Suggests that verbal and visual literacy are interdependent and that English departments should take on the task of heightening visual literacy. (AEA)

The unfounded and sometimes absurd attacks on television have tended to obscure many of the medium's obvious personal, social, and aesthetic benefits. It is easy to watch, and if its content does not always provide viewers with much to think about, television does not ask much of them either: they may eat, sleep, and unwind in front of it,…

Semiotics addresses the question of how people derive meaning from a text, and meaning stems from considering phenomena as signs and from looking at the relationships among these signs. Thus, a semiological analysis of the television series "Cheers" reveals that the title suggests happiness, good spirits, and companionship. The show…

The revolution brought about by computerized technology, in general, and television imagery, in particular, challenges the perceptual habits and alters the television viewer's means of expressing appreciation of the aesthetic merits of such television images. This study speculates on several perceptual and aesthetic drawbacks of future massive…

Suggests that television's imaginative hold on its viewers is produced by its use of primal mythological stories and powerful ritual narratives. (MM)

Suggests a simple, adaptable pattern for teaching the grammar of films and television, i.e., its agreed conventions of vocabulary and syntax. A variety of feature-length films and extracts are listed to illustrate the concepts being taught as well as film distributors and addresses. (MBR)

Argues that video courses must teach students not only to make intelligent viewing choices but to sift truth from suggestion in commercials, to avoid mindless acceptance of television's versions of appropriate sex roles, and to examine the values promoted in television programs. Suggests a number of books for media study. (MM)

Research has shown that producers and consumers of television programs are still uncertain about the nature of the "grammar" or "lexicon" that makes up the language of television. Although attempts have been made in experimental television ("video art"), systematic studies on the idiosyncratic nature, unique features,…

Examines the relationship between art and technology by discussing the impact of television. Describes this relationship from five different perspectives. Suggests that it remains to be seen whether technology will replace the printed page and lead to a more visually and aurally receptive state. (KO)

One approach to the study of the televised image is through the combination of signs, created through production choices. Just as a linguistic sign does not carry exclusively the thoughts of its author but interposes its own material form (thus affecting reading of the text), so does the production choice (technique) infect the thought of the…

Unlike the linear, serial process of reading books, learning to "read" television is a parallel process in which multiple pieces of information are simultaneously received. Perceiving images, only one aspect of understanding television, requires the concurrent processing of information that is compounded within a symbol system. The…

Television has become such an important factor in our culture that it must be made a part of the educational curriculum if our free and democratic society is to survive. Those who know how to use the television medium are able to brainwash the rest of us easily, for most of us are television illiterates. The development of print literacy, opposed…

This paper argues that a completed study pertaining to the various factors involved in the proper recognition and aesthetic application of moving images (primarily television pictures) should consider: (1) the individual viewer's general self-awareness, knowledge, expertise, confidence, values, beliefs, and motivation; (2) the viewer's…

Discusses television's influence on today's youth culture and examines measures that may be taken to limit or change the nature of that influence. Warns that efforts to control television programing will continue to fail until educators understand that television is an integral part of the youth culture, not just an influence.(KO)

Today's students are more comfortable with and skilled at discovering and developing information in a different verbal and visual text than that commonly found in the classroom dominated by written texts and conversation. This gap between the verbal and visual environments has implications for the teaching of reasoning skills: literacy in one…