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In this article, we argue for a deeper integration of visual media into the study of political polarization, suggesting that visual content serves as both a driver and reflection of ideological, affective, and perceived divides in society. We propose that analyzing visual elements such as political figures, symbols, and aesthetics can enrich our understanding of how polarized attitudes evolve and are reinforced across digital platforms. We highlight recent advances in computational methods that make it possible to study visual content at scale, allowing for new insights into the role of visuals in amplifying intergroup biases and societal divides. This framework underscores the value of multimodal approaches in political communication research and identifies key research questions to more fully capture the complex dynamics of polarization in today's media ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students are increasingly expected to deliver new knowledge through visual information formats without the level of consistent instruction and support that text-based information formats receive. This paper addresses the student expectation to deliver information through visual media formats and how librarians can work with faculty to support the development of visual information literacies. The disciplines of engineering and business are visual by nature because they use computerized drawings and data visualizations to develop and communicate models and ideas. This does not, however, ensure consistent and uniform visual literacy instruction and support. There is a gap in the literature comparing the experiences students have versus faculty regarding visual media assignment expectations. A survey was conducted to better understand the current state of visual media being assigned. The survey responses of engineering and business faculty were compared to engineering and business student responses. Focus groups were hosted to further explore the survey results. Despite high levels of confidence, both admitted to a level of guesswork while either assigning and grading visual media or completing visual media coursework. Both referred to the need for guidelines and a campus visual writing center. Library resources were identified to address these visual literacy needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of camera phones, the availability of photo-editing apps, and the rise of visually oriented social media platforms have made it convenient for citizens to produce and circulate visual content in contentious politics. While scholars have increasingly recognized the role of visuals in mobilizing social-mediated protests, how different types of visuals affect message engagement across different stages of protests remains underexplored. For this study, we analyzed approximately ten million tweets from Twitter for three social-mediated protests (Black Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate, and Women's March). We found that posts with images and videos generally attracted more audience engagement than their textual counterparts. Unpacking the role of visual media across different modalities and stages of social-mediated protests, we found that the superior effects of visuals were generally more pronounced during the ignition phase of the protest than the periods before and after. By applying unsupervised image clustering on millions of protest visuals, we systematically established four common visual content categories: crowd-based protest photos, non-crowd-protest human photos, non-human photos, and non-photograph visuals. We revealed heterogeneous effects on audience engagement across content categories and protests, and explored these categories through qualitative analysis of most-engaged visuals. These findings enrich our understanding of the mobilizing power of visual media in social movements and shed light on effective communication strategies regarding social inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the work of 'image construction' and 'memory reconstruction' by focusing on World Expos held in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia. We argue the construction of urban imaginaries through triumphal narratives induces a form of mega-event amnesia: the erasure from collective memory of communities and cultural artefacts, and the suppression of protest and resistance against these events. We then show how art can be used as a form of 'memory reconstruction'. Two case studies offer alternative narratives in the form of public art and archival media. The first case forges new storylines that remember Aboriginal culture and language through a major public art project in the heart of Sydney. The second discusses how a digitised archival film made by feminist filmmakers spotlights decades of disregard for the destruction of Brisbane's working-class inner-city fabric when made accessible to new audiences. These alternative narratives reconstruct the memory of the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition and Brisbane's World Expo 88 to show how art may be used to awaken urban memories and collective remembrance. Alternative narratives also breathe new life into the complex and contested histories of mega-events. While protest and 'the art of dissent' have been widely discussed regarding the Olympics, few scholars have considered their relationship to World Expos. Fewer still have considered how art reconstructs and reinterprets mega-events decades after they were held. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the much-touted 'sexual revolution', during the 1960s-70s, at the time most Western education systems avoided sex education. This article identifies contradictory discourses about sex as manifested in two distinct cultural expressions that co-occurred in those years in the UK. The first represented mainstream social conservatism – in the form of short sex education films produced for schools and colleges. The second, more radical alternative was the British-Australian underground magazine Oz, which expressed the sexual freedom of the counterculture. Both are discussed from the perspective of visual cultural history as competing agents of sex education – one reproducing the conservative paradigm, and the other aiming to dismantle it. While the films took a biomedical and preventive attitude to sex and embodied a patriarchal heteronormative approach , Oz supported sexual freedom and shattered taboos about such issues as abortion and sexual diversity, as well as celebrated women's sexuality. Nevertheless, male-dominant culture was also reflected on its pages, particularly in gratuitous images of female nudity. Despite this visual sexism, the article highlights the magazine as a countercultural entertainment medium educating for sexual pleasure and offering a creative, nonconformist perspective on sex that was way ahead of its time, and also of our own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on how the anthropological study of media—through an examination of its production, circulation, and consumption—elucidates issues of social organization, political economy, and alternative visions for political futures. By bringing together the studies of visual media, social movements, and