Essay On Visual Literacy In Visual Age

The Decline of Visual Literacy in a Visual Age

Visual literacy is the capacity to interpret, and generate original, as well as acknowledged, meaning from images. To put it more succinctly, it “is the ability to construct meaning from visual images” (Giorgis, 1). It is pivotal to the graphic arts but is often seen as “peripheral to the ‘real business’ of school and schooling” (Dimitriadis, 361). Current issues in education often involve how to develop literate students. This means that students acquire the necessary skills to understand the meaning in texts and be able to produce their own puissant writing as well. Arguments concerning literacy are centered almost exclusively on written text and this is the only definition of literacy in which most are exposed to. However, we live and work in a visually oriented society in which the idea of being visually literate remains extraneous to the mainstream definition of an educated person.

Our current culture is one in which we are subjected daily to images in every form, and over- saturated with advertising, both informative and misleading. The importance of visual literacy as an important aspect of critical thinking becomes clear in the face of such prolific output. It has been traditionally placed in the realm of fine arts, taught as a component of art and design. The popular mode of thought is that one either has visual artistic talent or does not, but it is rather a skill that can be taught, much like reading. Visual literacy should be an integral part of a modern education and it should be central to the contemporary definition of literacy. It is estimated that almost half of the knowledge we acquire is through visual means, pointing to its relevance beyond tradition...

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...we can develop perspectives that allow us to raise questions that, without them, we might not have. It is also important to note that visual literacy and the arts in education can cultivate a demand for art that is economically essential. Data from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts shows evidence of a chronic decline in the audience (Zakaras, 27). Equally as worrying is the steady decline of young adult participation. As the authors of, Cultivating Demand for the Arts, Arts learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy declare, “declining demand leads to a loss of the public and private benefits derived from the arts” (27). While this trend may not be directly related to the attention given to visual literacy in the sphere of education it is interesting nonetheless that these downturns are seemingly simultaneous.