Information and Visual Literacy - Essay Example

When breaking down images, you need first consider the audience of the image in terms of say race or gender, the context, and the purpose of the image. Each of these components is essential when understanding the information an image portrays.

The ability to derive meaning from any image of everything we see - to write and read visual language - is known as visual literacy. It refers to being vision-competence a person can develop by viewing and while having and integrating the other sensory experiences. Developing these competencies is important to normal human learning since they allow a visually literate human being to discriminate and interpret visible objects, symbols, or actions that he or she encounters in the environment. By creatively using these competencies, the person is capable of communicating with others.

Another form of literacy is new Literacies. These are digital literacies (online, phones, messaging, sms, and computers. New Literacies comprises letters, symbols, sounds, colours, and graphics to extend our language and how we communicate.