hegemonic power by anthropologists and ethnographers of media since the turn of the twenty-first century, this review article provides a critical understanding of research about our current media environment, where scholarship within anthropology is heading in these domains, and what looking at these three fields together can mean for a more robust understanding of our political, social, and cultural futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching the Qur'an requires more seriousness and attention from each Koran teacher to find the best way to teach the Qur'an to children. When the servant made observations at the Nurul Iman Al-Qur'an Education Park (TPA) in Luwuk Kiri Village, the servant found several problems, namely there were still many Nurul Iman TPA children who could not distinguish hijaiyah letters correctly and accurately, could not pronounce makhrajul letters correctly, cannot distinguish between short and long readings, nor can they distinguish between kasrah, dhammah and fathah readings. This problem occurs because at TPA Nurul Iman does not use learning methods when learning the Qur'an, and there is also a lack of use of learning media when studying. To solve these problems, the devotees offered to use the Iqra 'method and visual media in learning the Koran at TPA Nurul Iman on the grounds that these methods and media were very suitable and suitable for children. Children also prefer to learn to recite the Qur'an using image media. In this service, the servant uses a persuasive, educative and participatory approach. The results of the application of the Iqro method and visual media have a good influence on the children of TPA Nurul Iman. These influences include: children become more interested in the material provided, increased enthusiasm for learning at TPA Nurul Iman children, children are enthusiastic in participating in learning, children are increasingly diligent in learning to read the Koran and children don't get bored easily when following the lesson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of news reporting about anti-Jesuit government actions and within the media landscape of eighteenth-century Europe, anti-Jesuitism began to posit a comprehensive superconspiracy and, in doing so, interweave religious and political aspects. Visual media played a decisive role in this process. Due to their high degree of intermediality and frequent recourse to allegory, printed news images were able to bundle ongoing debates and condense complex arguments. The allegorical pictorial language of these images was a specifically baroque form of non-linear "hypertextuality" that went far beyond the linear patterns of causality normally associated with the verbal and textual cultures of the Enlightenment. The visual dimension of news reporting was a means of cross-referencing and connecting that, by defying linear logic, promoted the idea that "nothing is as it seems" and that "everything is connected." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the novels Elizabeth Costello, Slow Man, and Life & Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee fashions an ethical mode of "writing photographs" rather than "writing about photographs" via the technique of ekphrasis to recreate in prose several vivid and often unsettling images. Through ekphrasis, the reader becomes what Liliane Louvel terms a "reader/viewer" and is drawn into a palimpsestic encounter in which the image activates collective knowledge and experiences of visual media. The use of ekphrasis comes with unique ethical imperatives. Close analysis enables an exploration into the strategies of writing, such as foregrounding what is unseen, that Coetzee employs to respond to such concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the underground cinema of the German Democratic Republic during the 1980s in regard to its contributions to the arts and the avant-garde. While scholars including Claus Löser and Katrin Frietzsche have contributed greatly to the remembrance of the East German underground cinema, its influences have been disregarded by film studies, not least within the anglophone field. As a result, little to no research has been conducted regarding its contributions to the avant-garde or through the scope of other art movements as the political aspect continues to be emphasized. This article draws upon multiple art developments such as dada, surrealism, performance and body art as well as Eastern European-specific movements. Therefore, it evaluates how the East German underground interprets those influences and further contributes to them. Significant works by Cornelia Schleime, Gabriele Stötzer, Thomas Frydetzki and Tohm di Roes are subject to analyses to reveal anarchist feminist tendencies and surrealism with anarchist aspects. It concludes that the East German underground must be seen as a contribution to the less-researched necrorealism as an art movement paralleling the constitutional socialist realism. As such, political implications cannot be subtracted altogether but shall rather be viewed alongside the emergence of anarchist surrealism during the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reads iterations of Pete Souza's "Situation Room" photograph across media contexts as an effect of an overdetermined public desire for U.S. redemption in the War on Terror. I argue that repetitions of the photograph's "about to die moment" invite a visceral identification between citizen-subjects and militarized state action through the subjunctive tense. The image's tension reflected through the public interpretation that Hillary Clinton gasps in the photograph, speaks to a collective excitability about war victory's imminence. If legitimacy for war builds through emotional ties staged by visual tenses and tensions, a crucial task for media criticism is opening possibilities to decathect from cycles of war drama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

YouTube has provided a platform for many queer vloggers in South Africa to find audiences and to represent queer lives via a public medium. The platform allows for multiple queer identities to be represented in dynamic ways, complicating the ways in which mainstream mass media often stereotype or distort queer lives and experiences, and simultaneously challenging the widespread social marginalisation of queer people. This article explores how queer South African vloggers have created communities that function as heterotopias, spaces that allow for social and cultural norms to be contested or reversed. These heterotopian YouTube communities provide forums where identity, space and authenticity or "realness" are invoked and reimagined in ways that speak back to the limitations or oppressions experienced in offline spaces. The communities also offer viewers and commenters the space to share, reflect on and demonstrate support for the experiences of others. Videos of influential South African vloggers are analysed to demonstrate the heterotopic potential of these queer communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Qur'an in the Islamic tradition, understood as the veritable word of God addressed directly to Muhammad, is much more than sacred text: it is the embodiment of the divine in humanity's midst. This understanding has impacted how Muslims engage with it, resulting in what I term the "multisensory engagement with the Qur'an." That is, Muslims primarily engage with the Qur'an through visual, aural, oral, tactile, and emotive avenues. And yet, in most undergraduate religion courses, the Qur'an is taught only as text and not as beyond text. Through a brief survey of the Islamic conceptualization of the Qur'an, I propose that a deliberate strategy is needed to give non‐textual modes of engagement equal space. Since Religious Studies pedagogies should be more in line with how the Qur'an is used and understood by Muslims, I offer a sample pedagogical model to teach this multisensory engagement with the Qur'an. