Musings for My Research

Reading Path and Saliency

Yesterday, the understanding dawn upon me of what Kress has said about different reading path and mode of its realization between the verbal and the visual. I was looking at the Farber advertisement board on the way back home and then suddenly the understanding came to me that I was able to choose spatially how to read the board. There is no longer a linear pattern.

How I read visually composed objects now relates strongly to how the elements in the visual object are designed. For instance, I will most likely start reading it from the element that is most salient and from there progress to other more salient elements before turning my attention to lesser saliency-stressed elements to complete the entire reading and meaning of it.

I also realized that framing and cultural values of visual items, more than information value, contribute to saliency of the visual object, as mentioned by Kress. This gives me more idea on how to work on my variables for my research. Certainly, reading paths and the elements that contribute to their formation among learners or readers alike will be an interesting variable to look into.