Visual Communication

Uses and Gratifications and Rhetorical Analysis:

Sports Photography of the Athletes on Sports Illustrated Magazine

Name: Jamaal Brown

Professor: Jonathan Schroeder

Course Number: 0535-450-01

Due Date: May 17, 2012

Uses and Gratifications and Rhetorical Analysis:

Sports Photography of the Athletes on Sports Illustrated Magazine

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how Walter Iooss’ photographic works influence

the audience’s perception of athletes and the audience’s sense to connect with Sports

Illustrated magazine. The Sports Illustrated magazine itself has the power of persuasion on

audience’s perception of athletes as well.

Walter Iooss’ Quotation and Inspirational as a Photographer

According to Introduction to Visual Communication, there are professional

photographers who make a living taking pictures. Amateur photographers love to take picture

but they do not necessarily turn into a career. Hobbyists are do-it-yourself photographers who

think photography is a fun activity (Barnes, 2011). Walter Iooss has been one of the

photographers who think photography is a fun activity, especially travelling to the sports world.

"I've always felt the moment. People call me lucky, and luck is a wonderful attribute. But

it's more - it's a sense somehow. It's inexplicable, it happens. It's a feeling and you just move

into that direction. Someone once said that wherever I am is the perfect picture. I didn't like the

way it sounded but I believe that. It's not that I'm positive of it deep down inside, it's that I have

to believe it. When you make that decision - 'This is the place to go' - you've got to live with it.

There's no alternative." - Walter Iooss

"The real joy of photography is these moments. I’m always looking for freedom, the

search for the one-on-one. That’s when your instincts come out. I’ve been lucky enough to have

people hire me to do that. Sports Illustrated never really restricts me. They want me to do what

I do. It’s the discovery. It’s still magic." – Walter Iooss

Introduction

Biographical Essay

Today, the audience acknowledges about the Sports Illustrated magazine but they do

not know what Walter Iooss is famous for. To begin with Walter Iooss, he has had a reputation

as one of the most important and famous sports photographers of all times. Before he turned

out to be a famous sport photographer, he began his career as a photographer when he was

the age of sixteen in professional baseball game at the Yankees Stadium. Iooss’ father gave him

a camera to begin photographing athletes as a hobby. As soon as he impressed someone with

his photographic works, he was immediately hired by Sports Illustrated magazine to do his first

photographic assignment in various professional sports games. Iooss had a great opportunity to

shoot the several photographs of the many greatest athletes that have ever lived, including

Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Derek Jeter, and to name a few. These days, Iooss has already

produced over 300 photographs of the athletes on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Magazine

for more than 30 years.

Thesis Statement

Walter Iooss’ sports photographic works have the power and ability to influence to

audience’s perception of the athletes based on the communication theories such as uses-and-

gratifications theory and rhetorical theory.

Uses and Gratifications

Uses and Gratification is a theory which places more focus on the consumer, or

audience, instead of the actual messages itself by asking, “What people do with the media”

rather than “what media does to people” (Katz, 1959). According to uses and gratification

theory, the media audience seeks the media to satisfy their needs (O’Donohoe, 1993). Rubin

(1983) also suggested that among use motives were securing information, seeking

entertainment and companionship. There are many audience who are the hardcore sports fans

have the different types of reaction when it comes to visualizing athletes on the cover of the

Sports Illustrated magazine. Two audiences that literature suggests may have differing

psychological needs are men and women (Santos, Kotowski, and Harwood, 2007). The audience

has four basic needs, which include diversion, personal relationships, personal identity, and

surveillance.

Diversion

This photograph is known as Blue Dunking which was produced by Walter Iooss. To

begin with diversion, the audience (the sports readers) has the need to read the Sports

Illustration magazine in order to escape from daily life. The Sports Illustrated magazine provides

the audience the opportunity to reduce stress by reading a sports magazine they enjoy the

most. The audience is able to seek and discover the exciting photographs of athletes that Iooss

shoots on the cover of Sports Illustrated Magazine. Entertainment is not the only thing to

reduce readers’ stress but it assists the readers to develop more energy as well as motivation.

