Abstract
The intention that motivates an online image’s creation might be ignored by overwhelmed media consumers as images wash over them as they scroll through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat. Consumers of commercially and personally produced images tend to focus on how those images make them feel as opposed to the narrative or reportorial information embedded in images. Since both “experts” and “novices” create online images, discerning an imagemaker’s level of expertise is difficult, if not impossible, to grasp due to lack of attribution, the availability of sophisticated online photo editing tools, and a steep learning curve among many novice creators. To discourage merely skimming images and to develop greater visual literacy, five principles of visual composition can be applied to access and analyze the intended and unintended denotative and connotative messages embedded in personal or commercial images posted on various social media platforms. Once those are understood, both novice and experienced image curators and creators can expand their acumen analyzing existing images for their emotional and narrative content. They could then produce effective images that include selfies, photograph-based narrative storyboards, and Vine videos to strengthen their ability to share images that require more than a cursory skim and demonstrate an understanding of digital citizenship in knowing not only what is worth posting but also where it should be posted.
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- https://www.flickr.com
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This app allows user to store, organize, and share photos.
- http://instagram.com
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This app enables user to modify, post, and share photos to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
- memegenerator.net
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The Meme Generator makes images available that are altered by the user, then reposted on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets. These image macros (text laid over image to comic effect) tend to “go viral” and spread quickly in a variety of altered versions.
- https://www.snapchat.com
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This photo-messaging tool allows transmission of photos, videos, or drawings that are only available to the recipient for a limited amount of time before it is deleted from the recipient’s device as well as from Snapchat’s server.
- https://www.tumblr.com
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This app allows user to post photos, links, music, videos, and text that can be organized by a particular theme’s HTML.
- https://twitter.com
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Twitter allows registered users to compose, share, and read 140 character messages or tweets. Unregistered users are limited to reading messages.
- https://vine.co
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Users create and post 6-s videos to this social network site.
- http://whisper.sh/
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This free app allows users to send messages anonymously usually in the form of an image macro as well as receive replies to their messages shared anonymously. Responders can choose to post publicly or privately.
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Christel, M. (2015). Presenting My Selfie to the Digital World: Visual Composition for Better Representation. In: Baylen, D., D'Alba, A. (eds) Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_6
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