Democratization, Media and Digital Literacy Proficiency

We’re on a road to nowhere

Come on inside

Taking that trip to nowhere

We’ll take that ride

I’m feeling okay this morning

And you know

We’re on the road to paradise

Here we go, here we go

David Byrne, Talking Heads, Road to Nowhere,  1985

Media Literacy

Media literacy matters, just ask Nadia Konyk as she tried to get her mother to understand why she preferred reading and exploring literature on line (Motoko, p. 1).  The problem is that, Nadia’s mom and many others today (i.e. parents, teachers, not for profit organizations, Department of Education, and librarians to name a few) are trying to come to an understanding of, why digital?  Isn’t picking up a book better because that’s traditional? The Media Literacy Project https://medialiteracyproject.org/learn/media-literacy/ , which closed last year after 22 years, states that “for centuries, literacy has referred to the ability to read and write. Today, we get most of our information through an interwoven system of media.”  Given that we are learning through various forms of media, and not just books, there is a need to be media literate. 

Media literacy (Oldakowski, 2014) is based on “the interwoven system of media (which) is called multimodality, and is meaning that is made through multiple representations and communication systems (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001) which allows individuals to use more than one mode to express understanding” (p. 70).  In my work with poor parents that are often disabled and marginalized from the wider community, I have watched them growing into persons that are using media and multimodal approaches to gain support and develop a sense of literacy that they were previously locked out of.  They had been “locked out” because they didn’t see themselves as able to participate meaningfully in the web literacy of Web 1.0 that was largely based on traditional literacy methods.  Additionally, the expense of a computer and access to the internet presented more obstacles.  Today, with smartphones, face book and other apps, as well as free Wi-Fi, the internet frontier is opening its doors to underprivileged people and they have found a place for their voice and to share experience. 

The New Media Landscape (how has literacy changed)

The new landscape of media literacy is being strongly influenced by multimodality.  Multimodality in literacy (learning) has been used for centuries.  Multimodality has entailed the use of: symbols, storytelling, poetry, acting and music to convey messages related to learning.  In 1994, Hal Adams and Charles Casement describe their use of multimodality with parents they worked with an urban grassroots group.  The participants were African American moms and dads from a very impoverished area of the West Side of Chicago marked by poverty and high unemployment.  Moms told stories in the Journal of Ordinary Thought and dad’s told stories in Through the Eyes of the Villain.       

The program was based on the idea that “every person is a philosopher, that expressing one’s thoughts fosters fosters creativity and change, and that taking control of life requires thinking about the world and communicating those thoughts to others.” (Taylor, p. 189).  The men, often told their stories through the use of rap (music form associated with black men).  The program sought to help the participants “see themselves as thinkers involved in a social activity around thinking and social activism” in a community context.  Stories were written down, recorded by others, audiotaped, and sung through rap song.  This multimodality in the ways the stories were told resulted in social change in the community. 

Twenty tears later, in the midst of Web 2.0, multimodality has grown to include: blogs, apps and social media (face book, Twitter, Instagram) to instantly communicate with followers and simultaneously be authors. The variety of ways in telling stories (photo shop, podcast, online presentations, posting video’s, animation and video conferencing) have dramatically changed the ways that social causes are now represented.

The media landscape is also marked with new concerns about credibility of authorship of ideas.  In regard to multimodality, the Media Project stated that we will need to look at “new policies and new systems that treat our airways and our communities as more than markets” (people to consume goods).  By this, they mean that since participants have gained some equal footing in media literacy through producing, and since literacy has become more democratized with people of varying literacies, we will have to rethink media literacy and various policies (i.e. who’s in charge) and what do we do to provide adequate knowledge given the current landscape.  Motoko touches on this a bit when he describes the conflict with some arguing, that “reading on the internet is not something that needs to be tested – or taught” (p. 10).  He quotes Michael Kamil, professor of education at Stanford, refuting this saying that “students are going to have to grow up being highly competent on the internet” (p. 10), so therefore education will need to change ideas of what is literacy and what students need from education.

What Value Should Be Ascribed to Emerging and Evolving Online Usage?

They will have to become highly competent because student’s, and many of the current internet users including myself and parents, will have to build on our internet literacy skills to become effective “prosumers”.   According too Lin, T.-B., Li, J.-Y., Deng, F., & Lee, L. (2013), prosumers are both producers and consumers participating in the internet that act collectively to “criticize the bias or credibility of the media content from authoritative institutions”.  In this dual identity as a user and producer, they discuss the importance of looking at the expanding horizon of the blurred line between experts and non experts.  They write, “that given the technical and socio-cultural characteristics of new media, individuals today are expected to express satisfactory new media literacy” (p. 167) in order to be viewed as experts.

In terms of co-creating and democratizing knowledge within the community of parents I work with, persons with generational histories of: poverty, abuse, neglect and racial, class and gender bias discrimination struggling with dominant culture management, I need to value specific cultural literary practices. 

I need to learn and write and use images and multimodal modes that parents will connect with going beyond traditional books and group presentations.  I also need to really work on helping the dominant culture of leadership in my organization to see the value of parents as being a part of co-creating knowledge and teaching.  There is a dominant history in the culture of Not- for-Profit organizations as “using” clients to promote an agenda, usually in fundraising by using their “stories”.  That’s typically the limit of internet and social media inclusion.  I would like for people I work with to be “prosumers” (producers and consumers) of parent education.  I believe that the increasing the use of media and promoting media literacy in parent education is important now and in the future.  I believe that parents can become leaders, orchestrating change between amongst each other using various social media.  By co creating knowledge between each other, and being a part of the process with them instead of being the dominant “manager” that is telling them how to learn and get support, I believe that parents will feel an increased sense of cultural respect that will increase critical thinking and reflection.