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Aesthetics and the semblance of the real in terroristic gameplay' explores the recreation of terrorism and terrorist role-playing in gaming in a post 9/11 context. Drawing examples from contemporary games like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, ARMA 3: Takistan, Insurgency: Sandstorm and SQUAD, games provide for surprisingly subjective explorations of terrorist role-playing and image-making. What does it mean to recreate these images of terrorism, so closely associated with propaganda from the War on Terror? This article looks at the phenomenon through the Lacanian notion of the real; that which cannot be reduced to the symbolic or semiotic. In particular, it looks at the aesthetic appeal of terroristic images and how these lead to their recreation. The article suggests that the virtual world of gaming provides a risk-free space to explore the taboo of terrorism while participating in the recreation of aesthetic media tropes. It further explores the idea of terrorism as the return of the Lacanian real and how terrorist gameplay can be understood as the re-enactment of the semblance of the real. This article draws from the author's 2019 short film, Aim Down Sights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the disputes over images related to indigeneity and plurinationalism in the post-electoral crisis in Bolivia, focusing mainly on the realm of social media. It pays particular attention to how images such as memes, photographs, and videos produced and circulated by the movement for "democracy" opposed to Evo Morales and by sectors of the Right, project ideals of national unity based on racialised imaginaries that tend to obliterate references to plurinationalism. I also analyse the dichotomous ways in which multitudes and episodes of violence were represented by the two main sides in the conflict, such as the references to "mobs" and "hordes" versus "civic movements" and "resistance" respectively. I conclude by considering examples of promotional materials that the current interim government of President Jeanine Añez has developed since its inauguration, in order to reflect on the ways in which these display certain images of the "permitted Indian" for the national project that the social sector represented by her government is beginning to outline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text of the paper aims to analyse selected educational patterns from contemporary visual media (Czechoslovakia 1948-89) - postage stamps, posters, comics or caricatures aimed at the target group of young people. For the totalitarian communist regime, the youth represented an easily educated bearer of ideas and the prospects of maintaining the regime in the generations to come. The didactic application of these patterns in history education represents a suitable alternative to media education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how racism and nationalism flourish in participatory media spaces by analyzing user comments and images posted on the reddit community r/ImGoingToHellForThis in the week following widespread news coverage of the photograph of Alan Kurdi, a Syrian boy whose dead body was photographed on a beach in Turkey. The community is dominated by racist nationalist discourse that combines textual commentary with photographs and other visual media that have been remediated into offensive visual jokes, which "cloak" the racism. Through an in-depth study of user-submitted comments and visual jokes, this article argues that the "cloaks" that obscure online racism can be at once highly obvious and highly effective. Rather than unmasking obscured racist online ideologies, scholars must also examine how racism flourishes while hiding in plain sight by tracing how racist discourses assemble in participatory media communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose In an effort to advance visual literacy (VL) education, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a VL instruction program for 2.5-4-year-old children in a public library setting.Design/methodology/approach The study was designed as a series of VL workshops for young public library visitors. Each workshop collected information about children’s existing VL knowledge, introduced them to new visual concepts, and measured their engagement and comprehension of the newly acquired material. The study data were collected via questionnaires and observations.Findings Most of the children who participated in the study workshops showed a solid baseline knowledge of colors, lines, shapes and textures and were actively engaged in instruction. After the instruction, children generally showed an improved understanding of the newly introduced VL concepts and were able to answer questions related to the new concepts, recognize them in images, and apply them in art projects.Research limitations/implications The study relied on a relatively small sample of library visitors in an affluent neighborhood. The findings are influenced by variations in the topics and delivery methods of instruction. The study findings might not be generalizable beyond the US context.Practical implications The study methods and findings would be useful to VL educators who work with children.Social implications As information continues to proliferate in non-textual contexts, VL is becoming an increasingly important educational goal. The study advances a VL agenda and advocates for introducing VL early in life.Originality/value The authors are not aware of any other study that tested VL instruction on a group of very young children in a public library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the visual perception of global advertising video campaigns of two United Arab Emirates (UAE) based airline companies, Etihad Airways and Emirates. Brand funnel and brand personality were tested using data from tourists travelling to UAE after the launch of television commercials featuring internationally recognized celebrities Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Aniston. The objectives of this article are to explore the relationship among television commercialsʼ (TVCs) visuals using celebrities, brand personality, and consumers’ decision-making process within the brand funnel. Findings suggest that although Etihad Airways first introduced a very important person (VIP) in its advert, Emirates emerges as a stronger player in both emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The results confirm that Etihad Airways and Emirates significantly differ in three (sincerity, excitement, competence) out