Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

This is a thought provoking article in which any number of elements could be explored in 400 – 500 words. One critique is that some of his terms could be more explicit. For example, even the term ‘visual literacy’ is limiting. ‘Media Literacy’ or ‘Critical Media Literacy’ is more accessible and encompassing of what he’s writing about. Similarly, ‘semantic and syntactic properties of language’ is somewhat opaque. Perhaps ‘content and form’ is clearer, and would certainly be clearer conveying to high school students.

I also thought he could have expanded on what drives the structure and production of visual literacy. The producers of such texts are concerned with persuasion and power: to influence how we think, what we believe, what we buy, and how we act. Granted, Messaris’ focus is on the visual and so this critique may be beyond the scope of his paper, but I’m not sure how we can separate the use of language, color, and choice of diegetic and no-diegetic sounds in any discussion of visual literacy. There is invariably a crafted synergy among them to achieve an intended effect in order to persuade the target audience, a technique known as ‘clustering’ (Allison & Chanen, 2011, p. 172). Non-diegetic sounds work in tandem with how images are sequenced (Consider the music that plays when Darth Vader enters the room, for example). While the manipulation of sound is not visual with paraproxemic elements it does follow a “well-developed, fixed set of rules” (Messaris, 1998, p. 75) that contribute to meaning.

An interesting feature of his article is the use of camera angles to objectify women in movies. This reminded me of the work of the sociologist Ernest Goffman (genderdisplays, 2014) who argued that in the field of advertising, the women portrayed are often dismembered (with only parts of their body showing), in which the men are shown in positions of dominance over women. Invariably the woman (or women) also gazes longingly at the man as he stares imperiously or indifferently into the camera or beyond. In real life, of course, most men are not nonchalant while having supermodels draped over them, but I believe Goffman’s issue is how women are represented in advertising, and for what ends. That’s for another essay.

I’m taught a course in Language, Culture, and Mass Communication in the high school IB program and am more familiar in approaching this from a semiotic perspective that considers aspects of Structuralism, Post-Structuralism and the role of the audiences of media texts.  In this regard it seems as if Messaris considers a more Structuralism view, in that we as media consumers are potential victims in interpreting and responding to visual texts the way the producers of these texts intend us to. In suggesting that the role of education is to “’denaturalize’ the ads’ visual syntax” (Messaris, p. 77) he is urging that we as educators teach students how to deconstruct visual texts so that students are more aware of the producers’ agenda.

Works Cited

Allison, R. & Chanen, B. (2011). English A: Language and Literature Course  Companion. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

genderdisplays. (2014). Goffman: Gender Advertisements. Retrieved from http://genderdisplays.wordpress.com/theory/

 Messaris, P. (1998). Visual Aspects of Media Literacy. Journal of Communication, 48, 70-80. (UBC Electronic Holdings)

PLEASE NOTE: This website’s format altered the indent of each Works Cited entry and I can’t correct it.