People living in Western societies are facing many events and situations, which can be described as a risk. However, according to Ulrich Beck (1992), in a modern society, risk has different qualities than it had before. Moreover, Anthony Giddens (1992) concludes that in the modern world, we have to trust abstract systems such as science or politics. People in Western societies are not being threatened by wild animals or hunger anymore, but by dangers they hear about in the media, which are usually described or even created by those abstract systems. In this paper, I try to point out that living in the risk society era leads, especially among young people, to a quite understandable reaction; they try to find a consolation in saving their certainties and memories into digital photographs and sharing them via social networks (Sarvas & Frohlich 2011), in our paper we are mainly focusing on photographic social network Instagram. It is the photograph that plays a crucial role in shaping the awareness of one's own memory, identity, and belonging to a community. Through photographs, on the one hand, we perceive the world and store our individual (Van Dijck 2005) as well as our collective memory (Pink 2011). On the other hand, photographs serve as a means of self-expression (Tinkler 2008). Moreover, today's time is greatly fragmented, discontinuous, and episodic, which, on the other hand, leads human individuals to constantly legitimize themselves as unique and authentic individuals (Bauman 2002). This is happening in a highly fragmented environment of the internet where audiences are formed on the basis of similar interests, tastes, subculture or ethnic group identification (Carey 1993). Furthermore, this constant visual communication requires a continual adaptation to the media messages, which puts an increased emphasis on visual literacy as a part of educational process. In short, the main goal of this contribution is to introduce an analysis of several significant digital photographs shared recently via visual social networks, highlight some of the discursive strategies encrypted in them and, as a result, offer visual literacy as a challenge for temporary education.

1. Visual Literacy as an Educational
Challenge in the Era of Risk Society
Filip Hunek

2. Content
• 1) Living in Risk Society
• 2) Media in the Era of Risk
• 3) Challenging Risk via Social Media
• 4) Importance in Visual Literacy
in the Educational Process

3. Two Assumptions
1) Beck, U., 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.
2) Mirzoeff, N., 1999. An introduction to visual culture. London: Routledge.
Society
Risk
Society
We‘re living
in the Era
of Risk
Society Media
Visual
Culture
Communication
is becoming
increasingly
visual

4. Risk Society
„In our everyday life we are scared of such
things as nuclear power, pollution or radiation,
complex things we do not have enough
knowledge about and which we can
neither see nor feel.“
Beck, U., 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.

5. Risk Society
Maslow, A. H., 1968. Toward a Psychology of Being. London, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

6. Risk Society
„Risk is a systematic way of dealing with
everyday hazards and insecurities of
civilisation which typically escape our
perception because they are localized in the
sphere of physical or chemical formulas.“
Beck, U., 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.

7. Living in the Risk Society
Modern societies in the Western world,
are no longer being threatened by wild
animals or hunger. Instead, the main dangers
are those that we hear about in the media;
social media including.
Giddens, A., 1992. The Consequences of Modernity.
Cambridge, Oxford: Polity Press in association with Basil Blackwell.

12. Mass Media
Media and Risk

13. Mass Media
Media and Risk

14. New Media
Media and Risk

15. Media and Risk
New Media

16. Challenging Risk via Social Media
„The contemporary period is characterized by
significant discontinuity, fragmentation
and episodicity, which paradoxically leads
human beings to constantly verify their
individuality, authenticity and personal
identity.“
Bauman, Z., 2006. Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity.

17. Repeating Content Routines

18. Repeating Production Routines

19. Repeating Geographical Routines

20. Digital images
The recent global spread of mobile devices and
internet connection has opened up the
possibilities to produce and receive digital
content at the same time; and digital images
have become truly omnipresent.
Hunsinger, J. & Senft, T. M., 2013. The social media handbook. London: Routledge

21. Selfie
vs.

22. Pets
vs.

23. Symbols
vs.

24. „Family“ photos
vs.

25. Visual Literacy
in the Educational Process
Due to the increasing tendency of young people to
depict their lives and perceive the world
around them via visual media and content,
the role of visual literacy will become as
important as the traditional education based on
textual literacy.
Tovani, C., 2004. Do I really have to teach reading? Portland: Stenhouse.

26. Questions?