of five brand personality dimensions. Empirical results of the consumers’ decision process (brand funnel) in relation to brand personality dimensions are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study adopts appropriation theory to examine the role of film in tourist experiences. Specifically, it analyzes how tourists draw on and manipulate movies and TV programs to construct immersive experiences. Depth interviews reveal how consumers engage in nesting, investigating, and stamping operations in order to reduce the physical, mental, and emotional distance with places, plots, and characters. Findings expand the understanding of the relationship between film and tourist experiences by documenting instances of accidental film tourism wherein film plays an impromptu, meaningful role in tourist experiences, and by showing how film reconsumption extends tourist experiences beyond the trip itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although visual media are known to influence the image people have of tourism destinations worldwide, only a few studies have examined their role in the context of religious tourism. This study explores the role television (TV) news and documentaries play in religious tourists’ destination image, choice, and on-site experience. Ethnographic research (31 participant observations and 38 in-depth interviews) was conducted in two organized coach trips to the sacred island of Tinos, Greece. The findings suggest that broadcast images of the holy icon, the leading politicians, and the performing religious crowd shape the image of Tinos and influence visiting patterns. Additionally, the visual projection of religious tourists’ offerings appears to condition peoples’ on-site experience. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The hermaphrodite (rebis) is an essential symbol of alchemy. It emblematizes not only processes and operations of the physical realm, but represents in and of itself an allegory of the alchemical view of the world. Its background is a gender determined and sexualized understanding of the physical and metaphysical world that alchemy shares with hermeticism, kabbalah, and Christian mysticism – a common ground that is evident in the idea of the first creation of man as androgynous. The images of hermaphrodites occurring since the Late Middle Ages and changing their significance according to their context serve as media of knowledge: Their androgynous perfection unmakes gender difference. At the same time these images communicate the material and immaterial world to each other in a quasi sacramental manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on cognitive theories, this study intends to investigate the effects of explicit visual cues which have been proposed as a critical factor in facilitating understanding of biological images. Three diagrams from Taiwanese textbooks with implicit visual cues, involving the concepts of biological classification systems, fish taxonomy, and energy pyramid, were selected as the reading materials for the control group and reformatted in tree structure or with additional arrows as the diagrams for the treatment group. A quasi-experiment with an online reading test was conducted to examine the effect of the different image conditions on reading comprehension of the two groups. In total, 192 Taiwanese participants from year 7 were assigned randomly into either control group or treatment group according to the pre-test of relevant prior knowledge. The results indicated that not all explicit visual cues were significantly efficient. Only the explicit tree-structured diagrams cued significantly the key concepts of qualitative class-inclusion, parallel relations, and fish taxonomy. Meanwhile the effect of indexical arrows was not significant. The inconsistent effect of tree structure and arrows might be related to the extent of image reformation in which the tree-structured diagrams had undergone radical change of knowledge representation; meanwhile, the arrows had not changed the diagram structure of energy pyramid. The factor of prior knowledge was essential in considering the influence of image design as the effect of diagrams was very different for low and high prior knowledge students. Implications are drawn for the importance of visual design in textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the creative function of virtual instruments, sequencers, loops, and software-based synthesizers to introduce basic scoring and sound design concepts for visual media in an introductory music technology course. Using digital audio workstations with user-focused and configurable options, novice composers can hone a broad range of creative mixing skills supported by guided instruction, structured listening activities, and a discovery-based learning environment. Music production software affords many creative options to introduce soundtrack creation and granular synthesis for all levels with three curricular options listed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connecting with text-weary students can be a challenge in the online instructional environment. Librarians have often developed screencast videos and integrated screenshots into online learning objects to teach students basic research skills. An alternative technology, graphical interchange format (GIF), may prove to be an excellent blend of the two media. GIF technology allows librarians to reach visual learners by producing continuously looping animated images. Librarians at two academic libraries recently incorporated GIFs into online learning modules and research guides to experiment with the technology and its accessibility. This article will explore GIF technology's place in the current landscape of online library research instruction. The authors will provide their recommended best practices for incorporating GIFs as online learning objects with a spotlight on accessibility. The authors will expound upon their discoveries in working with the technology and describe the advantages and challenges of using such a technology to demonstrate research skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of a phenomenological study that explored the experiences of family members during their older loved one's delirium, a range of delirium experiences depicted in artistic, creative, and linguistic media were reviewed. The search for, and compilation of, media sources for reflection during data analysis is described in this paper. In doing so, the researcher reveals how attentiveness and openness to varied depictions of lived experiences, as well as a valuing attitude toward challenging subjective perspectives, can enhance researcher reflexivity and appreciation of interpretive meanings. Turning to media depictions of delirium offered alternative perspectives on the experience. It challenged the researcher's assumptions, enhanced phenomenological reflection, promoted critique of evolving interpretations, and suggested meanings that might not have otherwise been realized. The approach used is a potent, although often overlooked, way to differentiate the nature of phenomena shared through lived experience data. Media-based methods and their use in phenomenology continue to be explored. Illustrations of how to integrate media sources, as well as discussion