Page 201 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

PAUL MESSARIS

it clear that they were not merely responding to the positive appeal of the US
ads’ version of reality but were also motivated by a measured, re flective self-
distancing from some of the problematic elements of the world view they had
grown up with in China. To see people who undergo such transitions as merely
passive victims of ‘Westernization’ is to deny them the capacity for reasoned
choice.

Conclusion
One safe prediction that one can make about the four aspects of visual culture
discussed above is that at least three of them are bound to undergo major
transformations in the years ahead. The cognitive impacts of visual culture are
likely to accelerate as people’s informational uses of media continue to shift
from verbal to visual sources – in other words, as the realm of information goes
through the same changes that have taken place in that of fictional entertain-
ment. This process may be retarded somewhat by the present state of the Web,
which is still not very good at delivering high-quality images at high speed, but
this road block is surely not going to be up much longer. The status of photo-
graphy as evidence may also be affected by technological developments, as
increasing numbers of people gain access to user-friendly software for rudi-
mentary image manipulation. If there is any truth to the common belief that
knowing about the workings of the media makes one more resistant to their
influence, then faith in the indexical character of photographic images may
indeed erode as predicted. Finally, as high-quality media production continues
to become less expensive, it seems more than likely that the trend toward a
global, multi-directional flow of media images will continue (Lull 2000). But
what those images will consist of, and which culture they will re flect, is far from
clear. The fantasies designed in Hollywood over the past century have been
remarkably persistent, and they show no sign of changing in any fundamental
way. It should not be surprising if those fantasies become a primary ingredient
in visual images that have nominally originated outside the Hollywood system.
Indeed, some facets of visual culture seem likely to prove very durable.

References
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Clichés. M.A. thesis, Annenberg School for Communication, University of
Pennsylvania.
Edgerton, S. Y., Jr (1991). The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry: Art and Science on the Eve of the
Scientific Revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Fincher, J. (1995). ‘By convention, the enemy never did without’. Smithsonian, 26:
26–143.
Forbes, N. E. and Lonner, W. J. (1980). Sociocultural and Cognitive Effects of Commercial

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