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MEDIA AND
INFORMATION LITERACY
Quarter 2 – Module 5:
VISUAL INFORMATION
AND MEDIA

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 What I Need to Know

This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
master the context of Media and Information Literacy. It contains varied activities
that can help you as a Senior High School student to not just be an information
literate individual, but a creative and critical thinker as well as responsible user and
competent producer of media and information.

The module contains lesson in Visual Information and Media.

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Describe the different dimensions of visual information and media.
(MELC)
2. Evaluate the reliability and validity of visual information and media
and its/ their sources using selection criteria.

What I Know

Let us determine how much you already know about the Media and
Information Literate Individual by answering the questions below. Use your notebook
/ worksheet for your answers.

A. Multiple Choice Select the letter of the best answer from the given choices.

1. Type of visual information that you normally see as either “pure black and
white or grayscale having a number of gray shades or color containing a
number of color shades.
A. Formatted Text C. Unformatted Text
B. Image D. RGB Color Mode

2. Color model used for colored lights like images on a monitor screen and has
the colors red, green, and blue as its primary colors.
A. RGB Color Model C. CMYK Color Model
B. HSB Model D. Light Color Model
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 3. Color model used for colored inks like images printed on paper and has the
colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black as the primary colors.
A. RGB Color Model C. CMYK Color Model
B. HSB Model D. Light Color Model

4. A stage or process where the digital image is manipulated with the use of
editing software.
A. contrasting C. formatting
B. toning D. Editing

5. Pictures that are either drawn by the hand or through computer software.
A. Graphics C. Graphic Artist
B. Image D. Text

6. In file format the key consideration in the selection of a particular format for
storing visual media is ________________.
A. Resolution C. Compression
B. retrieval D. quality

7. Visual Design Principles and Elements that suggest to always distribute the
visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space.
A. Size B. Focal Point
B. Rhythm D. Balance

8. It is uncompressed proprietary format invented by Microsoft.

A. RAW C. Bitmap (BMP)
B. PSD D. TIFF

9. Which file extension is an example of an audio file?

A. .fly B. .mp4
C. .wmv D. .mp3

10. Your classmate is making a poster with a theme “PEACE”. What you can
suggest if he is asking help from you about what color background to be
used.
A. Red C. Green
B. Blue D. Yellow

B. Complete the following acronyms:

1. CMYK - ____________________________________
2. PNG - _____________________________________
3. TIFF - _____________________________________
4. PSD - _____________________________________
5. JPG - _____________________________________

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 Visual Information and
MIL Media

What’s In

In the previous lesson, we learned about Texts Information Media, in this

lesson, we will learn Visual Information and take advantage to its potential for
relaying or understanding messages by identifying the types of visual information
and observe the design elements and principles.

Visual information entails the use of visual media (that may or may not be
accompanied with audio/sound) in the form of photographs, motion pictures, video
recording, graphic
arts, visual aids, and
other displays that
use pictorial
representations
(Dictionary of Military
and Associated
Terms, 2005).
In multimedia
presentation,
developers or authors
spend much time
Source: https://dribbble.com/shots/2027409-Visual-Information- and effort to make a
Infographic/attachments/2027409-Visual-Information- visual materials more
Infographic?mode=media
appealing to the
audience because
pictures are not just supplements to the text – they also complement and complete
the meanings suggested by the written text. You may roughly categories visuals as
either images (pictures that depict some real world situation typically captured by a
camera), or graphics (pictures drawn or painted that depict any fictitious scenario)
(Parekh, 2006).

According to Boots Liquigan (2016), visual information is not merely an added

feature to the written text to make it more sensible and more appealing to readers
like you, it has its own distinct features that enhance your information acquisition.

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 Visual information may take the form of photographs, visual aids, and other
displays that use pictures to convey idea. Visuals may either be images or graphics.
In the aspect of learning, visual information may be useful because of the features
and functions of pictorial messages with respect to printed tex. In visual information
storage, compression is a consideration because the information might not be
dramatically affected in terms of size, resolution, and ease of retrieval and sharing.