Michael Jordan, known as Air Jordan and one of the greatest NBA players ever, the readers

know who Michael Jordan is and what he is famous for. No one captured Michael Jordan’s

personality, his joy for the game, or his most personal moments, the way Walter Iooss has

(Moves Magazine, 2009). Walter Iooss had the world of opportunity to explain what, where

and why the photograph of Michael Jordan was one of his favorite and the most important

photographs in history.

Michael Jordan explained when he met Iooss at the first time, “I was 24 years old and

tired of photographers when I met Walter for the first time, or to put the date of the meeting

into context the way Walter does. I still had hair. It was another dunk session, this one in

suburban in Chicago” (Iooss, 2008). In 1987, Michael Jordan was photographed by Walter Iooss

during the NBA All-Stars Slam Dunk Contest in Seattle, Washington. On the cover of Sports

Illustrated magazine, Walter produced the photograph of Jordan dunking the ball in the middle

of blue-painted floor along with the shadow. The blue-painted floor is the color that may not be

exactly the color of the sky but the blue is the representation and symbolization of cool, sky and

heaven. Air Jordan has the powerful young legs that could fly in the sky. It is as though Air

Jordan has not arrived on the ground yet. The darker shadow of Michael Jordan’s gorgeous

form of dunking is interpreted as the movement on the ground. For instance, once the visual

audience notices the shadow movement on the ground, it reflects the metaphor, as an airplane

is moving and flying on the blue sky. This photograph assisted the readers to understand why

Michael Jordan could fly and why he was called Air Jordan.

Personal Relationship

For the personal relationship, the audience utilizes the sports illustrated magazine for

the need of companionship. There is a simple reason why people need companionship. It is a

mental connection. Reading Sports Illustrated magazine provides the audience the opportunity

to update the news or information with friends. The audience can be more than curious to

discover what could happen next and also tends to share the information with friends about

what they think would happen next. The Sports Illustrated magazine assists the audience to

identify with friends as well as developing a sense of belonging. Readers’ process of selection

when they choose a magazine ensures the relevance of the contents to the individual reader,

and an empathy with how the magazine sees the world (Consterdine, 2009). A companion

American study from Time Inc called ‘The Magazine Experience Study similarly concluded that

magazines meet a range of emotional and rational needs. The Sports Illustrated magazines

contribute to the readers the intention to create and share the gossip with friends about

athletes. For instance, the audience might share and express opinion with friends about what is

next. For another instance, when professional sports leagues, such as National Basketball

Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), or National

Hockey League (NHL), generally announced about the trade, friends would be able to deliver

the conversation whether they consider that the trade is optimistic or negative. Therefore, the

information news can be found on the Sports Illustrated. Iooss utilizes photographs to help the

readers to grow trust with the Sports Illustrated magazine. Reading the updated news about

the trade can lead the readers to companionship.

The sports photography magazine is not just sharing your information with friends, yet

reading Sports Illustrated magazine can influence the audience to develop relationships with

the magazine. Reading Sports Illustrated magazine is symbolized as chatting with your friends

about sports in general. For example, the author wrote the story about professional athletes to

the readers, therefore the readers listen the author’s story. Iooss shoots the photographs

professional athletes to draw the audience to build relationship with the Sports Illustrated

magazine.

Personal Identity

For the personal identity, the audience occasionally has the need to get involved with

the media in order to find out about themselves. Walter Iooss has several photographic works

to influence the audience’s identity. Occasionally, sports photography assists the audience to

understand who they are. Rebecca Symes, now a Chartered Psychologist and registered as a

practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professionals Council, pointed out that there are two

faces of identity, private identity and public identity (Symes, 2010). Private identity is concerned

with how we see ourselves and is usually described as being unavailable for public scrutiny—it

includes our attitude, beliefs, feelings and emotions, and public identity on the other hand is

concerned with how we think others see us, or indeed may judge us. For the sports

photography, it is most likely to choose public identity for the audience’s available to see the

photography of professional athletes on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine.

