Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies PDF

Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Objectives At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:  develop a working understanding of Media and Cyber/Digital Literacy and how they relate to one a...

Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Objectives At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:  develop a working understanding of Media and Cyber/Digital Literacy and how they relate to one another;  appreciate the importance of developing Media and Cyber/digital Literacy both in ourselves and one another in the information age; and  Realize that practical steps must be taken to develop these literacies early in children and cannot wait ‘until they are older. Of all the 21st century literacies presented in this book, none of them embodies the “newness” of these literacies quite like those needed to make sense of the absolute deluge of information brought to us by the internet. With the vast number of websites, web forums, and social media applications now available for us, never before has there been so much information – in nearly every form imaginable, from nearly every source imaginable – available to us twenty-four hours a day, no matter our location. Where once we had librarians – “information custodians’” as you will – to curate the information we regularly ingest, now there is nothing standing between the individual and the wellspring of information represented by the internet. However, as we will soon discover, it is the so-called old literacies that will serve us just as faithfully in the new context we find ourselves today as they have done in the past. To begin our investigation, we must first understand the relationship between Media Literacy and Cyber/digital Literacy. We are in a generation where media is present and mostly used. We should be media literate in order for us to have critical engagement with messages produced by media. As it is most basic, media literacy is the “active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create,” (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009) How do you consider yourself to be media literate? How do you differentiate Media Literacy from Digital Literacy? Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 43  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Like all the literacies discussed in this book, media literacy can be defined in several ways. Aufderheide (1993) defines it as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a wide variety of forms,” while Christ and Potter (1998) define it as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages across a variety of contexts.” Hobbs (1998) posits that it is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the process of critically analyzing and learning to create one’s own messages in print, audio, video, and multimedia. Perhaps in its simplest sense, media literacy can thus be defined as “the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they are communicating” (Common Sense Media, n.d.). The exact type of media varies – television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, handouts, flyers, etc. – but what they all have in common is that they were all created by someone, and that someone had a reason for creating them. According to Boyd (2014), media literacy education began in the United States and United Kingdom as a direct result of war propaganda in the 1930s and the rise of advertising in the 1960s. In both cases, media was being used to manipulate the perspective (and subsequent actions) of those exposed to it, thereby giving rise to the need to educate people on how to detect the biases, falsehoods, and half-truths depicted in print, radio, and television. Because media communication lends itself so easily and so well to the purpose of manipulating consumers’ perceptions on issues both political and commercial, being able to understand “why” behind media communication is the absolute heart of media literacy today. Despite the relatively simple and clear definition of media literacy, it should come as no surprise that scholars and educators have been debating for quite some time on how media literacy should be both defined and taught. Aufderheide (1993) and Hobbs (1998) reported, “ At the 1993 Media Literacy National Leadership Conference, U.S. educators could not agree on the range of appropriate goals for media education or the scope of appropriate instructional techniques. “The conference did, however, identify five essential concepts necessary for any analysis of media messages: 1. Media messages and constructed. 2. Media messages are produced within economic, social, political, historical, and aesthetic contexts. 3. The interpretative meaning-making processes involved in message reception consist of an interaction between the reader, the text, and the culture. 4. Media has unique “languages,” characteristics which typify various forms, genres, and symbol systems of communication. 5. Media representations play a role in people’s understanding of social reality. What these five concepts boil down to is that while the producer of a particular media has an intended meaning behind the communication, what actually gets communicated to the consumers depends not only on the media itself but also on the consumers themselves and on their respective cultures. The consumers’ perceived meaning is what then develops into how people understand social reality. Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 44  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies An immediate example of this is the media portrayal of Mindanao. Because so little good news coming from the island is communicated by the news networks, the average Filipino – who might never have been to Mindanao – comes to believe that the entire island is involved in armed conflict, that anyone from Mindanao is somehow involved in the conflict, and therefore (understandably) refuses to go there, nor allow any of his or her relatives to do so. It is unlikely that this was the news media’s intention, but it is the viewer’s interpretation that ultimately determined his or her beliefs and behavior. What Media Literacy is Not Given the broad and somewhat nebulous nature of media literacy, its implied definition can be gleaned by understanding what media literacy is not. The following is a list of actions that are often mistaken for being representative of media literacy (Center for Media Literacy, n.d.):  Criticizing the media is not, in and of itself, media literacy. However, being media literate sometimes requires that one indeed criticize what one sees and hears.  