Media and Audience in the Image-Reading Era

Author: Li Peilin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: Once, a friend heard that I was conducting research on image reading and said, "The era of reading images is really interesting. In the past, we called it 'looking at pictures,' but now it's called 'reading images.' In the past, we called it 'reading newspapers,' but now it's called 'looking at newspapers.'" The friend was originally outside the academic circle, but his words caught my strong attention—what substantive changes are hidden in the shift from the past "looking at" images to the present "reading" images? Before looking at images, was image communication present? After reading images, where will image communication develop? From the emergence to the flourishing of image communication, are there any patterns to be followed? Only history can provide the answer.