In term of public identity, the audience is able to view professional athletes as

role models. When the audience appreciate professional athletes positively, the audience is

most likely to follow professional athletes. For example, when they see the sports heroes, they

tend to purchase the Sports Illustrated in order to discover their favorite professional athletes

and persuade the audience to get involved with the Sports Illustrated photography. Drew Brees

might have the intention to inspire the community. He is a good example of how “Sportsman of

the Year” persuades the audience to look up to him. In the eye of audience’s personality

identity, a term –“sportsman” can be considered as a role model. The audience knows how

value Drew Brees, as a sportsman, can give to the audience’s needs.

Surveillance

Finally, surveillance utilizes the media to help the audience to discover about what is

occurring in the world. Sports Illustrated photography gives the audience the opportunity to

find out about the lives of professional athletes. There is no doubt that the audience is

inquisitive about athletes’ lives in general. The Sports Illustrated photography has the intention

of keeping the audience informed about the sports world. In order to find information about

the lives of professional athletes, they increase their knowledge by reading and understanding

about the lives of athletes. LeBron James, being on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine,

provides the audience to seek knowledge of why LeBron James mentioned, “I lost touch with

who I was as a player and a person.” As the audience noticed the facial expression of LeBron

James on photography, people are not around LeBron on the basketball court. The audience

would be able to find out the information interestingly about lives of LeBron and discover the

answer of wondering why he seemingly looked unhappy, disappointed and furious on the

Sports Illustrated magazine. The text words can occasionally influence the audience’s emotion

and visual perception of professional athletes. This photograph displayed the relationship

between the image and word. For example, LeBron James looked furious while standing on the

Sports Illustrated magazine with the text: His Word, His Epiphany, and His Moment. Text can

alter the meaning and interpretation of an image (Barnes, 2011).

Rhetorical Theory

Rhetoric argues that there are three means of persuasion, which includes ethos, pathos,

and logos (Barnes, 2011). To expand the definition of each term, ethos utilizes the source

information to influence the audience to advocate the speakers’ credibility. Pathos defines

emotion. For instance, athletes influence the audiences’ emotional response. Logos defines the

information must be used for evidence and support claims. Rhetoric is the artful use of

language for the intention of persuasion (Barnes, 2011). The persuasion has an important

influence on audience’s attitude, beliefs, values, etc.

Ethos

Ethos is the nature of the source of information and this aspect of persuasion examines

the credibility of speaker (Barnes, 2011). Walter Iooss provides the information, ideas, visions

and logic to influence the audience to trust a sport photographer. Iooss collected the significant

photographs to contribute and describe to the audience what he witnessed in athletes’

performances in the biggest sporting events. In term of eyewitness, a spectator can participate

by seeing ‘with their own eyes’ what photographer has seen; an argument built on trust that

what we see us what photographer had seen (Bate, 2009). Documentary drew on the idea of

information as a creative education about actuality, life itself (Bate). Basically, he photographed

professional athletes to prove that it is an actuality life. In the process of persuading the

audience, Iooss would utilize the ethos to convince the audience that he ought to be worth

listening to and a credible source because he is a sport documentary and storytelling

photographer. That is why being a storyteller has the ability to influence the audience to trust

Iooss greatly.

Pathos

Pathos is the emotion of the audience or how the audience is responding to the

message (Barnes, 2011). Iooss’ photographic has the color message to influence the audience’s

emotion. The color (sepia) of the photograph of Ali and Frazier represents the historical. Iooss

had the ability to produce the historical photograph to symbolize and represent old-fashioned

style. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, they had fought and battled against each other several

times. Iooss asked Ali and Frazier to stare at the camera seriously. Although they are still good

friends, Frazier wanted to be in the same boat as Ali as champion. Iooss was interested in

producing the photograph of Ali and Frazier to make it quite unique and unusual.

Interestingly, at first, Walter Iooss had the intention to recruit Ali for shooting a photo

due to his famous reputation. Clearly, he was the Greatest! However, Joe told Iooss, “What

about me?” The pathos argument of the Sports Illustrated photography depends on the

response of the audience. Walter Iooss photographed Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, which

had been arguably and unquestionably one of the most and best rivalries boxing in history.

