What it means to be literate has changed with the culture over time. Many people disagree about what it means to be literate. For some it is knowing the right mode of communication, or Discourse for the moment, and being able to use the right Discourse for the situation.(literate means to be able to read and write. For the average layman being literate is simply being able to read and write effectively.To be effective, being literate requires certain level of comprehension, and over time that required knowledge has changed. To be literate, a person must now know more than ever before. Before the printing press, the education required to be able to read and write was limited to a select few, thus at that time literacy was a special skill, not a necessary part of being a productive member of society. This changed over time, especially towards the invention of the printing press. That invention spread not only the ability to teach the masses how to read, but it also made literacy a skill needed to be a more productive and sucessful part of the society.
The way people communicate has also changed. Before written records people had to rely on their oral memory. Written records allowed it to be possible to understand how communication had changed. The printing press allowed the rate of communication to increase many times over, which changed the nature of communication. With the invention of the television, and more recently computers, although text is still important, visual symbols are increasingly being used. A good example of this is the little icons in computer programs that perform certain functions when selected by a pointing device. Thus in order for someone to be literate in addition to whatever is required of them by being able to read and comprehend what they read, they must also be familiar with the usage and meanings of a wide variety of symbols. Symbols and logos that represent something are becoming more prevalent in this society.
The power of images is evident in everyday life. The logos of companies, and the place in our society of laws which allow companies to reserve certain symbols, usually company logos, which the companies can choose to convey a certain message about the company. Take the cartoon from Camel Cigarettes, this figure is easy to remember because of its surrealistic rendering of a anthropomorphized camel, which smokes a particular brand of cigarettes. This paticular imagery conveys the attempts to convey the message that if you smoke those cigarettes and wear that style of clothing, you will also enjoy the apparent sucesses of the Camel, ie beautiful women, fast cars, alcohol, and money. (Of course if people stopped and thought about it, the only thing cigarettes really do is make you *look* and *smell* like a Camel!)
In the last several years recent advances with computers have allowed many things to occur especially concerning images and their meaning. The ability to edit and change images at will with computers allows much greater flexibility to custom create images that convey any particular thought or emotion that the author intends. It used to be the case the photographs told the truth, this is no longer the case, it is relatively easy to change any photographic image and manipulate it to point out certain features or create ones that didn't previously exist. (Croft 4) The ease with which this is accomplished is not only amazing, but it is easy to acquire, which has led to a proliferation of the usage of these modified images. (Croft 4)
This move to communicating more information visually is not surprising, nor is it limited to the realms of computers and television. A the fast growing section of books is a relatively new genre, the graphic novel. These books are a cross between comic books, and novels, and although many consider them to be merely long comics, they are certainly valid literature. The communicate not just with words, but also with pictures.( Mossberg , 1). An excellent example of this is Art Spiegelman's critically acclaimed, and very popular MAUS. This book uses pictures to convey many feelings and emotions which would require substantial more words to convey effectively. In general, before Spiegelman could draw any of the pictures he had to plan exactly what he wanted down. Everything that he put in, had to be deliberate. This means that each picture essentially had to do several things aside from telling the story. It had to extend our understanding of the situation by relating what was going on to the outside world. Thus visually it would set a certain feeling, which would modify the meaning what they were talking about. Spiegelman also made excellent usage of the background art to set the tone, and subconsciously foreshadow what was soon to come. Spiegelman's book is a forerunner of more books like this. There are not many graphic novels, but the numbers are increasing.
It is not surprising that visual literacy is becoming more important. Learning to read does not come as readily as understanding pictres, this is evident with the development and schooling of children. ( Zurmuehlen 18) Children begin communication orally, and with visual signals. ( Zurmuehlen 14) Before writing, and until a child is nearly in middle school, a surprising emphasis of education in this country is with drawing. (Zurmuehlen) 15 Nearly 20-30 percent of total time from preschool through fifth grade is spent drawing, painting, or producing some sort of art. The large amount of time spent doing this is done for a variety of reasons( Zurmuehlen)it promotes interaction, enhances their ability to vocalize thoughts, but mostly it is there first attempts at nonverbal communication.
To be literate in the Twenty first Century, not only will one have to be able to read, and write, but one must also be able to understand the different elements and meanings of images. One must be able to understand the subtlies of pictures and incorporate them into there communication. The skills of finding, selecting, and evaluating will become more critical than ever.