What’s New

Activity 1: Pictorial Essay

Instructions: In the space below, create a pictorial essay on any topic you
have in mind. Ask a classmate to retell your pictorial essay and validate or refute
your classmate’s version of the essay.

When you were growing up, you may remember yourself enjoying reading
some materials with lots of pictures that accompany the written text. More often than
not, the number of pictures in a page of a printed material can probably be the deal-
maker or deal-breaker for you to even bother reading the entirely of that material.
This goes to show how pictures can really be worth “a thousand words”.

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 What is It

VISUAL INFORMATION AND MEDIA

VISUAL MEDIA VISUAL INFORMATION

EXAMPLE OF VISUAL MEDIA
- Photography
- Video
- Screenshots
- Infographics
- Data Visualization (Charts and Graphs)
- Comic Strips / Cartoons
- Memes
- Visual Note-Taking

Visual media are images or frames of images that we can construct and reconstruct
to give different meaning to it. We can observe it with photographs, videos,
infographics comics, memes and other objects that projects an image.

What is an image?

An image is a type of visual information that you normally see as either “pure
black and white or grayscale having a number of gray shades or color containing a
number of color shades.” In images, color is everything. Color, in technical terms,
refers to the sensation generated to the eyes of the beholder due to differences
in frequencies. You may remember from your physics class that when light passes
through a spectrum, lower frequencies produce the reddish hue, while the higher
frequencies produce the bluish ones. In visual arts, you may consider black as the
presence of all colors if color is to be considered as a pigment. If color is explained
in terms of principles of light, then white is the combination of all the colors.

Color as Primary Attribute of Images

Color is what gives form to an image. You are able to appreciate an image
because of how the colors blend to create the image.
You discern the color of an object because when light hits an object, the object
may absorb some color components of the light while it reflects those with
frequencies specific to our eye. Color models, which are used to recognize and
communicate color information, define a set of colors. The two most common ones
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are the RGB color model and the CMYK color model. The RGB is used for colored
lights like images on a monitor screen and has the colors red, green, and blue as its
primary colors. The CMYK is used for colored inks like images printed on paper and
has the colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black as the primary colors. The two
models are considered to be device dependent because they depend on the physical
properties of the devices which generate the colors from these models.

Source: https://miro.medium.com/max/640/1*03CDeGvAoWdmd5AQnnnkmA.png

Another alternative color model is HSB Model which stands for Hue,
Saturation and Brightness. This color model is device dependent.
Hue - specific tone of color),
Saturation - the intensity of a hue from gray tone to pure, vivid color, and
Brightness - the relative lightness or darkness of a particular color.

Remember that is it not always possible to convert a color accurately form one
model to another because each model has its own range of colors.

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Stage of Image Generation
An image undergoes a
process when it is
generated. The conversion
of a paper image into an
electronic one is part of the
input stage which involves
the use of an image
scanner. The scanner has
sensors that capture and
convert each portion of an
image being scanned.
These portions are turned
into pixels, and are stored
digitally in a computer.
Another way an image may
Source: http://www.getloupe.com/v/9dg1bo8k be produced is a digital
camera, a gadget you are
most familiar with since mobile phones these days have built-in digital cameras.
Much like a scanner, a digital camera also has electronic sensors called Charge-
Couple Devices (CCD).

Editing is a stage where the digital image is manipulated with the use of
editing software. Editing involves “operations like selecting, copying, scaling,
rotating, trimming, changing the brightness, contrast, color tones, etc. of an image
to transform it as per the requirements of the application.”

When the image has already been edited, it may be stored in a file format that
can be displayed on the computer screen or in printed form. Storing or saving the
image will require compressing the file into a size that will not take much of computer
storage memory. There is a variety of file formats that may be used in storing images.
Few other concerns on image storage include resolution and overall quality of the
image.

