3. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 3
Introduction
Adbusters: An ecological magazine, dedicated to
examining the relationship between human
beings, and their physical and mental
environment.
One example, of a `socially responsible`
company.
4. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 4
In their own words:
“We want a world in which the economy and
ecology resonate in balance. We try to coax people
from spectator to participant in this quest. We want
folk to get mad about corporate disinformation,
injustices in the global economy, and any industry
that pollutes our physical or mental commons”.
www.adbusters.org
Spoof ad:
You´re running because you want that raise,
to be all you can be. But it´s not easy when
you work sixty hours a week making sneak-
ers in an indonesian factory and your friends
disappear when they ask for a raise. So think
globally before you decide it´s so cool to
wear Nike.
5. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 5
Introduction cont.
If responsible professionals share skills and
impart knowledge, by encouraging, enquiring
receptive minds towards a new way of thinking,
a realization of what is important will emerge,
and with it the knowlege, that they have the
empowerment to make a difference.
7. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 7
Background
Media stories and myths, told ´en masse´ for
generations, have dictated how society and
culture, eventually lives and behaves.
We can however, actively respond to world
issues, through the link between:
Image
Ethnology
Visual communication &
Society
9. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 9
Background cont.
A catalyst for change - children too, have points
of views.They are open and unbiased, sharing
their experiences, their stories from different
cultures.
My aim therefore, is to produce a pictorial news
based design, that responds to the need for
change in society’s values, for a society that is
looking for change.
I will focus on information to increase awareness
and empathy, which could provoke an early
interest in newsworthy current affairs, and
would be remembered throughout adulthood.
10. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 10
There are responsible companies, whose
websites, have a focus towards informing
children.
One of my goals therefore, is to ackowledge
them.
Their issues should be at the forefront of the
media, not lost behind a blanket of colourful pop
imagery.
Illustrator
Anna Jordhøy Lunder
11. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 11
Visual Communication
“Before children learn to read and write, they do not
know the difference between a line drawing and a
letter”.
Paul Martin Lester - Syntactic Theory ofVisual
Communication, Part One.
One of the oldest forms of communication are
cave drawings, our first visual communication.
Nowadays, it is t.v, and the mass media who
influence the way we perceive the world.
13. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 13
Visual communication & visual
literacy
Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner of New
York University, cites that studies show:
“People only remember 10 percent of what they
hear, 30 percent of what they read, but about 80
percent of what they see and do”.
We are inundated with imagery, we are taught
how to make pictures and read stories, but
children should also learn to read images.
15. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 15
There are 6 perspectives to visual literacy and
visual communication, which can be put in to
place:
Personal gut reaction
Pictures in place and time
Technical aspects
Ethical / motives
Cultural - identifying the symbols
Critical - conclusions about the
medium, viewer & culture.
16. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 16
Visual communication &
visual literacy is:
To read & think critically
Identify, observe & examine
Analyse, decode & deconstruct
Understand & make sense
See the creators intention
Place in context
Create & build and
Communicate graphically
The more we know about visual
communication, the more we see.
17. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 17
It takes an understanding of semiotics, the
science of signs, to discover how every image, is
a complex collection of symbols, with distinctive
meaning, depending on the culture of the viewer,
and of individual signs that are grouped
together to form meaning. These elements are
called codes.
As with any symbolic communicative system, if
you do not know the language, you will have
trouble deciphering the message.
18. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 18
Visual communication &
visual literacy
One must also consider each medium of
presentation, typography, cartoons, tv, film etc.
in order to become visually literate, and learn
visual communication.
It is the medium, color, form, depth and
movement, that are characteristics that help
define the message.
The perception of the importance attached
to words, or pictures in publications, is often
communicated by the size, position and
proximity of the words, to the visuals.
19. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 19
Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 19
Text should be short & snappy
& affect the reader
emotionally
By making them laugh ...
21. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 21
Literacy
Refers to the ability to `read` signs, and how to
use them.
If children should learn visual literacy,
analyzing individual pictures, then they need
to diagnose the rest of what they see and hear.
Challenging existing ideologies, to grow into
informed, media literate adults.
22. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 22
News literacy
We are, a mainly visual media society, where
children see and hear:
Headlines, snippets and bulletins from the
news, on tv, the internet and in the papers.
They do not always understand what they
see and hear, or else, they take it too literally.
23. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 23
Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 23
Photography is not objective.
However research indicates
that 70% of people look at the
visual ...
24. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 24
... whereas only 30% read a
headline.
On the front page of a newspaper, the most
important story and photograph, take up the
most space.