Merely producing media is not media literacy although part of being media literate is the ability to produce media.  Teaching with media (videos, presentations, etc.) does not equal media literacy. An education in media literacy must also include teaching about media.  Viewing media and analyzing it from a single perspective is not media literacy. True media literacy requires both the ability and willingness to view and analyze media from multiple positions and perspectives.  Media literacy does not simply mean knowing what and what not to watch; it does mean “watch carefully, think critically.” Challenges to Media Literacy Education One glaring challenge to teaching Media Literacy is, “how do we teach it?” Teaching it as a subject in itself might not be feasible given how overburdened the curriculum is at the moment, while integrating it into the subjects that are currently being taught might not be enough to teach what are essentially media consumption habits – skills and attitudes that are learned by doing and repetition rather than by mere classroom discussion (Koltay, 2011). Livingstone and Van Der Graaf (2010) identified “how to measure media literacy and evaluate the success of media literacy initiatives “as being one of the more pernicious challenges facing educators in the 21st century, for the simple reason that if we cannot somehow measure the presence of media literacy in our students, how do we know we have actually taught them? Finally, a more fundamental challenge to Media Literacy Education is one of purpose. As Chris & Potter (1998) put it, “Is media literacy best understood as a means of inoculating children against the potential harms of the media or as a means of enhancing their appreciation of the literary merits of the media?” Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 45  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Digital Literacy In the first chapter of this book, we read how Gee, Hull, and Lankshear (1996) noted how literacy always has something to do with reading a text with understanding, and that there are many kinds of texts, and each one requires a specific set of skills to understand and make meaning out of them. Digital Literacy (also called e-literacy, cyber literacy, and even information literacy by some authors) is no different although now the “text” can actually be images, sound, video, music, or a combination thereof. Digital Literacy can be defined as the ability to locate, evaluate, create, and communicate information on various digital platforms. Put more broadly, it is the technical, cognitive, and sociological skills needed to perform tasks and solve problems in digital environments (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004). It finals its origins in information and computer literacy (Bawden, 2008, 2001; Snavely & Cooper, 1997; Behrens, 1994; Andretta, 2007; Webber & Johnson, 2000), so much so that the skills and competencies listed by Shapiro and Hughes (1996) in a curriculum they envisioned to promote computer literacy should sound very familiar to readers today:  Tool literacy – competence in using hardware and software tools;  Resource literacy – understanding forms of and access to information resources;  Social-structural literacy – understanding the production and social significant information;  Research literacy – using IT tools for research and scholarship;  Publishing literacy – ability to communicate and publish information;  Emerging technologies literacy – understanding of new developments in IT; and  Critical literacy – ability to evaluate the benefits of new technologies (Note that this literacy is not the same as “critical thinking,” which is often regarded as a component of information literacy). It should also come as no surprise that digital literacy shares a great deal of overlap with media literacy; so much so that digital literacy can be seen as a subset of media literacy, dealing particular with media in digital form. The connection should be fairly obvious – if media literacy is “the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they are communicating, “then digital literacy can be seen as “media literacy applied to the digital media,” albeit with a few adjustments. The term “digital literacy” is not new; Lanham (1995), in one of the earliest examples of a functional definition of the term described the “digitally literate person” as being skilled at deciphering and understanding the meanings of images, sounds, and the subtle uses of words so that he/she could match the medium of communication to the kind of information being presented and to whom the intended audience is. Two years later, Paul Gilster (1997) formally defined digital literacy as “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers,” explaining that not only must a person acquire the skill of finding things, he/she must also acquire the ability to use these things life. Bawden (2008) collated the skills and competencies comprising digital literacy from contemporary scholars on the matter into four groups: Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 46  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies 1. Underpinnings – This refers to those skills and competencies that “support” or “enable” everything else within digital literacy, namely; traditional literacy and computer/ ICT literacy (i.e., the ability to use computers in everyday life). 