An examination of key symbols and structures of the recent film, "Fried Green Tomatoes," reveals the nature of the process of coding representations of the real world and its effects. The movie depicts two parallel stories of female friendship. Changes and development of the characters are primarily portrayed through changes in their…

This guide is designed to promote discussion of any photograph with students, whether encountered in the classroom, in textbooks, or in other school materials. The guide contains a one-page handout which uses Dorothea Lange's photograph "White Angel Breadline" to discuss 10 photographic elements: aesthetic elements, punctum, title,…

Suggesting that a separate accreditation criterion for visual literacy proposed for journalism and mass communication schools is insufficient and inappropriate, this paper proposes that the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) develop and support a program promoting visual literacy as a curriculum standard.…

A study investigated the use of verbo-visual content in geography textbooks of various countries. Secondary school geography textbooks from Australia, Greece, Japan, Sweden, and the United States were examined. For each of the selected books, empirical data about the amount of texts, pictures, maps, and tables was gathered; contents were assessed;…

Unlike the linear, serial process of reading books, learning to "read" television is a parallel process in which multiple pieces of information are simultaneously received. Perceiving images, only one aspect of understanding television, requires the concurrent processing of information that is compounded within a symbol system. The…

Experimental phenomenology requires that educators acknowledge the experiences of the learner. Today, many of those experiences are images that come from television. In a behaviorist or humanist tradition, learning takes place through experience, and learners comprehend, make decisions, and analyze their behavior through reflection. Meaning is…

Television has become such an important factor in our culture that it must be made a part of the educational curriculum if our free and democratic society is to survive. Those who know how to use the television medium are able to brainwash the rest of us easily, for most of us are television illiterates. The development of print literacy, opposed…

The computer controlled visual media, particularly television, are becoming an increasingly powerful instrument for the manipulation of thought. Powerful visual images increasingly reflect and shape personal and external reality--politics being one such example--and it is crucial that the viewing public understand the nature of these media…

In order to enhance the understanding of visual literacy, one of its constituents, visual learning (VL), is examined in terms of underlying assumptions, hypothesized behaviors, and implications of both assumptions and behaviors. Assumptions are: (1) VL encompasses all changes in behavior arising from the individual's responses to visual…

Students who are learning techniques for producing television programs and films often require guidance in three areas: acquiring knowledge of traditional art forms, obtaining audience feedback to their productions, and assessing their own capabilities and creative potential. This paper describes a programmed course of self-instruction that may be…

The positive and negative aspects of using film as a medium for inducing change in developing nations are explored in this issue. Critics of the use of film for development cite (1) the culture specific nature of film content of foreign produced films; (2) the technical, economic, and logistical problems of in-country production; and (3) lack of…

This monograph posits a rhetorical theory of video-art and presents perspectives on the status of video-art in Latin America. Video-art, which utilizes technology in the field of aesthetics, is perceived as fundamentally rhetorical and stylistic. Conclusions about the form include the comments that the analysis of visual messages is possible…

Although there is unanimity among educators that art and art education exert a positive influence on children, diverse philosophical, social, and psychological views and values have inhibited the formation of teaching goals and strategies that acknowledge the emotional and cognitive significance of visual art. The general aims of art education…

Students can see more in motion picture and television productions once they realize that they are already quite knowledgeable, and these ten discovery-experience lesson units on film and television productions provide teachers with a means to let them discover for themselves that they already know several characteristics of the moving media as…

This paper documents and describes a new course in visual communications developed at the University of Oklahoma to serve a general college undergraduate audience. The course content which is summarized in three areas--graphics and media techniques, visual/verbal message design and delivery, and "pure visual" message design and delivery--is…