Visual & screen

Information shown through pictures, numbers and a few words, so it's quick to grasp.

To inform — and very often to persuade, by making a point feel obvious.

Colour, size, icons and layout are deliberate choices carrying half the meaning.

How size and position guide the eye to the main point first.

Using colours to signal meaning — green good, red danger.

A simple picture that stands for an idea.

A huge stat grabs the eye and makes the scale feel shocking or impressive.

Showing how a word and a visual work together to make a meaning neither could alone.

Danger or a negative — while green signals good.

Usually the biggest item at the top of the visual hierarchy.

A single funny, exaggerated image that criticises the news through symbols and satire.

To persuade and criticise through satire — mocking something to change how you see it.

Using humour or mockery to criticise something.

A drawing that exaggerates a person's features to mock a trait.

An object that stands for a bigger idea (a dove = peace, a flag = a nation).

Big vs tiny shows power vs weakness.

Pins down who's meant and often flips or sharpens the meaning with irony.

Decode each symbol into a meaning, then state the criticism.

Nothing is spare — each symbol, label and size is a deliberate choice.

The point — the criticism the cartoon argues.

A story told in a sequence of panels using images and words together.

The gap between panels; readers fill it in, and it controls timing.

Setup then payoff — the sequence builds the meaning or joke.

Dialogue or thoughts; their shape and size signal tone and volume.

Cartoon shorthand — big eyes, sweat drops — quickly shows feeling.

In the final panel (the twist) and the gap between panels.

‘How do the panels and their order build the meaning or joke?’

Say what it signals — a tiny shaky bubble = a timid, weak voice.

A strip uses several panels in sequence; a cartoon is one image.

Describing each panel separately and missing the sequence, gaps and twist.

The photographer chose the frame, angle, focus, light and moment.

What's included and excluded — the edges are a deliberate choice.

Make a subject loom and feel powerful or imposing.

A few words anchor the meaning; a new caption changes how we read the image.

Framing (in/out), angle and focus, and light/colour.

Warm light feels safe; harsh shadow feels tense — light sets the feeling.

‘What did the photographer choose to show, and how?’

Exclusion is a choice too — what's missing can shape meaning as much as what's in.

Both are composed, but a photo also carries a claim of ‘this really happened’.

Describing the contents instead of analysing the choices and the caption.

A film about a real subject whose viewpoint is shaped by narration and selection.

Narration, chosen footage, tone and music all select and shape a viewpoint.

Guides how you read the images; its word choice sets the angle.

What's shown and left out builds the argument, even while feeling factual.

They steer feeling — solemn, urgent or hopeful — under the ‘facts’.

Claiming to show reality makes the viewpoint feel objective and trustworthy.

‘Whose viewpoint is this, and how is it built?’

Calling a plan ‘an experiment on a town’ casts residents as test subjects.

Both claim fact, but a documentary crafts a sustained viewpoint through narration and footage.

Treating it as pure fact and missing how narration and selection build a viewpoint.

A single frame from a film, in which everything is deliberately arranged.

Everything arranged in the frame — setting, lighting, costume, props, position.

Warm light feels safe; cold blue or harsh shadow feels tense or sad.

The subject looks small, weak or vulnerable.

Placement (centre/edge, big/small, high/low) signals power and mood.

Setting/props, lighting/colour, and position of people in the frame.

‘What has the director arranged in this frame, and why?’

Clues to who a character is, their situation and how they feel.

Both are composed; a still is a frame from a constructed fiction, rich in mise-en-scène.

Describing the scene instead of analysing the arrangement and what it suggests.