What Are Graphics

Pictures that are either drawn by the hand or through computer software are
called graphics. When you sketch or draw an image such as a chart or a drawing
that may resemble an image, you create a pictorial representation of an idea or object.
When you do so, you create a graphic.
If you become a graphic artist, you will be acquainted with two types of a
digitally produced graphic. These are raster graphics and vector graphics. The Raster
Graphics is much like an image especially when a drawing is digitized using a
scanner and the Vector Graphic, on the other hand, is produced through computer
software; thus, it is already in digital form. Vector graphics are typically stored in
smaller file sizes, and can be scaled without compromising the quality of the drawing.

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Software is used to edit the appearance of the graphic, enabling into an animation
especially in multimedia presentation (Parekh, 2006)

Graphics as Used in Learning or Instruction

Visual information is especially useful in learning. According to Clark and
Lyons (2011), graphic has Three Functions in this aspect of your use for such visual
information.
1. Surface Features – These refer to the salient features of visuals; and
often, they suggest that “a series of still visuals can be more effective
for some learning goals such as teaching how things work (Mayer,
Sims, and Tajika (2005), as cited in Clark and Lyons, 2011)

Surface Features of Graphics (Clark and Lyons, 2021)

Types Salient Definition Examples

Features
Static Art Illustration Depicting of visual Pen and ink outline art; two-
elements, using various dimensional watercolor of
media flower parts, diagrams and
charts.

Photographic Captured image, using Screen capture of a software

photographic or digital screen, Photo of a person
technologies answering phones.
Modeled Computer-generated Three- dimensional
(CG) – faithful representation of an office,
reproduction of reality, three-dimensional
using various media, representation of combustion
including computer- engine.
assisted drawing
packages.
Dynamic Animation Series of images that Demonstration of steps in a
Art simulate motion software procedure. Process
of ammunition detonation
shown through line art.
Video Series of images, Capture of the hydrogen
captured as they bomb test explosion at White
occur, digitally, on Sands, New Mexico; Film of a
film, or magnetic tape, human resources director
displayed serially, over interviewing a job applicant.
time
Virtual An interactive three- Simulated walkthrough of
Reality dimensional world that the human heart.
dynamically changes
as the “user” moves
through and views it.
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 2. Communication Function. Graphics have the communication
purpose to show motion or represent illustrate quantitative
relationships. The table below, you will see how a graphic may
communicate certain ideas.

Communication Functions of Graphics (Clark and Lyons, 2011)

Functions A graphic Used to Example
Decorative Add aesthetic appeal or Art of the cover of a book; Virtual
humor of a general in a military lesson on
ammunition.
Representational Depict an object in a A screen capture of a software
realistic fashion screen;
A photograph of equipment.
Mnemonic Provide retrieval cues for A picture of a stamped letter in
factual information shopping cart to recall the
meaning of Spanish word, carta
(letter)
Organizational Show qualitative A two-dimensional course map;
relationships among A concept tree
content
Relational Show quantitative A line graph;
relationships among two or A pie chart
more variables.
Transformational Show changes in objects An animation of the weather cycle;
over time or space A video showing how to operate
equipment
Interpretive Illustrate a theory, A schematic diagram of
principle, or cause-and- equipment;
effect relationships An animation of molecular
movement.

3. Cognitive Psychological Functions – Graphics also serve such functionality by

illustrating the interaction of visuals with” human learning processes such as
attention or retrieval from memory”.

Uses of Graphics
Learners like you are more responsive to ideas because of both the denotative
capacity and connotative power of visual images and representation (Liquigan, 2016).
Web sites or multimedia output normally makes use of graphics to build user

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interface. A graphic can become the clickable item such as a browser menu, button,
tab, or window.
In automated offices, graphics are used (especially for desktop publishing) to
represent data in charts, tables, graphs, and other data presentation tools. Also,
fields that require designs or drawings heavily use graphics for 2D or 3D modeling
of such designs. Simulators and animators also use graphics for their animation,
simulation, and other related applications. Even artworks and decorations utilize
graphics. In media such as film and television, graphics are typically used to design
program title or banners, advertisements, and visual effects.

