Visual “Literacy” in the Digital Age

This essay is a reflection on the ways in which visual media have evolved since the 1994 publication of the author's book Visual "Literacy": Image, Mind, and Reality. The essay focuses on two major technological changes in visual media, and on the cultural transformations that have accompanied those changes. The first technological change is the development of increasingly powerful techniques for the digital manipulation of photographs and the creation of computer-generated photorealistic images. Reviewing this development, which has made the task of detecting visual fraud more challenging, the essay assesses the likelihood that it may also have brought about an enhancement in societal levels of visual "literacy." Such an enhancement may also be a by-product of the second technological change discussed in this essay, namely, the increasing availability of digital networks for the dissemination of images and for public commentary about those images. The essay examines the use of such commentary for questioning the authenticity of visual advocacy and for exposing digital fraud.