about the benefits and alternatives to more common uses, are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural responses to photos are often used to infer what animals understand about their social environment, but are rarely validated against the same stimuli in real life. If subjects’ responses to photos do not reflect responses to the same live stimuli, it is difficult to conclude what happens in reality based on photo responses alone. We compared capuchins’ responses to photos versus live stimuli in an identical scenario within research cubicles. Subjects had the opportunity to approach food placed in front of an alpha group member and, in a separate condition, photos depicting the same individual. Subjects’ latencies to approach food when placed in front of the real alpha negatively correlated with time subjects spent in close proximity to the alpha in their main enclosure. We therefore predicted subjects’ latencies to approach food in the presence of photos would positively correlate with their latencies to approach food in the presence of the real alpha inside the cubicles, but negatively correlate with time they spent in proximity to the alpha in their enclosure. Neither prediction was supported. While not necessarily surprising, we explain why these results should be an important reminder that care is needed when interpreting results from photo studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relevant literature suggests that photographs communicate both literal and nuanced meanings of human activities and place. Visual forms of advertising that situate within commercialized city-space, for instance, convey an essential 'branding' of places associated with globalized interests. Importantly, these myriad visual artifacts increasingly occupy select spaces in urban geographies, often concomitant with a trajectory that encourages development under a scenario of brisk 21st century capitalism. In analyzing these manifestations and the interpretations they evoke, this study contextualizes the author s still photographs of Beijing, Kathmandu and Boston's Chinatown, places exhibiting fundamental differences but imprinted with activities reflective of ambitious development. The outgrowth of this research infers that visual media forms offer a productive means to document this phenomenon - namely, the expansive, recurrent commercial forms that prosper in urban areas amidst local spaces of deprivation or gentrification, and the consequent social landscape juxtapositions they elicit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing evidence that targeted instruction can improve diagram comprehension, yet one of the skills identified in the diagram comprehension literature—coordinating multiple representations—has rarely been directly taught to students and tested as a classroom intervention. We created a Coordinating Multiple Representation (CMR) intervention that was an addition to an intervention focused on Conventions of Diagrams (COD) and tested their joint effects on diagram comprehension for near transfer (uninstructed biology diagrams), far transfer (uninstructed geology diagrams), and content learning (biology knowledge). The comparison group received instruction using a previously validated intervention that focused exclusively on COD. Participants were 9th–10th grade biology students (N = 158 from two schools), whose classes were randomly assigned to COD alone or COD + CMR conditions and studied with a pretest–posttest experimental design. Both groups showed significant growth in biology knowledge (d = .30–.53, for COD and COD + CMR, respectively) and biology diagram comprehension (d = .28–.57). Neither group showed far transfer. Analyses of student work products during the interventions suggest that gains were not simply due to the passage of time, because student effort was correlated with gains in both treatment groups. Directions for improving future CMR interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Written from the point of view of a historian of religion\s, the article asks why the so-called "visual turn" has not left a major effect on the study of religion\s as an academic discipline and how things could be improved to that effect. It offers a synthetic account of earlier and contemporary involvements of scholars of religion and scholarly networks with images and visual culture, pointing to a general lack of sustained training and little exposure to relevant methodology and theory developed in relevant neighbouring disciplines. The author argues that the study of religion\s would benefit from increased attention to images and visual culture, emphasizing the potential of earlier (iconology in the Warburg-Panofsky tradition and the Groningen trajectory) as well as more recent approaches developed in Europe and the U.S., which theorize the visual in terms of visual culture, visual media, visual and scopic regimes, religious aesthetics and material religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present and evaluate an innovative classification system for medieval seals that was created as part of the Seals in Medieval Wales (SiMeW) project, funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The classification system developed in response to the cataloguing challenges associated with rapidly gathering sigillographic information on about 2,500 medieval seals from a number of collections in several UK repositories. Design/methodology/approach – This paper outlines the challenges involved in recording and classifying medieval seals from the British Isles, and describes existing systems for organizing sigillographic information. The SiMeW system is explained as a response to the limitations of existing systems. Findings – Designers of systems for recording seals need to take into account the physical characteristics of seal impressions, matrices, and casts, the strength and limitations of digital media, as well as the need of cataloguers and users. Originality/value – In recent years scholars have systematically investigated the problems associated with text-based image indexing and retrieval. Nonetheless, medieval seals have been largely overlooked, even though they are common in UK repositories. SiMeW’s system offers cataloguers an example of an approach that they can use in new and existing seal catalogues, to generate metadata that can help make seals, which are a key component of the cultural legacy of the Middle Ages, more accessible to users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Written from the point of view of a historian of religion\s, the article asks why the so-called "visual turn" has not left a major effect on the study of religion\s as an academic discipline and how things could be improved to that effect. It offers a synthetic account of earlier and contemporary involvements of scholars of religion and scholarly networks with images and visual culture, pointing to a general lack of sustained training and little exposure to relevant methodology and theory developed in relevant neighbouring disciplines. The author argues that the study of religion\s would benefit from increased attention to images and visual culture, emphasizing the potential of earlier (iconology in the Warburg-Panofsky tradition and the Groningen trajectory) as well