The study of Visual Cultures promotes a discussion about the place of images in contemporary cultures and on the structuring of reality that is present in the contents and in the contexts of construction and appropriation of visual representations. During the course, the most common visual products of media communication are privileged, in television, cinema and internet, but other visually expressive objects, part of the artistic or scientific fields, are also considered. We start by placing the visual element in the context of contemporary cultural productions and by discussing the specificity and the contours of visual language, in order to emphasize the role of visuality in the creation of self-representations and representations of the other and the importance of media in the dissemination of ideas and values that are confronted in the public sphere and give form to cultures and social identities.