For this project, we were assigned to create an infographic about our issue. Professor McIntyre wanted us to highlight important statistics and facts that would inspire the reader to be concerned about our issue and think about it from a particular perspective. My issue of American militarism is broadly appealing, but I chose a particular demographic for my target audience: millennials and younger who are moderately educated (high school degree or higher). I chose my audience because the younger generation will have to take the lead on this issue in the future. Additionally, American militarism is a highly divisive subject and older people are more likely to have formulated a strong opinion on it and be resistant to viewing it from a critical perspective. In my infographic, I chose to focus on the costs to date of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan though also highlighted general statistics about our military spending. I wanted to inform my audience on the cost of our military involvement so they would think more critically about the wars our country is waging.

I enjoyed this project. It revealed to me the power of visual information and how you can form a coherent argument with only pieces of information presented together. One takeaway I took from this project was that simplicity is important. My infographic was a little cluttered but was vastly improved and pared down compared to my original outline.

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/23273886-american-militarism-using-the-big-stick