2. Background Knowledge – This largely refers to knowing where information on a particular subject or topic can be found, how information is kept, and how it is disseminated – a skill taken for granted back in the day when information almost exclusively resided in the form of printed text. 3. Central Competencies – There are the skills and competencies that a majority of scholars agree on as being core to digital literacy today, namely: o Reading and understanding digital and non-digital formats; o Creating and communicating digital information; o Evaluation of information; o Knowledge assembly; o Information literacy; and o Media literacy 4. Attitudes and Perspectives – Bawden (2008) suggests that it is these attitudes and perspectives that link digital literacy today with traditional literacy, saying “it is not enough to have skills and competencies, they must be grounded in some moral framework,” specifically: o Independent learning – the initiative and ability to learn whatever is needed for a person’s specific situation; and o Moral / social literacy – an understanding of correct, acceptable, and sensible behavior in a digital environment. Information Literacy within Digital Literacy Given the ease with which digital media (as opposed to traditional print media) can be edited and manipulated, the ability to approach it with a healthy amount of skepticism has become a “survival skill” for media consumers. Eshet-Alkalai (2004) draws attention to information literacy as a critical component of Digital Literacy as “the cognitive skills that consumers use to evaluate information in an educated and effective manner.” In effect, Information Literacy acts as a filter by which consumers evaluate the veracity of the information being presented to them via digital media and thereupon sort the erroneous, irrelevant, and biased from what is demonstrably factual. From this perspective, part of the efforts of Digital Literacy Education should be toward developing media consumers who think critically and are ready to doubt the quality of the information they receive, even if said information comes from so-called “authoritative sources.” However, a majority of studies on Information Literacy seem to concentrate more on the ability to search for information rather than its cognitive and pedagogical aspects (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004; Zinns, 2000; Burnett & McKinley, 1998) Socio-Emotional Literacy within Digital Literacy Alongside Information Literacy, Eshet-Alkalai (2004) highlights a kind of Socio-Emotional literacy needed to navigate the Internet, raising questions such as, “How do I know if another user in a chatroom is who he says he is?” or “How do I know if a call for blood donations on the Internet is real or a hoax? Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 47  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Such questions should make us realize that there are no hard and fast rules for determining the answers. Instead, there is a necessary familiarity with the unwritten rules of Cyberspace; an understanding that while the internet is a global village of sorts, it is also a global jungle of human communication, embracing everything from truth to falsehoods, honesty and deceit, and ultimately, good and evil. According to Eshet-Alkalai (2004). This is Socio-Emotional literacy requires users to be “very critical, analytical, and mature” – implying a kind of richness of experience that the literate transfers from real life to their dealings online. Curiously, while research shows that the older a user is, the less likely they are to behave naively online, this does not exempt them from the occasional lapse: They might not believe that a Nigerian prince is bequeathing 100 million dollars in gold bullion to them in exchange for their bank details, but they might be willing to believe that someone really is giving away 1000 units of the latest smartphone in exchange for their contact information. Digital literate users know how to avoid the “traps” of cyberspace mainly because they are familiar with the social and emotional patterns of working in cyberspace – that it is really just an outworking of human nature. Digital Natives The term digital native has become something of a buzzword in the education sector over the past decade. This was popularized by Prensky (2001) in reference to the generation that was born during the information age (as opposed to digital immigrants – the generation prior that acquired familiarity with digital systems only as adults) and who has not known a world without computers, the Internet, and connectivity. Despite the fact that Prensky’s original paper was not an academic one and had no empirical evidence to support its claims, educators and parents alike latched onto the term, spawning a school of thought wherein the decline of modern education is explained by educators lack of understanding of how digital natives learn and more decisions. However, a popular misconception borne out of the term digital natives and the educational ideas it spawned is that the generation in question is born digitally literate. If this is the case, then the question, “How can digital immigrants teach digital natives a literacy they already have?” is a valid one, to which the answer would be, correctly, “they cannot.” But the problem here is that “digital literate” is popularly defined as the ability to use computers or use the internet, which as we have seen earlier, forms only one part of the crucial skills and competencies required to be digitally literate. Our expanded view of the term “literate” allows us to see that while the digital natives in our classrooms are most certainly familiar with digital systems – perhaps even more so than their instructors – this does not mean they automatically know how to read, write, process, and communicate information on these systems in ways that are both meaningful and ethical, especially when the information involved does not involve technology’s most common use: personal entertainment. That is to say, when the task at hand does not involve what the digital natives consider to be entertainment, the gaps in their literacy begin to show. A good example of this is the difficulty many Senior High School instructions have in teaching research: Students who are otherwise quite familiar with using the internet for entertainment and Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 48  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies suddenly at a loss in locating, accessing, and