The File Format, Lossy Compression, and Lossless Compression

File Format – The key consideration in the selection of a particular format for storing
visual media is compression. This is because you may not want to reduce or
compromise the quality of your data especially when you want to store them in
smaller file sizes so that they may be retrieved or downloaded easily. As has been
mentioned earlier, color is everything. So Reducing the file size will also affect the
color quality of visual information.
Lossy Compression – When you are amenable to reducing the quality of the image
or graphic due to reduction of the file size, you are opting for a lossy kind of
compression. The image or graphics may have a lower resolution but would still keep
the appearance of the visual since you may not be too sensitive with the color change.

Lossless Compression – A more accurate way of storing the visual information is

through lossless compression because it does not allow the image to dramatically
lose its appearance. This still is an efficient manner of compressing since it. “look(s)
for a recurring pattern in the file, and replace (s) each occurrence with a short
abbreviation, thereby cutting the file size. (www.users.wfu.edu).”

Common Visual Media File Type

Type Description
TIFF (Tagged - a very flexible format that can be lossless or lossy.
Image File - details of the image storage algorithm are included as part of the
Format file.
- used almost exclusively as a lossless image storage format that
uses no compression at all.
- Sometimes a lossless compression algorithm called LZW is used,
but it is not universally supported.
PNG Is also a lossless storage format. However, in contrast with common
(Portable TIFF usage, it looks for patterns in the image that it can use to compress
Network file size. The compression is exactly reversible, so the image is recovered
Graphics exactly.
GIF (Graphic Creates a table of up to 256 colors from a pool of 16 million. If the
Interchange image has fewer than 256 colors, GIF can render the image
Format exactly. When the image contains many colors, software that creates

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 the GIF uses any of several algorithms to approximate the colors in the
image with the limited palette of 256 colors available. Better algorithms
search the image to find an optimum set of 256 colors. Sometimes GIF
uses the nearest color to represent each pixel, and sometimes it uses
"error diffusion" to adjust the color of nearby pixels to correct for the
error in each pixel.
GIF achieves compression in two ways. First, it reduces the number
of colors of color-rich images, thereby reducing the number of bits
needed per pixel, as just described. Second, it replaces commonly
occurring patterns (especially large areas of uniform color) with a short
abbreviation: instead of storing "white, white, white, white, white," it
stores "5 white."
JPG ( Joint PG is optimized for photographs and similar continuous tone
Photographic images that contain many, many colors. It can achieve astounding
Experts compression ratios even while maintaining very high image
Group) quality. GIF compression is unkind to such images. JPG works by
analyzing images and discarding kinds of information that the
eye is least likely to notice. It stores information as 24 bit color.
Important: the degree of compression of JPG is adjustable. At
moderate compression levels of photographic images, it is very difficult
for the eye to discern any difference from the original, even at extreme
magnification. Compression factors of more than 20 are often quite
acceptable. Better graphics programs, such as Paintshop Pro and
Photoshop, allow you to view the image quality and file size as a function
of compression level, so that you can conveniently choose the balance
between quality and file size.
RAW RAW is an image output option available on better digital cameras.
Though lossless, it is a factor of three of four smaller than TIFF files of
the same image. The disadvantage is that there is a different RAW
format for each manufacturer, and so you may have to use the
manufacturer's software to view the images. (Some graphics
applications can read some manufacturer's RAW formats.)
BMP BMP is an uncompressed proprietary format invented by Microsoft.
(Bitmap) There is really no reason to ever use this format.
PSD are proprietary formats used by graphics programs. Photoshop's
(Photoshop files have the PSD extension, while Paint Shop Pro files use PSP or
Document) PSPimage. These are the preferred working formats as you edit
or PSP (Paint images in the software, because only the proprietary formats retain
Shop Pro) all the editing power of the programs. These packages use layers, for
example, to build complex images, and layer information may be lost
in the nonproprietary formats such as TIFF and JPG. However, be
sure to save your end result as a standard TIFF or JPG, or you may
not be able to view it in a few years when your software has changed.

Source: https://matthews.sites.wfu.edu/misc/graphics/formats/formats.html.

Currently, GIF, PNG, and JPG are the formats used for nearly all web images.
TIFF is not widely supported by web browsers, and should be avoided for web use.
PNG does everything GIF does, and better, so is increasingly replacing GIF. PNG will
not replace JPG, since JPG is capable of much greater compression of photographic
images, even when set for quite minimal loss of quality.

