A. Literacy Connections and Applications / C. Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts · Understanding and Responding to Texts

Images, Graphics and Visual Design: How Media Texts Make Meaning

C1.4 A2.4 A2.5About 45 minutes

Learning goals

I can analyze and compare how images, graphics and visual design create and add to meaning.
I can explain how cropping, camera angle, colour and layout change the message of an image.
I can spot a misleading graph and explain how its design affects the audience.
I can explain how a media text's form, message and context fit its audience and purpose.

Words to know

visual design
How the parts of a text are arranged and styled: size, colour, fonts, placement and white space.

cropping
Cutting off part of a photo to show only some of it.

camera angle
Where the camera is placed: high above (looking down), at eye level, or low (looking up).

axis
The line on the side or bottom of a graph that shows the scale of numbers.

misleading
Giving the wrong idea, even if each fact in it is true.

public service announcement (PSA)
A media text that shares a message for the public good, such as a safety reminder.

context
Where, when and how people see a text.

Remember from Grade 5

In Grade 5 you read infographics, compared video thumbnails, spotted clickbait and sponsored content, and explained how creators change form and design for different audiences.

In Grade 6 you will compare visual choices side by side and look at tricks that are harder to notice: cropping, camera angles and graphs that are designed to mislead.

Hook: Two photos, one moment

A photographer takes a picture at a town's Canada Day fireworks. The full photo shows a big, happy crowd on a hill, with a few overflowing garbage cans in one corner.

The town's tourism website crops the photo to show only the crowd and fireworks. Message: Our celebration is amazing! Come next year!
A community clean-up group's poster crops the same photo to show only the overflowing garbage cans, with the words Our park deserves better. Message: We need more bins and volunteers.

Both photos are real. Neither is fake. But cropping changed what each audience notices, and so it changed the message.

One real photo, two crops. Each frame keeps a different part in, so each audience gets a different message, and neither photo is fake.

How images, graphics and design create meaning

Cropping: what is left in the frame, and what is left out.
Camera angle: a low angle (looking up) makes a person or thing look strong or important. A high angle (looking down) can make them look small or helpless. Eye level feels equal and friendly.
Close-up vs. wide shot: a close-up shows feelings (a face); a wide shot shows setting and size.
Colour: warm colours (reds, oranges) can feel exciting or urgent; cool colours (blues, greens) can feel calm. Grey or dark colours can feel serious or sad.
Layout: the biggest, brightest or centred item is what you notice first. White space makes it stand out.
Fonts: thick capitals shout; thin letters whisper.
Graphics (graphs, maps, icons, diagrams) turn information into pictures, and their design can make differences look bigger or smaller than they really are.

Graphs can mislead too

The students at Maple Ridge Public School voted on a new hot-lunch day: Pizza got 52 votes, and Tacos got 48 votes. Look at the two graphs below. Both use exactly the same numbers.

Graph A starts its scale at 0. Graph B starts at 45, so the pizza bar looks more than twice as tall as the taco bar, even though the votes were 52 and 48.

Worked example

Let's compare the two graphs

Which graph gives a fair picture of the vote? How does the design of the other graph mislead?

Read the numbers first: 52 and 48. That's a close vote, only 4 votes apart.
Look at Graph A's axis: it starts at 0. The bars are almost the same height, which matches a close vote.
Look at Graph B's axis: it starts at 45, not 0. The pizza bar shows 7 units above 45 and the taco bar shows only 3, so pizza looks more than twice as popular.
Ask who might make Graph B and why: maybe someone who wants pizza to sound like a huge winner.
Every number in Graph B is true, but its design gives the wrong impression.

Graph A is fair because its axis starts at 0. Graph B is misleading: by starting at 45, it makes a small difference look huge. Always check where the axis starts.

Graph argument

Graph B: "Pizza won by a LANDSLIDE!"

Graph A: "It was 52 to 48."

Graph B: "Details, details."

Form, message, context, audience and purpose

The same message can be designed in different ways for different audiences. Here is a winter safety message: Stay off the ice until adults say it's safe.

A poster for a Grade 2 classroom: a cartoon of a friendly beaver holding a sign, big simple words, bright colours, a picture of a child waiting on the shore with a grown-up.
A 15-second PSA video for teens online: quick cuts, a low rumble sound, a close-up of a crack spreading across ice, then silence and white text: Ice can't tell you it's thin.
A newspaper notice for families: a calm photo of a frozen lake, plus facts from a trusted safety organization and the phone number for local information.

The form (poster, video, notice), design and words change to fit each audience. The context (classroom wall, phone screen, newspaper) changes how long people look and what grabs them.