understanding information from research journals and websites, mainly because they are looking for information on topics they are either unfamiliar with, uninterested in, or both. Another problem concerning digital natives is the misconception that everyone belonging to the generation is on more or less equal footing in regard to digital literacy. Although the drawing of such a conclusion is understandable (given the near-ubiquity of digital technology and the internet), it is nonetheless mistaken, as no one is truly “born digital.” Instead, the determining factor is access to education and experience: children born to poorer families will naturally seem less digitally literate for lack of access to technology and an education in said technologies, while those born to privileged families will display more of the literacies discussed earlier. Challenges to Digital Literacy Education Digital Literacy Education shares many of the same challenges to Media Literacy. For example: How should it be taught? How can it be measured and evaluated? Should it be taught for the protection of students in their consumption of information or should it be to develop their appreciation for digital media? Brown (2017) also noted that despite the global acknowledgement that Digital Literacy Education is a need, there is as of yet no overarching model or framework for addressing all of the skills deemed necessary. Put simply, there is no single and comprehension plan anywhere for teaching digital literacy the way it should be taught. Accordingly, he asked, “What assumptions, theories, and research evidence underpin specific frameworks? Whose interests are being served when particular frameworks are being promoted? Beyond efforts to produce flashy and visually attractive models how might we reimagine digital literacies to promote critical mindsets and active citizenry in order to reshape our societies for new ways of living, learning, and working for a better future – for all?” Read the questions and instructions carefully. Elaborate your answers. Write/print your answers in an A4 sized bond paper. 1. How do you communicate with your friends or relatives who are in the other part of the world? 2. Where do you find information on local, national news, politics and events? Read the questions and instructions carefully. Write/print your answers in an A4 sized bond paper. 1. Explain how media literacy and digital literacy are related. 2. Explain how critical thinking is important to both media and digital literacy. Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 49  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies References Andretta, S. (Ed.). (2007. Change and challenge: Information literacy for the 21 st century. Adelaide: Auslib Press. Aufderheide, P. (1993). National leadership conference on media literacy. Conference report. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute. Bawden, D. (2001). Information and digital literacies: A review of concepts. Journal of Documentation, 57, (2), 218-259 Bawden, D. (2008). Origins and concepts of digital literacy. In C. Lankshere, & M Knobel (Eds.), Digital lilteracies: Concepts, policies, and practices. New York: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. Behrens, S. (1994). A conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy. College and Research Libraries, 55(4), 309-322. Boyd, D (2017). The challenges of digital literacy: Beyond narrow skills to critical mindsets. Unpublished mamnuscript. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenge-digital-literacy- beyond-narrow-skills-critical-mark-brown Buckingham, D. (2010) Defining digital literacy. In B. Bachmair (Ed.), Medienbidung in neuen Kulturraumen (pp59-72). Wiesbade: VS Verlag fur Sozialwissenschaften. Burnett, K., & McKinley, E.G. (1998). Modelling information seeking. Interacting With Computers, 10, 285-302. Center for Meida Literacy (n.d.). What media literacy is not. Retrieved from https://www.medialit.org/reading-room/what-media-literacy-not Christ, W. G., & Potter, W. J. (1998). Special issue on media literacy. Journal of Communication, 48(1) Common Sense Mmedia (n.d.) What is media literacy, and why is it important? Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-media-literacy-and-why-is-it- important Eshet-Alkalai, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hepermedia, 13(1), 93-106 Gee, J. P., Hull, G., & Lankshear, C. (1996). The new work order: Behind the language of the new capitalism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Hobbs, R. (1998). The seven great debates in the media literacy movement. Journal of Communication, 48(1), pp. 16-32 Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 50  Chapter 5: Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies Hobbs, R. (2010). Digital and media literacy: A plan of action. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute and Knight Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/publication_pdfs/Digital_and_Media_Literacy_A_Pla n_of_ Action.pdf Hobbs, R., & Martens, H. (2015). How media literacy supports civic engagement in a digital age. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 23(2), 120-137. Koltay, T. (2011). The media and the literacies: Media literacy Socity, 33(2), 211-221. Lanham, R. (1995). Digital literacy. Scientific American, 273(3), 160-161. Livingstone, S., & Van Der Graaf, S. (2010). Media literacy. In Donsbach, W. (Eds.) The International Encychlopedia of Communication. New Jersey: Jon Wiley & Sons, Lt. Prensky, M. (2001, October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. Shapiro, J., & Hughes, S. (1996). Information technology as a liberal art. Educom Revie, 31(2). Snavely, L., & Cooper, N. (1997). The information literacy debate. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 23(1), 9-20. Webber, S., & Johnson, B. (2000). Conceptions of information literacy: New perspectives and implications. Journal of Information Science, 26(6), 381-397. Zins, C. (2000). Success, a structures search strategy: Rationale, principles and implications. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51, 1232-1247. Module in EDBENC: Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum 51