I teach a general education Humanities course on visual literacy and use Deborah Curtiss's INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL LITERACY (which is now out of print) and John Berger's WAYS OF SEEING (a little bit dated now, but still one of the most concise and trenchent analyses of issues in looking at images). Good introductory texts in different fields might be useful--I use Bordwell and Thompson's FILM ART: AN INTRODUCTION in my Intro. to Film classes, but social and semiotic elements are dealt with somewhat more by Sobchack and Sobchack as well as Bruce Kawin's HOW MOVIES WORK. A very interesting book is UNDERSTANDING COMICS by Scott McDougal (I can't swear I have the title and author right but I'll check on it if you want. It's published by Kitchen Sink Press.) CHANNELS OF DISCOURSE is a good anthology of articles about tv (ed. Robert Allen). --Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN