Reading Images

People download and process images in a myriad of ways--different people will view different images differently. However, there is a way that producers of images can structure their images to get their intended messages across. There are three basic elements of the way that producers can try to influence the way their audience will perceive an image--information value, salience, and framing. Information value deals with the placement of the elements, whether that be left, right, top bottom, center, or peripheral. Salience deals with where in an image the viewer should focus their attention. And framing deals with the devision or union of elements within an actual image.

Producers of images are able to influence all of these elements to portray a powerful message. In my opinion, the most interesting element of this theory of reading images is the information value distinction between the given and the new. Producers place the given information, or that which is already known and understood, on the left, and move towards the new information, or the unknown and not yet understood, on the right. This is true for writing as well--you start with that which is already known, and then build new ideas off of that foundation. Depending on the readership of a newspaper or magazine, that which is given and that which is new may change. Also, the new has the potential of becoming the given for the next new. Information is always evolving and changing.