Analysis: enquiring into something thoroughly and systematically.
Critical Engagement: using a set of skills to analyse a text.
Descriptors (Visual, Verbal, Sound): used to describe or identify something or to illustrate it.
Evidence: something that can be presented to support an interpretation.
Iconography: images that are symbolic representations of a person or subject. For example Warhol’s printed portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Mao, Malcolm X etc.
Identity (cultural): cultural identity feeds into and shapes individual identity. It is greater than the self.
Identity (individual): how we perceive ourselves.
Illustrate (to): to explain or highlight something using relevant evidence/descriptors.
Image Construction: ideas and components that construct the whole.
Individual Perception: how you perceive things.
Interpretation: a process in which students make individual meaning using both previous knowledge and what they are presented with.
Kiwiana: New Zealand pop-culture and kitsch.
Meaning Making: involves interpreting and critically analysing to create meaning.
Meaning Making Processes: the processes through which meaning making is done.
Media Texts: for example, newspapers, magazines, advertising, television, the internet, etc.
Multiple Layers of Meaning: texts have multiple layers of meaning from the very simple to complex. This allows for a range of interpretation and multiple levels of understanding.
Representation: the use of words and images (language) to create meaning about the world around us. Representations mediate or stand between us and reality.
Symbol/s: represent objects or concepts. For example, writing is symbolic the letters are symbols.
Text: a construction of symbols that is put together and interpreted within the limits of the medium of a particular genre. For example, a play, film, book, poem, newspaper, advertisement, television, multimedia text etc.
Visual Literacy: the ability to engage with, interpret and make meaning from visual texts.
New Zealand Council for Educational Research. All rights reserved 