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Advantages and Disadvantage of Visual Media

Visual information is useful for a variety of reasons. A visual aid is helpful to

present information to illiterate audiences. It can also stimulate oral communication
since people may still need to explain the data that is contained in a visual
presentation such as graphs, charts, and tablets.

Presenting information visually is an easy way to relay information because it

makes use of universal cues or signs that people are familiar with. Complex
information is presented graphically which makes it easier for people to interpret the
message. As has been said over and over, pictures are worth a thousand words, and
thus they have an impact on the people’s understanding of ideas, regardless of who
and where they are. Visual information also saves times in relaying the message. The
use of visual information also enhances resourcefulness and creativity.

In the journalist practice, visual information is very useful in the quick

presentation of facts, in the emphasis of points in the printed text, and in conveying
the information to the readers.

But using visual information may also be very limiting because of the cost of
the preparation, the complexity of certain images and graphics, and the lack of
familiarity of the audience to some cues and signs conveyed by the visual
information. The latter concerned may be due to the ambiguity of the visual
information or he multiple meanings that a single visual can suggest to different
audiences.

Source: https://twitter.com/agilecrm/status/1024660887376982016/photo/1

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 What’s More
Activity 2: Basic Design Principles
Using the internet access, “The Principles of Design and Their Importance” on
the link provided below:
https://www.toptal.com/designers/ui/principles-of-design
In your notebook or worksheet complete the following table:
Basic Design Principles
No Element Description

1. Contrast

2. Balance

3. Emphasis

4 Proportion

5. Hierarchy

6. Repetition

7. Rhythm

8. Pattern

9. White Space

10. Movement

11. Variety

12. Unity

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 What I Can Do

Activity 2: Evaluate Me

Instructions: Select at least one example of each of the following visual information
found online and critique how the information has been presented base on design
principles and elements of visual information and media discussed in this module.
- A Web site of a local or national politician
- A social media Web site that is heavily using visual information
- An online news portal or e-zine (electronic magazine)

Your critique must not be less than 300-words and should be encoded as .doc
or .pdf file and uploaded in a file-sharing platform that your teacher has set up for
your class.

Assessment

A. Multiple Choice Select the letter of the best answer from the given choices.

1. Type of visual information that you normally see as either “pure black and
white or grayscale having a number of gray shades or color containing a
number of color shades.
C. Formatted Text C. Unformatted Text
D. Image D. RGB Color Mode

2. Color model used for colored lights like images on a monitor screen and has
the colors red, green, and blue as its primary colors.
a. RGB Color Model C. CMYK Color Model
b. HSB Model D. Light Color Model

3. Color model used for colored inks like images printed on paper and has the
colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black as the primary colors.
a. RGB Color Model C. CMYK Color Model
b. HSB Model D. Light Color Model

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 4. A stage or process where the digital image is manipulated with the use of
editing software.
a. contrasting C. formatting
b. toning D. Editing

5. Pictures that are either drawn by the hand or through computer software.
a. Graphics C. Graphic Artist
b. Image D. Text

6. In file format the key consideration in the selection of a particular format for
storing visual media is ________________.
a. Resolution C. Compression
b. retrieval D. quality

7. Visual Design Principles and Elements that suggest to always distribute the
visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space.
a. Size B. Focal Point
b. Rhythm D. Balance
8. It is uncompressed proprietary format invented by Microsoft.
a. RAW C. Bitmap (BMP)
b. PSD D. TIFF

9. Which file extension is an example of an audio file?

a. .fly B. .mp4
C. .wmv D. .mp3

10. Your classmate is making a poster with a theme “PEACE”. What you can
suggest if he is asking help from you about what color background to be
used.
a. Red C. Green
b. Blue D. Yellow

B. Complete the following acronyms:

1. CMYK - ____________________________________

2. PNG - _____________________________________

3. TIFF - _____________________________________

4. PSD - _____________________________________

5. JPG - _____________________________________

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