User:Ansley0816/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
"Visual Communication" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_communication

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose to read this article because I wanted to learn more about the different things that are in involved in visual communication. This article matters because it emphasizes the important role that visual communication has in peoples' interactions with one another such as with social media, video, presentations. My first impression of this article was how prevalent visual communication is in the communication between people such as with drawings and advertisements, and how people are able to communicate their ideas and words in an artistic and creative way in order to share a message with others.

Evaluate the article
Lead section:

Yes, the first sentence provides a simple definition of visual communication which provides context to the subject of the whole article. No, even though the article somewhat mentions the types of mediums that visual communication can be displayed through, there is no clear mention of the important figures of visual communication nor the different perspectives there are when analyzing certain images in the lead section. The lead section includes brief information about all the topics covered in the article. The lead is concise as it only gives a brief introduction to the topics that are discussed later on in the article.

Content:

Yes, the article’s content is relevant to the topic of visual communication. The content of the article is mostly up to date except for a few of its citations from 2013. The brief information about the names and works of the important figures of visual communication is only mentioned once throughout the entire article within the “Important Figures” section. The content within this section, “Important Figures” does not belong given that the information is not mentioned again at all in the rest of the article. No, the article does not have equity gaps and does not mention underrepresented populations.

Tone and Balance:

The content of the article is mostly neutral as it includes factual information about the topics covered in the article. However, there is some bias in the overview and the “Prominence and Motive” sections. There is a biased claim in the “Overview” section that visual communication is an effective method used for people to convey their ideas to other people without a citation. Another example of a biased claim made in the article is in the “Prominence and Motive” section of the article as the text mentions how social media is an essential tool for people to use to communicate with one another. Most of the viewpoints are equally represented such as the viewpoints about the perspectives of image analysis, examples of Visual aid media with visual communication, How the use of color and its tone conveys an important message to people in the different mediums of visual communication, and the different functions that politics has in visual communication. However, the viewpoints about the role that culture and economics have in visual communication are underrepresented given there is not a lot of information provided about these topics in the article. There are no minority or fringe viewpoints in the article. The article tries to persuade the readers into thinking that social media is the most important medium in which people communicate with each other through. For example, the article gives emphasis to the powerful influence that use of visual images on the different social media sites impacts the visual communication.

Sources and References:

Not all the facts are backed up by a reliable source of information. For example, in the “Overview” section, the fact on what aspects visual communication relies on is not backed up by a secondary source. Also, in the “Prominence and Motive” section about culture the fact about the explanation of visual culture is not backed up by a reliable secondary source. Most of the sources are not thorough given that most of the sources used are short and unreliable articles or other short wikipedia pages. Most of the sources included in the article are not current as they range from being from 2004-2017. However, the sources used within the lead section are more recent as they are from 2020-2022. Yes, The sources used throughout the article are written by a variety of different authors, however each source is mostly written by only one author. There are better sources available because most of the sources seem to be from random and unreliable websites such as Infographic Design Team used for information  in the lead paragraph, and The Paper Mill Store used to describe the impact of color in visual communication, and Bizfluent to describe the role that economics has in visual communication. Given that, the article needs to use more reliable sources such as peer reviewed research articles or databases such as JSTOR that do not have open access for everyone to edit. Most of the links to the sources do not work at all but the links of the key terms in the article work.

Organization and Writing Quality:

Yes, the article is clear and easy to read. The article does not have any spelling or grammatical errors. The article is well organized for the most part given that each big section of the article has multiple subsections that provide a further and thorough explanation of the main topic. However, the order in which the information and sections of the article could be presented differently makes more sense to the reader.

Images and Media:

The article could have included more images showing how visual communication looks through the different mediums to give readers more of a visual of the content of the article. However, the article includes an image at the beginning of the article that shows the readers the role that images have in visual communication. There is also an image included of different social media platforms in the “Prominence and Motive” section. The captions of the two images included in the article could include more context or information that the readers could use to better understand how the images relate to the rest of the content of the article. All the images adhere to Wikipedia’s copyright regulations given there is a link to the source where the image comes from in the article when the image is clicked on. No, The two images are both placed at the top of their sections and not really included within the text which is not appealing.

Talk Page Discussion:

Most of the conversations on the talk page are about how the article needs to include more reliable sources for the information that is presented in the article. Some other parts of the conversation on the talk page include how the article needs to include more images in order to guide readers better through the information given in the article. Another person mentioned on the talk page how a section about the history of the advancement of technology should be included in the article to give the readers context to how social media has become an important medium of visual communication. The article is rated a level 5 vital article and Start-Class article and is a part of several WikiProjects. The article gives more detail about each of the mediums where visual communication can be displayed through such as with videos, presentations, poster board, social media. The article also provides a more scientific viewpoint on the impact that color has through different mediums of visual communication. Lastly, the article elaborates on the role that politics, economics, and science/medicine have on visual communication.

Overall Impressions:

The status of the article is good, but the status of the article would be better if its information came from more reliable sources. The article’s strengths are that it provides different examples of the different mediums that visual communication can be expressed through and provides a good argument to how social media has impacted visual communication. The article could be improved by using more reliable sources for the information provided and including more images throughout the article to give readers a visual of the content of the article. The article is underdeveloped because it needs to include more information behind the history behind how the mediums in which visual communication were developed and became the way they are now such as through social media, video, color.