Seeing Is Believing

[...]photos during the Vietnam War-including hundreds of flag-draped caskets being flown into Delaware's Dover Air Force Base on a daily basis and images of soldiers fighting with little success in the jungles-had an enormous persuasive impact. Only then will people fully grasp the actual reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. [...]the politics surrounding the pandemic are a good test of the argument advanced by scholars in many disciplines that rhetoric can literally create not just perceptions of reality but reality per se. [...]as I argued in a previous essay in Liberal Education, it is essential for more scholars to leverage their knowledge for social good and to educate the public-to expand their classrooms beyond the walls of academic institutions.5 For example, in the past few years, the National Communication Association (NCA) has spotlighted how the work of communication faculty informs our understanding of a variety of current political and personal issues confronting the public.