MOBILIZING through visualization

An Analysis of the American Civil Liberties Unions Voting

Rights Act: Major Dates in History Interactive Timeline
The American Civil Liberties Union is a major interest group in the United
States dedicated to preserving the rights of individuals. Part of their work as a
non-profit includes raising awareness of individual liberties problems in the United
States. Included online, the organization has created a timeline of events
relevant to the creation and implementation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
pieces of which were dismantled in a 2013 Supreme Court case. It uses Timeline
JS, an open-source tool for creating interactive, online timelines (Northwestern
University Knight Lab 2015). Users navigate through the timeline be clicking on
linked dates, which populate slides with short descriptions of events.
The timeline begins with the Civil Rights Act of 1866, before the expansion
of suffrage to African-Americans, and ends in 2014 with the introduction of the
Voting Rights Amendment Act. Much of the timeline is structured similarly to
traditional static timelines including simple, concise descriptions of dates and
perhaps a photo. Other slides include hyperlinks to archival videos of speeches,
podcasts or news articles. Because of its use of additional forms of media, and
the ease of navigation through content, the timeline effectively engages an
audience in a way static timelines produced in print publications cannot. The
following will analyze the ACLU timeline in its use of both form and content as
well as evaluate its effectiveness as a design tool.

Formal analysis
Timeline JS and the ACLU utilize multiple design tools, which can be described
using Scott McClouds Understanding Comics.

Creating meaning (THE big triangle)

The voting rights timeline is both an educational and persuasive tool
meant to encourage lobbying for the Voting Rights Amendment Act. As such, its
slides exist primarily on the left, realistic edge of McClouds Big Triangle
(McCloud, 1994, p. 52-53). For example, a majority of each dates slides are
concise, straightforward descriptions of events, like in Figure 1. Others include
hyperlinks to videos documenting events or related events, like in Figure 2. These
leave little room for interpretation and are summaries or nearly complete
renderings of the events themselves.

Timeline analysis // NITSCHKE, ERICA

Figure 1

Figure 2

Word/media relationships
The way the text and other media combine to create meaning fall
into two of McClouds word/picture categories as described in
Understanding Comics. The still photos used on most slides share a word
specific relationship with the text a combination where pictures
illustrate, but dont significantly add to largely complete text (McCloud,
1994, p. 153). Figures 3 and 4 demonstrate this combination as used in the
timeline. The photos contribute little to understanding the slides. In this
relationship, the role of images is very weak in comparison to the text.
Timeline analysis // NITSCHKE, ERICA

Figure 3

Figure 4

Other slides, however, incorporate different forms of media like podcasts,

videos and links to news articles. These slides represent an additive relationship
with words where words amplify or elaborate on an image or vice versa
(McCloud, 1994, p. 154). Figures 5 and 6 show one example from the timeline of
this relationship. The linked YouTube video provides more in-depth coverage
than the written description in the slide. In this relationship, the role of media is
much stronger than in word specific relationships, but its role is still not balanced
with that of the words. These additive pieces are also included as hyperlinks
rather than embedded media, further weakening their role. Because the
audience may likely choose to proceed to the next slide instead of follow a
hyperlink into a separate browser window, the medias impact is greatly
lessened or may never be consumed at all.
Figure 5

Timeline analysis // NITSCHKE, ERICA

Figure 6

CONTENT Analysis
Purpose, Audience
The timeline is a tool designed to serve two purposes: to educate
and to mobilize. The bulk of the content is strictly informative, meant to
educate the audience about the history and impact of the VRA. The last
few slides, however, demonstrate the intent to persuade the audience
that the VRA remains to be an important piece of legislation and
encourage passage of the Voting Rights Amendment Act. These two
goals align with the larger goals of the organization to raise awareness
of individual and civil liberty problems and to mobilize citizens and political
agents to act in support of reform efforts.
The intended audience is those who have lobbying or policymaking
power and the ability to donate to the cause or those who have future
potential to do so. The simplified nature of the content suggests that the
Timeline analysis // NITSCHKE, ERICA