as more recent approaches developed in Europe and the U.S., which theorize the visual in terms of visual culture, visual media, visual and scopic regimes, religious aesthetics and material religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses spatial experience in games, in relation to other media. A brief review of some classic works on spatial experience in literature, photography, cinema and television is presented. A theoretical framework composed of three 'types of space' is used for an analysis of a hypothetical simplified gameplay. As a result, the spatial experience of games is understood as a dynamic composition across different levels of materiality and meaning. This practice is made possible, amongst other factors, by fictional capacity, a cultural construction developed over centuries of interaction with media representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to assess the effects the Korean food featured on the Korean TV drama seriesDaeganggeumhas on the perceptions of national image and intention to visit Korea by residents of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand. Estimates of structural equation models are used for samples from the three countries to produce information for comparing relationships between variables: on preferring Korean food, the national image of Korea, and the intention to visit Korea for food tourism. The results show similarities and differences between the three national groups. Virtually identical models are found for Hong Kong and Taiwan groups. However, the comparison of Hong Kong and Taiwan groups to the Thailand group demonstrate differences. Specifically, in the Thai sample, distinctiveness of Korean food culture significantly increases the intention to visit Korea for food tourism. All three national groups demonstrate that a strong relationship exists between the national image of Korea and the intention to visit Korea for food tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the visual mediation of evangelical short-term mission and the theologically inflected global imaginary that these forms engender. Recent decades have seen the resurgence of long-term mission and the emergence of short-term mission among US Christians. The latter, combining evangelization, service, and tourism, is a staple within evangelical youth culture. I argue that it is used by Christians to constitute themselves as global formations, while also offering theological frames for global Christianity. Central to this global theological imaginary are visual representations of mission encounters with ethnic, sectarian, and racial Others, which illustrate the global scope of mission and missionaries' understandings of their own efforts to engage and overcome those differences. Through an analysis of the visual content of four short-term mission agencies' websites, I examine the mediation of global Christianity in contemporary mission and its recruitment of global Christian subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research looked into the effect of how cognitive development toward imagery is formed through visual perception by means of a quantitative questionnaire. The main variable was the difference between the learning backgrounds of the interviewees. A two-way ANOVA mixed design was the statistical method used for the analysis of the 2 × 4 (2 by 4) study design. The analysis on the main effect was conducted, and a significant difference was also shown in the result. First, the two variables of student learning background and imagery cognitive development interact with one another. Second, there is a significant difference in students’ learning backgrounds. The cognitive level between the two was visibly apparent. Last, the four aspects that made up the visual perception all showed significant difference. Therefore, cognitive development will be affected by lifestyle, personal preferences, interests, and biological conditions which will have different levels of influence on visual perception. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the main findings of research to check strategies of the meaning construction in caricatures of century XIX. The object of study are the newspapers of the city Rio Grande/RS O Diabrete, Marui and Bisturi. The issue is about how the visual discourse is used to attract the reader's attention, guide the interpretation, provide information and even popularize the newspaper media. The theoretical and methodological framework relies on the proposal of Image Theory to analyze the composition of the images from the morphological, dynamic and scalar elements. The result considers that the caricatures, guiding the editorial strategy, represent a new genus of communicating, with simple structuring, strong appeal of reading and opinion formation. The study highlights the strength of the tracing as a resource for journalism information production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic detection of salient objects in visual media (e.g., videos and images) has been attracting much attention. The detected salient objects can be utilized for segmentation, recognition, and retrieval. However, the accuracy of saliency detection remains a challenge. The reason behind this challenge is mainly due to the lack of a well-defined model for interpreting saliency formulation. To tackle this problem, this letter proposes to detect salient objects based on selective contrast. Selective contrast intrinsically explores the most distinguishable component information in color, texture, and location. A large number of experiments are thereafter carried out upon a benchmark dataset, and the results are compared with those of 12 other popular state-of-the-art algorithms. In addition, the advantage of the proposed algorithm is also demonstrated in a retargeting application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this study is to further understanding of the situated activity of seeking pictures. It relates to an ongoing discussion on how multimodal information literacies are enacted in different social practices. Design/methodology/approach – In order to understand the characteristics of the communication and interactions in the activity of seeking pictures, video recordings from an ethnographic study of primary school children working with problem-centred assignments have been analysed. Findings – The analysis reveals how the activity of seeking pictures is shaped by the assumption that pictures are different from facts and information; pictures are seen primarily as having decorative functions. The activity is also characterised by playful, yet efficient cooperation between the children; they make the activity meaningful by transforming it into a play and game activity where pictures become important as physical objects, but not as a semiotic means of learning. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the activity of seeking pictures in a specific primary school; however, it shows how modes other than textual modes can be included in the study of information activities. Practical implications – The study reveals the need for developing methods for enhancing children's possibilities to critically examine and learn from visual material, such as pictures. Originality/value – Research on information seeking and information literacies rarely focus on multimodal aspects of information activities or the seeking of pictures outside special collections, despite the increased significance of visual material in the contemporary media landscape. This paper shows how studies of multimodal information activities can be designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the early history of X-rays. It argues that, during the first years after their discovery in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, they were regarded as a technological attraction and a visual medium. While their application in medical practice was not yet fully established, the possibility of seeing into the realm of the invisible encouraged pioneers of this technology to actively exploit their visual powers. By using a media-history framework, and relying on primary and secondary sources in English, German, French, and Italian, the article takes into account three aspects of the rays' early display: its character of technological attraction; its association with photography; and its connection to beliefs in the supernatural and the occult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the effect of the media on society is integrated with visuality, the outcome on the side of society goes quite beyond expectations. The visual language in the media shaped by commercial concerns can gain a function in this respect, even when the presented material finds no response on the other side, and the audience could be taken under its influence without the formation of any necessity for a long-term process. While the intense penetration of technology, which is the symbol of modernity, into human life provides a privilege in that it enables the conservation of values, there has been a disregard for the possible harm that it could inflict on the existing values in relation to their use for different purposes. Among the programmes transformed into a visual performance as a result of the increased value in ratings, dance, as a means of artistic communication with its strong visual effect, has found its place on TV, which is a powerful weapon of the visual media, thanks to its convenience for the new understanding of entertainment, thereby ceasing to be on its own with its faith and becoming a focus of interest. This study deals with the meeting point between dance, which could be defined as a visual banquet, and television, which is a unidirectional means of visual communication, on the ground of visuality. The topic has been discussed in terms of the content of programmes created with a concern for ratings in the current process as well as the dancers involved in these programmes, and the effect of this apparently privileged use on the art of dance has been interpreted concerning the place of dance in the visual media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This paper aims to report an empirical study of the information-related behaviour of emerging artists and designers. It also aims to add to understanding of the information behaviour of the group both as practising artists (a little understood category of information users), and also as "new practitioners". Design/methodology/approach — A literature analysis is used to guide creation of an online questionnaire, eliciting both qualitative and quantitative data. A total of 78 practising artists participated, all having graduated in the seven years prior to the survey. Findings — The group have generally the same information practices as more established artists. They place reliance on internet and social networks, while also using traditional printed tools and libraries. Browsing is important, but not a predominant means of accessing information. Inspiration is found from a very diverse and idiosyncratic set of sources, often by serendipitous means. Their status as emergent practitioners means that their information behaviour is governed by cost factors, and by needs for career advice and interaction with peers. Research limitations/implications — The study group are a convenience sample, all having access to the internet. No observation or interviews were carried out. Practical implications — The results will provide guidance to academic and public librarians serving artist users, and to those providing career advice to them. It will also be valuable to those providing services to "new practitioners" in any field. Originality/value — This is one of a very few papers reporting empirical studies of the information behaviour of artists, and has the largest sample size of any such study. It is one of a very few papers considering the information needs and behaviour of new practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rooted in anthropologists' long-standing roles as producers, users, and disseminators of images, this brief article takes the pulse of ethical considerations related to visual media in the discipline. Reflecting on the intent, content, and implications of the Society for Visual Anthropology-sponsored visual ethics discussion sessions at the 2007-9 American Anthropological Association meetings, we seek here to situate these events in the context of recent disciplinary engagements with image-based responsibilities and to assess their relationship to comparable endeavors in allied fields. Our considerations come together in a discussion of why, how, and to whom visual ethics matter. Ultimately, we put forward a series of tentative proposals for the Society for Visual Anthropology's future navigation of these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postcards are an important resource that has been largely overlooked in mainstream research on historical events, political attitudes, perceptions, propaganda, and communication. Accordingly, this article expands the relevance of the postcard from social artifact to historical document embodying social and political messages. In particular, the article examines the images and representations used in cartographic postcards during and after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Not only is this relevant to the study of political propaganda, but also for the study of historic media, popular consumption of political messaging, and as an additional tool with which to study the history of international politics and communication. The political history leading up to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War is briefly covered. Images of cartographic postcards are examined in context of the conflict, with the goal of gaining a greater appreciation for postcards as a form of early “soft news” visual mass media. As such, this is a means by which imperial attitudes and public opinion were shaped. Recommendations are made to broaden the use of postcards as primary documents, especially as these cards are enjoying an online renaissance (e.g., collecting, displaying, discussing). They are valuable in augmenting a variety of research agendas and are fruitful for the study of early modern mass media, social history, public discourse, and political messaging with regard to soft news and public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relative engagement potential of four types of electronic screen media (ESM): animated video, video of self, video of a familiar person engaged with an immersive