Newspaper reading research, has found that:
Readers look at a photograph,
Scan the caption,
Read the headline,
& if they are still interested
Read the story.
25. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 25
Illiteracy is dangerous...
10th April 2003. Iraq was occupied by coalition
forces and the rule of Saddam Hussain came to
an end. Most people will recongnize these Jubi-
lant crowds, on the front of nearly every world
newspaper.
26. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 26
Myth
Myth is a belief subscribed to groups, or a
traditional story, that embodies popular beliefs.
The new myths are the image culture.
They promote myths and stereotype an
individual, or cultural group.
Which is why, they need to be challenged.
Once a myth is identified however, they can
be recognized.
To explode a myth is not to deny the facts,
but to re-allocate them.
27. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 27
Myths are intricately linked to journalism,
advertising, and educational contexts.
Pictures that evoke memories, and stir feelings
can be very powerful, and much of our view of
reality is based upon media messages that have
been:
Pre-constructed and have
Attitudes,
Interpretations and
Conclusions already built in.
From these photographs which `came to
light`some time after the events of 10/4, we can
see that the crowd was in fact small.
28. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 28
... and consisted of:
US marines, press, and a small number
of Iraquis, who were pro American members
of a militia group, flown into Iraq by the
Pentagon.
29. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 29
Media
The media are responsible for the majority
of observations and experiences, from which
we build up our personal understanding of
the world and how it works.
30. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 30
Definition of News- Global Modern Dictionary
“Information which was not previously known”.
Looking at this much publicised news story,
finding evidence, taking apart information, and
deconstructing constructions, is an exercise in
media literacy.
31. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 31
Media literacy is:
Questioning
Analyzing
Deconstructing &
Responding to the media
33. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 33
Media literacy
Unless we teach our children how to read about,
watch, interpret, understand and analyze the day’s
events, we risk raising a generation of civic illiterates,
political ignoramuses, and uncritical consumers,
vulnerable not only to crackpot ideas, faulty
reasoning and putative despots but fraudulent sales
pitches and misleading advertising claims”.
Source unknown
34. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 34
The children
Children have the right to be interactive not
passive consumers. Informed and able to read
the mass of images, they are inundated with.
We must constantly communicate with our
children, otherwise how do we know, how the
images are being interpreted?
We have an obligation to teach this increasingly
valuable skill.
35. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 35
Children & Media literacy
Teaching media literacy, is in a sense teaching
critical thinking, and it should “start early”.
Media is taught in schools, but how much?
It is important especially surrounding news, that
children are aware of the capabilities of the
media, as well as how to use it.
36. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 36
To date
By using visual communication and literacy,
I will communicate to the future generation that
there are:
”Other ways of seeing” &
“More than one side to any one story”.
I will design an exhibition to be taken to schools
and will not, therefore put children in front of
yet, another screen.
As knowledge can best be given, when there is
an eagerness to learn, then this is the period
between 6-12 years old, when seeds can be
sown and will germinate within our culture.
37. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 37
Exhibition Design
The exhibition should appeal to educators and
those who work in the media.
An exhibition is about experience and
participation, rather than being passive.
The exhibition should be adaptable, in content
and format, as well as easily transportable.
38. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 38
Exhibition Design
I will use mainly photography, instead of illustra-
tion, as people tend to relate best, to realistic
photographs.
However, cartoons/illustrations could be used as
a way of inviting the children around.
Philosopher Susan Sontag writes:
“Only that which narrates can make us understand.”
39. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 39
Summary
The exhibiton should be based upon
5 Key Questions of Media Literacy
1. Who sent this message?
2. What techniques are used to attract their
attention?
3 How might other people understand this
message differently from me?
4. What lifestyles, values and points of view
are represented in, or omitted from this
message?
5. Why was this message sent?
40. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 40
To conclude
Good news is also ´good´news
Media literacy has the potential to be a powerful
tool for us all. With knowledge and understand-
ing, we will be less likely to be swayed by slanted
portrayals, given by the media in general.
This also helps, to develop greater understand-
ing, between diverse groups and perhaps go
some way towards, developing a future
generation of adults, whose thought processes
and actions, are to an increasing extent, more
open-minded.
41. Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 41
Jo-Anne Alvis@Khib.no -Visual Communication - 41
There are strong indications that the status of
images are improving, due to their constant
bombardment on the senses and the immediate
impact that they have.
When words and images have equal status
within all media of communication, diverse
cultures will be able to understand each other
a little better. Hopefully this should lead their
creators, to have a ethical and moral
responsibility.
I can not believe, it´s all over
