Studying visual literacy: Research methods and the use of visual evidence

Abstract

The proliferation of images and their increased use in academic and everyday information practices has sparked an interest in visual literacy as an area of research and library instruction. Teaching approaches and student learning are examined using a variety of research methods and utilizing images in the research process. This paper provides a review of research methodology adopted in empirical studies of visual literacy that were published in academic journals between 2011 and 2017. The results indicate that one third (33%) of the examined studies adopted a quantitative approach with surveys being the most popular strategy. Qualitative and mixed-methods studies were a minority but represented a greater variety of strategies and data collection techniques. One third (33%) of the studies in the sample did not report any research methodology. Most of the studies (87%) used visual evidence in the research process.

Visual Literacy in the Context of Digital Education Transformation

“…In addition to textual and numeric data, researchers choose to use visual resources in the research process and collect data in visual form. (Matusiak, 2020). Visual evidence includes photography, historical archival imagery, contemporary media images, manipulated imagery, video stills, computer graphics, etc.…”

Higher Education Students’ Interpretive Strategies in Visual Text Interpretation

“…Relating the messages conveyed by the visual works to real-life events, situations, realities and scenarios in the society and community is a potential way to enhance the cultural and social significance of visual art. Matusiak [32], Lobinger [33], Mitchell's [34], and Liu [12] stated that viewers consider the social meaning of the text. Rather than identifying relationships between and among elements, viewers focus more on sociocultural issues.…”