The proliferation of visuals in everyday life has increased within a rapidly evolving digital landscape. The life cycles of visual materials, which includes the creation, distribution, description, consumption, and iteration of a visual, have been and continue to be altered by digital tools, new techniques for image and video manipulation, participatory cultural practices, and online communities. At each phase of this life cycle, humans introduce layers of meaning that can reinforce systemic inequities and hegemonic notions of knowledge creation. This subjectivity can be exacerbated by how visuals are classified and described via text-based descriptions, which can perpetuate their own systems of power. Text-based search acts as the primary access point for many visuals influencing how individuals find, engage with, and understand visual media. Visual literacy learners must scrutinize new technologies, multiple modes of information, and shifting norms as they develop creative and ethical practices for using, producing, and sharing visuals within the information landscape as it exists today and into the future.
Learners who are developing their visual literacy abilities:
Learners who are developing their visual literacy abilities:
ever-changing, resulting in possible loss or alteration of information as new tools and platforms replace older ones. [ICaaP]