Why Visual Essays Are the Future of Digital Media

Visual essays combine imagery—such as photographs, illustrations, and videos—with written text to create coherent, compelling narratives. This blend enhances comprehension and emotional impact, appealing to both visual and verbal learners. As defined by Davey (2024), a visual essay is “an account of a topic using an amalgamation of visual and textual material that is weaved together into a coherent article”. This dual-modality aligns with the way modern audiences consume information across multiple devices and platforms.

Unlike traditional academic essays, visual essays are more accessible and invite broader participation. Openly published digital visual essays often reach larger audiences and encourage more participatory discussions than conventional academic articles can (MediaCommons, 2023). By removing barriers between creators and readers, they foster interaction, idea exchange, and creative collaboration.

Contemporary media increasingly embraces multimodality—the integration of text, imagery, audio, and interactive elements. Research shows that multimodality encourages new forms of composition and critical thinking suitable for digital environments (Wikipedia, 2024). Visual essays are a prime vehicle for multimodal expression, requiring audiences to be both visually literate and attentive to semiotic meaning.

In education, visual storytelling significantly enhances learning outcomes. Mayer’s (1999) multimedia principle demonstrates that people learn better from words combined with pictures than from words alone. Furthermore, digital storytelling has been shown to improve engagement, comprehension, and retention across academic disciplines (Sanchez-Lopez, 2020).

The format also supports dynamic and interactive storytelling. Scrollytelling techniques, for example, allow narratives to unfold in an immersive manner as users scroll through a webpage (Mörth et al., 2022). Similarly, video essays—combining voiceover, imagery, and editing—offer emotionally resonant ways to present complex arguments (Samwell.ai, 2025).

Technological advancements are further expanding the possibilities for visual essays. The rise of artificial intelligence enables multimodal generative content, augmented reality (AR) storytelling, and novel editorial processes (Doh et al., 2025). With innovations in immersive media, the adaptability of visual essays positions them at the forefront of future digital narratives.

Ultimately, visual essays embody the direction in which digital media is evolving—immersive, interactive, and visually rich. They are not just another format; they represent a shift in how we tell stories, share knowledge, and engage with audiences in the digital age.

References

Davey, G. (2024) The visual essay and knowledge production. [Online].

Doh, H., Kim, S., Lee, J. and Choi, M. (2025) Multi-modal generative AI in AR storytelling.

Mayer, R.E. (1999) Multimedia principle, in Schank, R.C. et al., Learning by doing.

MediaCommons (2023) Visual essay in digital publishing.Mörth, E., Bruckner, S. and Smit, N.N. (2022) ScrollyVis: Interactive visual authoring.

Samwell.ai (2025) What is a video essay?

Sanchez-Lopez, I. (2020) The explosion of digital storytelling in education.

Wikipedia (2024) Multimodality.