Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-258).

All the world's a screen -- What is literacy? -- The brain sees pictures first -- The evolution of the audience -- The big business of images -- Grammar, rhythm, and rhyme in the age of the image -- Teaching a new generation -- The sharpening picture.

"We live in a world awash in images. The recent technological revolutions in video recording, editing. and distribution are more akin to the development of movable type than any other such revolution in the last 500 years. And yet we are not popularly cognizant of or conversant with the grammar of visual communication, the coded messages of its style, and the practical components of its production. We are largely, in a word, illiterate. But this is not a gloomy diagnosis of the collapse of civilization; rather, it is a celebration of the progress we've made and a plan to seize the potential we're poised to enjoy. Now is the time, Apkon argues, to transform the way we teach, create, and communicate so that we can all step forward together into a rich and stimulating future."--Jacket.