Citation

Natharius D. Am. Behav. Sci. 2004; 48(2): 238-247.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0002764204267269

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The role of visual perception in media literacy is paramount in understanding the shift from a linear perceptual process (literacy) to a holistic perceptual process (visuality) by which almost all information is now transmitted through the visual forms of mass media: television, film, and the Internet. The media-literate individual must be educated in the processes of visual perception and how the media use the visual channels to transmit, and often distort, information. The media-literate person understands the meaning of the primary axiom of visual communication--The more we know the more we see--as well as the next most important axiom: What is not seen is as important as what is seen.