social Semiotic Analysis of the 2012 Youtube Channels of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

Lloyd Bitzer's seminal work, "The Rhetorical Situation," has generated much discussion about viewing situation as the "very ground of rhetorical activity" (1968, p. 5). Bitzer's theory has been useful when explaining the situational aspect of rhetorical discourse communicated via the spoken and written word, but the study of rhetoric has since expanded to include visual components that extend beyond the neo-classical definition of discourse. This study explores updates and critiques of Bitzer's theory and then tests its explanatory power for visual texts by analyzing Web texts commissioned by Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama as candidates of the 2012 U.S. Presidential campaign. The analysis takes the form of visual rhetorical criticism utilizing a social semiotic approach.