March 21, 2012

Effects of the Transition to a Visual Culture
Lucinda Whitfield
Western Governor University

The world has begun to move to a culture full of visual images, this transition has even had an impact on literature and has shaped our world into a visual culture. In this paper, the writer will investigate the effects of visual literacy on society. Visual images are observed in many facets of global society. Vast amounts of information today is embedded in forms of media that does not solely rely on linguistics causing the new digital generation to have a need to develop new types of literacy skills. Messages that were once conveyed through literary texts are now communicated through other forms of media that are enhanced or supported by visual images. The emergence of a growing visual culture has led to a steady decline in literary culture and has several underlying effects. Mirzoeff argued (1998) “the visual culture defines and delimits the post-modern present in that the culture that we call postmodernism is best imagined and understood visually, just as the nineteenth century was classically represented in the newspaper and the novel” (p.5). Understanding what is seen versus what is read will likely continue to be an important acquired and needed skill for people of all ages. Several trends are believed to be contributors for the need to attain new literacy skills. In a time of reality television, movies, video gaming, and digital billboards, it is rare that an individual must experience written narrative independently. Often, interpretations of linguistics are accompanied with or represented by visuals. To paraphrase John Naisbitt’s view in Mindset, with the advancement and overflow of technology and personalization of design and advertising, even industries are now using visuals to promote products, belief systems, and disseminate