Conclusion

The modality (or perceived reality) of the visual message is thus the product of a series of judgments made by the reader. This process can be seen to have two dimensions. On the one hand, it depends upon our recognition of formal or stylistic properties that are internal to the text. For example, most cartoons employ graphic conventions- forms of simplification (Pocoyo) and exaggeration (tom and jerry)- that are clearly at a greater remove from 'reality' than the rather different photographic conventions of live action filming.

However natural they may appear, these conventions are of course subject to historical and cultural variations; and they are learnt rather than innate. 'Realism' is, in this sense, a relative term; texts are defined as 'realistic' in terms of their relationships with other texts that have been perceived as such in the past.

On the other hand, our judgments also depend upon criteria that are external to the text- that is, upon our own experience of, or beliefs about, the real world. Such experiences and beliefs are of course not without their inconsistencies and contradictions; although, broadly speaking, it should be harder to make reliable judgments where the reality that is depicted is remote from our own experience. Yet the potential for diversity here is clearly enormous, perhaps particularly for children, whose understanding of the conventions of the medium and of the world in general is still rapidly changing:

“Over the last twenty years or so, there have been some dramatic changes in the way that images are produced, in the ways we meet and access them, and in the kind of relationship we have to them. The fact that we are not immersed in virtual worlds while wearing old style head-sets and retro data-gloves does not mean that the virtual has not become an important characteristic of visual culture.”