On Being Literate About Literacy

Written for EDR 210 (Trends in Reading Instruction), 2nd Sem SY 2017-2018 under Professor Maria Hazelle Preclaro.


On Being Literate About Literacy

            Literacy is easily defined as the ability to read and write. I have always thought of it as such until I was asked in class if I was literate. Initially my answer was, “Yes, of course! I would not be in this academic level right now if I was illiterate.” but I became slightly doubtful of my answer the more I thought about it. Is there more to literacy than simply reading and writing? Upon further discussion of the term, the concept of comprehension was raised. To be literate means more than the ability to read and write because it is just as important that the words written and read are understood and that nuances of the context of words are placed are recognized.

            After the class discussion, I returned to the dictionary to check on the definition of literacy. There were two definitions that came up, the first definition was the usual one that I stated above and the second was “competence or knowledge in a specified area” (American English Dictionary, n.d). The latter fit right into our class discussion on whether or not we are literate and of the different types of literacy.

            We conceived the phrase Media Literacy for the type assigned to us. We were tasked to imagine being on the editorial board of a parenting magazine and to determine whether the advertisements presented to us were creative or controversial. In 1992, the Aspen Media Literacy Leadership Institute (Center for Media Literacy) defined media literacy as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms”. We defined it as the understanding of text, image and both together in a certain context. We added that in order to be media literate it is necessary to comprehend the social context in which the media will be found. The definition of media literacy is of course changing as media itself changes. A more recent definition of media literacy by the Center for Media Literacy (CML) states that

“Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.”

            Media literacy is extremely important in our current social climate. The proliferation of fake news and spread of bite-sized information media has made it necessary to be equipped with the ability to discern what is true, what needs to be put into context and how such information will affect us and the rest of the world. These days we are giving tidbits of information and quotations arranged wonderfully in graphics but we rarely receive the entire story and thus much of the discussion is lost and decisive opinions are formed even without learning the entire story.

            In the activity, our group pointed out that some of the text or photos in the advertisements shown to us were uncontroversial on there own but when put together created a whole different image that we had to read as one. One important thing to note is that literacy has now gone beyond the ability to read and write words because we are no longer reading just words. Now reading involves reading words and their relationship to other visuals such as photographs and videos. Most of our information nowadays comes in all different forms and thus we need to be media literate to understand it, to discern right from wrong and to discern whether or not the information is complete or not.

           
            In conclusion, I have decided that there is no end point to literacy. It does not end at attaining the ability to read and write. It continues to develop as media and society changes around us. Literacy will constantly demand critical thinking and comprehension. We must always strive to remain literate and keep up with media and technology.

Source:

Media Literacy: A Definition and More. – Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved from:
            (http://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more)

What is Media Literacy – Media Literacy Project. Retrieved from:
            (http://medialiteracyproject.org/learn/media-literacy/)



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