Visual Literacy

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Visual Literacy

    What is visual literacy? By definition, it is: a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media" (ALA, 2011, Pg.1). Thus indicating that each individual person, may perceive an image differently based on how they may perceive the world or how the image is shown and in what context. What all goes into visual literacy? First, one must analyze a picture/ social media, after carefully looking into the picture and understanding it as a whole one will be able to make a judgement about the image. Everybody's visual literacy is different, in the way one may perceive an image in comparison to another, it all has to do with how somebody perceives something based on their life and experiences.

     Next, In Pearson E text article, The authors imply that a person who captures an image of something can draw different types of feelings and emotions to the viewers, this is an example of visual literacy. An example the author used was a picture of the Twin Towers being hit by a plane on 9/11, in most cases this photo would bring emotions of sadness and anger to the viewer. Being able to analyze a photo and understand what is being shown are the basics of visual literacy. One must comprehend an image to understand what is occurring to feel any emotions toward it. Visual Literacy not only applies to the viewer but also to the person who may be capturing the image or posting the social media images. The person who wants to share/create this photo has thought about how they want to portray the image to please their intended viewers. Photographers for instance will look for certain details and angles to get an image to create certain impressions. An example would be, during football season there are photographers all around the stadium looking for "positive" moments to capture, like taking pictures of fans in the crowd cheering and NFL stars scoring big touchdowns. The photographer wants to elicit that the football game was "fun, energetic etc." So they will create an image to portray that to the viewers in hopes of creating a buzz around said image.

    Sometimes photographers will enhance or photoshop the image as well which can either be a positive or negative attribute. A positive way to alter an image for visual literacy would be to make it more appropriate for its intended audience, such as editing images from a war to add to an educational textbook. A negative way people may use visual literacy to their advantage is by sharing an image/posting false information or editing a picture to make it be viewed in a false way that the intended photographer wanted it.  Being able to be strong in visual literacy is a great characteristic for one to possess both on the viewer side and the creator side, but it plays a huge role in society today. The way images are portrayed on social media can be positive or negative by the way the user posts or shows these images. Having so much of the younger generations grow up on technology, can be positive or negative depending on what is being displayed and shown to the children. In conclusion, visual literacy is a big part of this world and will continue to play a role as technology further develops. 






Reference Page: 

ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education", American Library Association, October 27, 2011.http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy (Accessed September 17, 2023) Document ID: 4d02961f-23ff-b874-7d6d-9f8d0b87e7c2





















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