Walter Iooss’ photographic works can influence the audience’s emotional response. Since Iooss

(2008) stated “Joe still resented all the torment Ali had caused him over the years,” the

audience might feel regretful for Frazier for the stuff he had gone through. Not only the

audience had emotional response, but the audience learned that these two greatest boxers are

sick. Iooss stated that Ali had Parkinson and Frazier had diabetes. Iooss (2008) displayed that Ali

had a bad hand and Joe barely walked.

To analyze this, Frazier wanted to ensure he is remembered by the audience (fans),

therefore he had the intention to please Walter Iooss to allow Frazier to join Ali for being a part

of a boxing photograph crew. He was upset the way he was treated by Muhammad Ali in the

past, however they were pleased to be happy and joking with each other in order to cover the

sick appearances. At the end of the day, Iooss (2008) requested Ali and Frazier to stare at the

camera to produce them to be remembered as one of the greatest boxing in sports history.

Logos

Logos is the nature of the message presented by the source to the audience (Barnes,

2011). Iooss photographed numerous athletes to support his claims and arguments. Iooss

utilized photographic works to contribute to the audience an understanding of why sports

photographs are quite significant for the audience to connect with athletes with photography.

Iooss photographed athletes as the best sporting events in history, such as Super Bowl.

Iooss photographed the “The Catch” as one of the most famous images in NFL history,

during the 1982 NFC between Dallas Cowboys versus San Francisco 49ers on the Super Bowl.

“What ironic about this picture, which came to be known as The Catch, is that I never wanted it

to happen because I had been covering the Dallas Cowboys the entire NFL season”, Iooss says.

Iooss stated that he had been working on shooting the photographs of the Dallas Cowboys

because he had a better relationship with the Dallas Cowboys organization and players all

season. As the photography is observed, the Catch on photography provides the audience to

feel amazing, incredible and fantastic about Dwight Clark who caught the ball to touchdown at

the last minute for the San Francisco 49ers and won the game. Even though Iooss felt

heartbroken deeply, at the end of the day, “The Catch” on the cover of Sports Illustrated

magazine became not only one of the most famous in NFL history but one of the most

memorable in history (Brandt, 2012).

Conclusion

This essay examines the focus of the communication theories which include uses and

gratifications and rhetorical theory regarding Sports Illustrated photography. Walter Iooss

photographed not only his favorite photographs but also the most important photographs. In

order to accomplish the media, Iooss assists the audience to seek for the media in the process

to satisfy their needs. The more audience enhances their needs, they are most likely to follow

Walter Iooss’ photography on the cover of the Sports Illustrated. The sports photography brings

the significance of argument to communicate and persuade the audience’s perception of

professional athletes. Walter Iooss proved to the audience that his photographic works became

one of the most important photographs in sports history.

References

Moves Magazine (2009, December 5). ATHLETE BY WALTER IOOSS. About Professional Athletes, For Professional Athletes: Moves Magazine. http://www.movesmagazine.com/2009/12/athlete-by-walter-iooss/

Barnes, Susan B (2011). Introduction to Visual Communication: From Cave Art to Second Life. Peter Lang Publishing

Bate, David (2009). The Key Concepts: Photography. BERG. Dos Santos, G. M., Kotowski, M. R., & Harwood, J. Television and Gratification: The role

of sex in predicting media uses and gratifications and television program preferences.

Drumm, Russell. Biography – Sports Photography Walter Iooss. http://walteriooss.com/biography Katz, E., Blumler, J.G., & Gurevitch, M. Uses and Gratification Research. The Public

Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 4. 37(4), 509. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Brandt, Gary (2012). Thirty year later, memories of “The Catch” still linger. National Football League News. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d825e0e26/article/thirty-years-later-memories-of-the-catch-still-linger

Consterdine, Guy (2009). The Case for Magazine Advertising: The Research Evidence. Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland.

Iooss, Walter (2008). Sports Illustrated: Athletes. O’Donohoe, Stephanie (1993). Advertising Uses and Gratifications. Europe Journal of

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Symes, Rebecca (2010). Understanding Athletic Identity: ‘Who am I?’ Podium Sports Journal. http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/2010/05/24/understanding-athletic-identity-who-am-i/