virtual reality (VR) game, and immersion of self in the VR game. Forty-two students with autism, varying in age and expressive communication ability, were randomly assigned to the experimental conditions. Gaze duration and vocalization served as dependent measures of engagement. The results reveal differential responding across ESM, with some variation related to the engagement metric employed. Preferences for seeing themselves on the screen, as well as for viewing the VR scenarios, emerged from the data. While the study did not yield definitive data about the relative engagement potential of ESM alternatives, it does provide a foundation for future research, including guidance related to participant profiles, stimulus characteristics, and data coding challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature on the information behavior of practicing visual artists to determine if a consistent model emerges and what further research is necessary. Design/methodology/approach - Works dealing with the information needs and uses relevant to the creative activities of visual artists are discussed in the paper. These works are assessed for their contributions toward understanding of the specific information behaviors of practicing artists. Findings - The results show that a consistent model of artists' information behavior emerges. However, nearly all of the literature focuses on art students, academic art faculty, or librarians, and so any claim that practicing artists fit the model is largely unsupported by research. There have been no published studies of communities of practicing visual artists. The implications of defining artists as communities of practice are discussed. Research limitations/implications - Research is proposed that studies the information behavior of communities of practicing visual artists in order to confirm or amend the existing model. Practical implications - Practitioners will have their attention drawn to an underserved user population whose information needs and behaviors have not been directly targeted for research. They will recognize the need for study of their own artist communities and the development of services for them. Originality/value - This paper directs the discussion of artists' information behavior away from the art-library-specific literature, where it has largely resided, as a means of adjusting the focus of research onto the largely unstudied and underserved communities of practicing artists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — Critical care nurses' work is rich in informative interactions. Although there have been post-hoc self report studies of nurses' information seeking, there have been no observational studies of the patterns of their on-duty information behavior. This paper seeks to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach — This study used participant observation and in context interviews to describe 50 hours of the observable information behavior of a representative sample of critical care nurses in a 20-bed critical care unit of a community (non-teaching) hospital. The researcher used open, in vivo and axial coding to develop a grounded theory model of their consistent pattern of multimedia interactions. Findings — The resulting Nurse's Patient-Chart Cycle describes their activities during the shift as centering on a regular alternation between interactions with the patient and with the patient's chart (in various record systems), clearly bounded with nursing ‘report’ interactions at the beginning and the end of the shift. The nurses' demeanor markedly changed between interactions with the chart and interactions with the patient. Their attention was focused on patient-specific information. They had almost no time or opportunity to consult published sources of information while on duty. Originality/value — Libraries often provide nurses with information services that are based on academic models of information behavior. Clinical information systems are designed more for medico-legal record keeping than for nursing care. Understanding the reality of nurses' on-duty information behavior may guide librarians and systems designers in the provision of more appropriate systems and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postcolonial literature has mostly overlooked advertising in its discussion of national identity formation and the discursive rupture after colonial hegemony. Focused on the Caribbean nation Trinidad and Tobago, this article reconsiders the positions of scholars who have judged the Caribbean cultural sphere as heavily influenced by external aesthetics and the Caribbean mediascape as dominated by imported texts. Building upon Homi Bhabha's work (1990b), the author examines the construction of a mediated Third Space, by which local voices have become active participants in the culmination of a Trinidad and Tobago mediascape. The author examines the discourses that circulated within 1 television commercial break on TV6 (the country's most popular television station at the time of this study) and uses textual analysis to focus on 2 locally produced television advertisements. This analysis aligns with the academic positioning of Caribbean producers as actively wielding power in the negotiation of national and regional identities through the production of media texts that represent a wealth of local production in visual media. Ultimately the author argues that despite the historical dominance of imported television programs and motion pictures in the Caribbean mediascape, television advertising operates as a space of interstitiality and hybridity and plays a central role in the production of liminal, resistive identity formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CSI changes the way television drama looks in the multiple sense of its high production values, its novel autoptic and anatomic imagery and the gazes it configures for the viewer. In these ways CSI showcases the performance of forensic science, trades on an appetite for CG effects and, through its graphic depiction of ruined corpses, draws imagery from Gothic horror. This article examines the role of the corpse within CSI. How are the viewer's access to the corpse, and violent death, mediated through the gazes of the CSI's and the special effects used by the show's producers? How might this rendering of science and death contribute to a broader public imaginary? I theorize pedagogic and necrophilic gazes upon the gendered, raced and predominantly youthful corpse and elucidate that which is effaced by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the Vietnam War, the importance of media in war has been such that even after the war ended, meetings were set to try and influence public opinion into a positive view of future conflicts. It has been since then understood that wars are fought both at the battlefield and the propaganda level. This has put forward the idea of media not just as a messenger or a representative in absence of the real thing, but as part of the political discourse that helps shape public life. Before 1914 propaganda meant the simple broadcast of ideas but after world war one it acquired a negative connotation, especially after the first experiences with psychological warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]