Visual+Literacy

__**Visual Literacy**__

After looking at the visual, I realized that I was very confused with what the message of this visual was supposed to be. If I were to make a guess as to what this was supposed to show, I would say that is comparing how many chickens are raised for food compared to how much beef is eaten each year. However I am not sure if that is what it really is supposed to be. There are five Instructional Functions that are used when critiquing visual literacy: decorative, representative, organizational, interpretive and transformative. This visual shows only decorative and organizational functions. The pictures of the food and the chick are great for decorating the table and to show what is being talked about. Also it is organized nicely by numbers and food, which shows the good organization. However, it does not represent the message it should, it also does not interpret what the message is supposed to be saying and it surely does not transform into the overall message. When focusing on PAT: Perceptions, Actions and Tools, there are a few positives and negatives. First of all, when it comes to hierarchy, (which I believe in this case is defined as “system of levels according to which a language is organized”) I do not see any hierarchy in this visual. In fact, I really do not see anything that was listed under Perceptions in this visual. I also did not see anything when it came to Actions either. Nothing was being contrasted and there was no repetition. Lastly was Tools. This was about the only part of PAT that I saw in this visual. The box was colorful and it had great details within the pictures and boxes. It was not just black and white and it showed the food that was being explained. In conclusion, I believe that whoever made this table needs to add many components for it to be a good visual. A title would have helped so the audience could know what was being said. It also needed many transitions to show how the food was being compared. I really had a tough time critiquing this table because so many things seemed to be wrong with it.