Visual analysis

Initial situation

The teacher noted that the social sciences have seen a shift in the increasing use of visuals, but that they are not well integrated into the training. As a result, students are trained and comfortable with the analysis and production of texts, but do not know how to react and express themselves in a visual format (photo, cartography, image). The teacher’s intention is therefore to give a prominent place to the contribution of iconography in his or her course and to help change the mentality by moving from text, which is widely acclaimed, to images, which have a bad reputation.

Project implementation

This 3-hour course over 9 weeks is shared between 2 teachers. It aims to show students how the political geography of the world, at different scales, is staged and imaged in popular culture. The first teacher proposes to the students the analysis and the realization of comic strips in order to learn to combine text and image to stage their experience of the world (see corresponding project). The second teacher proposes to approach the subject from the angle of cinema by practicing film analysis.

The theoretical presentation of the course follows a fairly classic PowerPoint presentation format. However, following the observation that written texts have increasingly given way to audiovisual content in everyday life, the teacher wished to adapt to the world of students by offering them presentations that are as visual as possible. He enriches most of his slides with images or film clips. The teacher approaches visual contents as sources and means of expression. These can, for example, be data or interview results that inform us about society.

In line with this concept, the teacher does not ask students to do any written work, but to prepare a PowerPoint presentation of the analysis of a film sequence (Why is cinema interesting in terms of the social sciences?). In groups of 3, students must choose an excerpt from a film (mostly fiction) related to the year’s theme (e.g., issues in terms of popular geopolitics). After the teacher has validated the film, they isolate very short sequences to analyze. The teacher assists them by providing resources (reading grids, bibliographies, examples during the course). The important thing is not to be absorbed by the story, but to concentrate on the image. The 30-minute oral presentation must include a brief presentation of the film and its context, the projection of the entire sequence (3 to 5 minutes maximum), a synthetic description of the sequence, the chosen problematic and the analysis of a few shots. All students attend the screenings followed by discussions. The evaluation is based on different criteria provided to the students on the following elements: the document, the presentation, the problematic, the analysis and the knowledge.

Thoughts and advice

The teacher emphasizes the importance of iconography. For him, it is much more pleasant to teach when you show images that hold the students’ attention. Showing short video sequences and analyzing them corresponds to their way of relating to the world. The image is everywhere, yet it is often ignored, yet it is a social reality that must be studied. It is therefore very important to train students to know how to analyze images and make sense of them. More and more, they will have to present their work with images in their professional lives. They allow for the expression of ideas in a medium other than just speech, a format that is somewhat outdated.

Students like the fact that the course is based on images. Iconography is a skill to be valued: sometimes students do not have a very developed film culture, but they do have editing and editing skills. The teacher notes with surprise that they do not ask for any particular technical support, on the whole they have the necessary skills for the work required. The teacher only provides them with the names of a few of the easiest programs to use (e.g., Mactheripper for extraction/ripping and Handbrake for editing).

Student feedback

“I find this class very interesting. I also enjoy working on my own comic book, as well as the analysis of the exploration film.”

“The small number of students allows for real interaction and quality exchanges directly with the teacher.”

“A new approach to social science that is interesting and necessary, with moments dedicated to practice (which is rare and valuable).”