Worked example

Let's analyze a media text's choices

A video ad for a new sports drink shows a hockey player filmed from a low angle, skating in slow motion under bright lights, with loud music. The words FUEL YOUR GREATNESS appear in thick capital letters. In tiny letters at the bottom: Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children. Who is the audience? What techniques are used, and what is the effect?

Audience: probably teens and young adults who play or love sports. (The tiny warning shows the company knows it's not for kids, but kids might still see it.)
Low angle: makes the player look powerful and heroic.
Slow motion, bright lights, loud music: make the moment feel exciting and important.
Thick capitals: the slogan feels loud and confident.
Tiny warning text: the important health information is hard to notice.
Purpose: to make viewers connect the drink with being great, so they buy it.

The ad uses a low angle, slow motion, music and bold capitals to link the drink with power and success, while the warning is tiny. A critical viewer asks: Will this drink really make me great? What are they hiding in small print?

Questions for any image or graphic

What is in the frame, and what was left out? Where was the camera? What do I notice first, and why? Does the graph's axis start at 0? Who made this, for whom, and why? How does it want me to feel?

Hands-on activity

Crop it, angle it, graph it

You need: a phone or tablet camera (with a grown-up's permission), or magazines and two sheets of paper; scissors (with a grown-up's help); a ruler; a pencil.

Crop: Cut two L-shapes from paper to make a frame. Lay it on a magazine photo and slide it to show two different messages from the same picture. Write each message.
Angle: With a grown-up, photograph a stuffed animal or toy from a low angle, at eye level, and from a high angle. Which looks bravest? Which looks lonely? (Only photograph people who say yes.)
Graph: Ask 10 family members or friends a two-choice question (cats or dogs?). Draw one fair graph that starts at 0 and one misleading graph that starts close to the smaller number. Show both to someone and ask what each one seems to say.

Your turn

In the hook, how did the tourism website and the clean-up group use the same photo to send different messages?

Why is Graph B misleading even though its numbers are true?

What effect does a low camera angle usually have?

Why would a close-up be a good choice for a photo of a child's face as she scores her first goal?

In the sports-drink ad, why might the warning be in tiny letters?

Why would a PSA for teens use quick cuts and sound, while a poster for Grade 2 uses a friendly cartoon?

More practice: warm-up

What does cropping mean?

What can a high camera angle make a person look like?

What should a fair bar graph's axis usually start at?

What is a PSA?

Name one thing that makes you notice an item first on a poster.

More practice: on your own

A poster for a library fundraiser uses calm blue and green colours and a photo of a child reading under a tree. What feeling does the design create? Why might the creator choose it?

Compare a wide shot and a close-up of a skier on a mountain. What does each show?

A news website shows a photo of a mayor taken from a high angle while she looks down at her notes. How might this affect readers' opinion of her?

Two maps show the same snowstorm. Map 1 colours the storm area dark red; Map 2 colours it light blue. Which is likely meant to make people take the storm more seriously? Why?

Why do you think creators change the form of a message for different audiences?

Challenge

A cereal box shows a giant bowl of cereal with lots of strawberries on top. The ingredient list says dried strawberry pieces (1%). Explain how the image could mislead and how a critical reader would check.

Design a fair graph for this data: Grade 6 students who walk to school: 18; who take the bus: 22. Describe the axis and the bars.

A city wants teens and older adults to know about a new free bus route. Describe one media text for each audience: form, design and context.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Cutting a photo so only part of it shows is called...

A bar graph's axis starts at 90 instead of 0. What is the likely effect?

A low camera angle usually makes the subject look...

Which question helps you think critically about an image?

Why might a creator put important warnings in tiny print?

The same safety message is made into a cartoon poster for young children and a fast video for teens. This shows that...

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: Grade 6 students analyze and compare how images, graphics and visual design create and contribute to meaning (C1.4). They explain media techniques and their effect on audiences (A2.4), and how a text's form, message and context relate to its audience and purpose (A2.5).

How to help at home:

Pause on ads, cereal boxes and news photos together: "What do you notice first? What was left out? Who is this for?"
When you see a graph in the news, check where the axis starts.
Watch a movie trailer and talk about camera angles and music.

Common difficulties:

Thinking a misleading image must be fake. Explain that real photos and true numbers can still mislead through cropping and design.
Describing techniques without effects. Always ask: "So what does that make the viewer think or feel?"

Safety: In the activity, only photograph people who agree, and supervise any online viewing. The hook's fireworks scene, the sports drink and Maple Ridge Public School are made up for this lesson.