References

Lin, T.-B., Li, J.-Y., Deng, F., & Lee, L. (2013). Understanding New Media Literacy: An Explorative Theoretical Framework. Educational Technology & Society, 16 (4), 160–170.  http://www.ifets.info/journals/16_4/13.pdf

Motoko, R.  (2008), Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? The New York Times, July 27, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Media Literacy Project.  https://medialiteracyproject.org/learn/media-literacy/

Oldakowski, T.  (2014).  A Multimodal Assignment that Enriches Literacy Learning: The Problem.  Insight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, Vol. 9, 2014 Pp. 70-77. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1035852.pdf.

Taylor, D.  (1997).  Many Families, Many Literacies, An International Declaration of Principles.  Heinemann Trade Publishing, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

New Literacy, Social Practice & Participation

       Gillen & Barton (2010) write, “The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (p. 9).  To get a clearer understanding what Gillen & Barton are describing, I’d refer the reader to the story of Gil, a fifteen-year-old turntablist who is followed by Researcher Leif Gustavson.  Turntablism is an artistic form of mixing vinyl records to create scratches that are woven into soundtracks.  In the 1980’s-90’s, turntabling was a distinct urban African American/Latino practice that was deeply rooted in discourse of social justice and equality issues (i.e. racial discrimination, profiling, capitalism, urban violence, etc.).  It was condemned by the dominant culture and honored in the counter culture of young people like myself.  In discussing Gil’s meaning making out of texts and the ways he interacts with texts through turntabling, the reader is able to really appreciate the attention and skill it takes to understand what goes into “turntabling”.  Oriented at current struggles in daily life, a turntablist:

1.     Is using an experimental process and that’s often original.

2.     Is subversive and is challenging the status quo in terms of language and understanding.

3.     Often works in public, providing opportunities to discuss with others the significance of what is being “scratched”.

4.     Often involves the audience in watching and questioning the tracks being used.

5.     And performs in public spaces, where people are engaged in what is happening, discussing or challenging and “there is a multiplicity that contributes to the vitality of the creative practice” (Lankshear & Knobel, p. 107).

As person that was very drawn to turntabling and the social justice issues that often engendered the practice, I was always amazed at the ways that artists could use the texts and “further their own purposes in their own learning lives” and “social practice”.  

      Gillen & Barton (2010) state that “each learner is an amalgam of diverse experiences, capabilities and understandings affected by the entirety of their personal history including experiences of physical strengths and weaknesses” (p. 17).  Young Gil is an amalgam of his early experiences and is using his ability to interpret texts and interact with the texts (soundtracks) using different capabilities and understandings.  For all of us, we are also interacting with texts and using diverse experiences to understand: (1.) how we will decipher what we read, (2.) come to understanding through discourse, and then (3.) communicate with others.  Using digital literacies, Gillen & Barton demonstrate how digital literacies are being used too (p. 11): 

      1.  Enhance cognitive development through curriculum using new digital technologies.

      2.  Support learning communities to work collaboratively to problem solve and co-construct knowledge.

      3.  Work in multidisciplinary teams to create useful tools.

      4.   Increase authenticity and overcome access issues.

While digital technologies are illustrated that respond to these four key areas to co-create knowledge and build communities of people, Gillen and Barton recognize that concerns remain.  Fears include: (1.) that traditional knowledge is neglected, (2.) the superficial nature of popularity outweighing critical thought, and (3.) how do teacher keep pace with how fast technology is progressing (p. 11)?

       In regard to the fears of some regarding new literacies in digital media, Dana Wilbur (2010) asserts that new literacies have evolved through the use of digital media and ways that people learn.  She points out that “technical stuff” ad “ethos” has revolutionized literacy (p.2).  Through the use of technology such as texting, our language has changed.  It has become shorter, more immediate and is being altered through the use of a variety of new phrases, emoji’s and abbreviations (i.e. LMAO = laughing my ass off).  Many of the abbreviated expressions are a real challenge for people like me that are newer to learning digital literacy.  In terms of “ethos”, she discusses the participatory nature of the “new literacy” through digital media.  Because the field has become so large and has provided more people with opportunity to participate, the prior way of knowledge as being in the hands of the few, the powerful, has been expanded to include other voices that were previously retrained.  For the powerful, the argument is about who deserves “authorship and challenges notions of expertise” (p. 2).

      In terns of literacy in regard to social practice and literacies that can evolve through media, I’d suggest readers to watch the movie, Paper Tigers. I took my colleague Muhammed Harris to see the film several weeks ago so we could think about the importance of understanding new literacies in light of abuse and neglect of high school kids in school today.  Paper Tigers http://papertigersmovie.com/, is a documentary about a group of students that have been affected by developmental effects of trauma in their lives.  While the film is primarily focused on dealing with working with kids with traumatic backgrounds, it was filled with new literacies and ways of telling their story and making sense of being powerless as kids kicked out of public school and attending a Day Treatment Type program for troubled youth.  The staff used very personalized ways of communicating with the youth using their primary way of telling their story and dealing with traumatic effects of abuse and meglect.

     

References

Gillen, J & Barton, D. (2010) Digital Literacies: Research Briefing for the TLRP-TEL (Teaching and Learning Research Programme – Technology Enhanced Learning). ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Literacy Research Centre, Lancaster University, (pgs. 30).

Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M.  (2013) a new literacies reader: Educational Perspectives.  Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York (vol. 66).

Redford, J. (2015), Paper Tigers,  KPJR Films, http://kpjrfilms.co/paper-tigers/about-the-film/.

Wilber, D.J.  (2010).  Special themed issue: Beyond ‘new’ literacies. Digital Culture & Education, 2:1, 1-6.