intended target is likely the average voter not an experienced

politician or political insider. However, these groups could be seen as the
indirect target audience as the goal of the timeline is to mobilize the
average citizen toward either donating to the ACLU (which lobbies
politicians) or to reach out to policymakers themselves. Minorities may also
be pointed out as a specific demographic in the ACLUs target audience
as the VRA most directly impacts their experience as citizens.
Ethos, pathos, logos
Though not explicitly stated in the text, the ACLU relies on both ethos and
pathos as persuasive tools. Ethos is established through the cleanliness of design
and ease of navigation through the timeline. The application of this instills a
sense that the timeline is professional, accurate and worthy of a viewers time.
The fact the timeline is hosted on the ACLU website itself lends credibility to the
work; likely the same ethos would not be granted if the it was found on a blog or
similar form of host site. Pathos is found not in any individual slides text itself but is
experienced by a user as he or she navigates through the timeline. The ACLU
creates a clear narrative starting at the inability for African-Americans to vote,
through the legal expansion of suffrage, continued barriers to voting, passage of
the VRA, the success of the act and to the dismantling of the legislation by the
Supreme Court. This story even if the text itself is not emotive should trigger
an emotional response from the audience. The journey through the challenges
of black voters should result in the passionate response that the VRA is crucial
and should be reinstated. The audience experiences both the use of ethos and
pathos almost subconsciously. The use of logos, however, is explicit.
As a tool for educating, the ACLU most strongly utilizes logos. In addition to
the arrangement of info chronologically by date, logos can be found in the use
of statistics to describe voting outcomes and the growth in number of registered
voters throughout time. An example of logos used is on the 1896 slide, which
states that in Louisiana the percentage of registered black voters drops from
44.8 percent in 1896 to 4.0 percent four years later due to grandfather
clauses (ACLU 2014). Logos is also used on the 1990 slide to describe the
number of black elected officials in Georgia from three to 495 due to the
VRA (ACLU 2014). Logos is an important tool used to operationalize the problem
of voting barriers for African-Americans and illustrate the impact of the RA.

Timeline analysis // NITSCHKE, ERICA

EVALUATION
Overall, the ACLUs timeline serves its purpose and its audience well.
Because of its use of additional forms of media, and the ease of navigation
through content, the timeline effectively engages an audience in a way static
timelines produced in print publications cannot. The design of the timeline is
clean and clear, making it easy to consume information as you progress through
its slides. Its purpose is clear and executed well. The persuasive nature of the
timeline is revealed somewhat subtly it is not understood as a purpose of the
timeline until the end when the audience has invested time which is an
effective strategy. The proportioned use of ethos, pathos and logos, and
reliance primarily on logos, works well for the medium. The primary critique I
have of the timeline is in its overall weak use of word/picture relationships.
McCloud emphasizes the need for a strong relationship between the two in say,
Indeed, words and pictures have great powers to tell stories when creators
fully exploit them both (McCloud, 1994, p. 152). The word specific and additive
relationships are both combinations in which the role of text greatly outweighs
that of the image. The use of Timeline JS provides so much potential for user
interaction and incorporation of multiple forms of media. The ACLU should be
striving to use that potential to its full extent. Most slides used still images that add
little or nothing to understanding its message. The more the ACLU can move
toward interdependent, parallel, or montage relationships, the more engaged
its audience will be.

Timeline analysis // NITSCHKE, ERICA

Works cited
American Civil Liberties Union. (2014). Voting Rights Act: Major Dates in History.
Retrieved from: https://www.aclu.org/timelines/history-voting-rightsact?rct=&redirect=node/4525
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York:
HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.
Northwestern University Knight Lab. (2015). Overview: Timeline JS: Easy-to-make,
beautiful timelines. Retrieved from: http://timeline.knightlab.com/

Timeline analysis // NITSCHKE, ERICA