Silos are an undeniable and unavoidable reality of knowledge production, particularly within academia. For those who choose to navigate between disciplinary boundaries, as opposed to within them, it is not uncommon to find similar concepts developing in parallel in two or more completely different fields of study. These silos tend to be not just…

The so-called millennial learners who currently populate college classrooms are purportedly digital natives whose repeated exposure to a host of new technologies has allegedly resulted in enhanced skills in several areas, including those related to technology and visual communication. By extension, the argument has been made that digital natives…

Expanding the definition of literacy and using visual strategies comprehensively can strongly affect student learning. Educators can contribute to the growth and understanding of the world of nonprint text by helping students learn to read and create visual products critically. When educators bridge popular culture and traditional texts, students…

Through television, many different images of ethnic, cultural, and ability groups are presented. Different people perceive these images in different ways. These perceptions affect how people value themselves and judge and interact with others. This article first summaries research on TV images and people's meaning and reaction to them. Second, it…

Discusses the effect television has on youth in making them visually literate and how educators should use this information to make education more effective. (CHC)

This investigation reinforces the conceptualization of television viewing as a learned activity by highlighting the interrelatedness of children's linguistic, cognitive, and perceptual skills for accurate comprehension of television's most basic narrative device--temporal sequencing. It also explores the impact of highly divergent skills and…

The unfounded and sometimes absurd attacks on television have tended to obscure many of the medium's obvious personal, social, and aesthetic benefits. It is easy to watch, and if its content does not always provide viewers with much to think about, television does not ask much of them either: they may eat, sleep, and unwind in front of it,…

Suggests that television's imaginative hold on its viewers is produced by its use of primal mythological stories and powerful ritual narratives. (MM)

A summary of uses of films with children. (CH)

Ninety-one children participated in a study which evaluated a critical television-viewing skills curriculum. Students were given a comprehensive test of reality versus fantasy portrayals, special effects, and commercials. Methodology and results are presented and analyzed. (JL)

Argues that video courses must teach students not only to make intelligent viewing choices but to sift truth from suggestion in commercials, to avoid mindless acceptance of television's versions of appropriate sex roles, and to examine the values promoted in television programs. Suggests a number of books for media study. (MM)

Describes how network television can be used to teach visual literacy in the composition classroom. Claims that television's "look" is pervasive and rhetorically powerful. Analyzes the program "Twin Peaks" as it relates to the medium's codes. Suggests how the program might be used to teach students about these codes. (HB)

This paper addresses the television program "Cheers" and demonstrates one way of interpreting the complexity of messages within the program. The interplay of visual messages within the "Cheers" programming is referred to as intertextuality, or the relation of one text to another to express an idea. Two basic types of…