Chapter 5

Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies

Objectives: At the end of this chapter; you should be able to:

 Develop a working understanding of medial 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”.

EXPLORE

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
are 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 serves us just as faithfully
in the new contexts 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.

Media Literacy

Like all 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) defines it as “the ability to access,
analyze, evaluate and create messages across 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
own’s 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 types of media varies-television, radio, newspaper, magazines, books, handouts. Flyers,
etc.-but what they have all 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 the 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,
falsehood, and half-truths depicted in print, radio, and television.
Because media communication lends itself so easily and so well to the purpose of manipulating
consumer’s perceptions on issues both political and commercial, being able to understand the “why:
behind media communication is the absolute heart of the 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. Aurderheide (1993) and Hobbs (1998) reported, “all the 1993 Media Literacy
National Leadership Conference, US. 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 are constructed.

2. Media messages are produced within economic, social, political, historical and aesthetic
contexts.
3. The interpretative meaning- making process involve 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 as
intended measuring 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.

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, 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 representataive 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 abot 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 discussions (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 mean of inculcating children against
potential harms of the media or as a means of enhancing their appreciation of the literary merits of
the media?”

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 teg technical, cognitive and
sociological skills needed to perform tasks and solve problems in digital environment (Eshet-Alkalai,
2004). It finds 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 (1196) in a curriculum they envisioned to promote
computer literacy sound should 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 significance of
information;
 Research literacy-using IT tools for research and scholarship;
 Publishing literacy-ability to communicate an d 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
particularly 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 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, sound 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 things, he/she must also acquire the ability to use these things in life.

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- This are the skills and competencies that a majority at scholars agree
on as being core to digital literacy today, namely;
 reading and understanding digital and non-digital formats
 creating and communicating digital information
 evaluation of information
 knowledge assembly
 information literacy and
 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”.
 Independent Learning- the initiative and ability to learn whatever is needed for a
person’s specific situation, and
 Moral/Social literacy – an understanding of correct, acceptable and sensible behavior
in on digital environment.

Information Literacy within Digital Literacy

Given the ease with which digital media (as opposes 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 affective 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 of erroneous, irrelevant, and biased from what is demonstrably factual.
From this form of perspective, part of the effort 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 it said information comes from so-called “authoritative sources”. However, a
majority of studies of 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?’
Such questions should make us realize that there are no hard and fast rules for determining the
answer. 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 from truth to falsehoods, honesty and deceit, and ultimately, good and evil.
According to Eshet-Alkalai (2004), This Socio-Emotional literacy requires user 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 form 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 contract information.
Digitally literate users know how to avoid the “traps” of cyberspace mainly because they are
familiar with the social and emotional patterns of working in cyber space-that it is really just an
outworking of human nature.

Digital Natives

The term digital native has become something od a buzzword in the education sector over the
past decade. This was popularized by Prensky (2001) in inference to the generation that was born
during the information age (as opposed to digital immigrants- the generation prior that acquired
familiarity with digital systems a=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, educator and parents alike latched onto them, spawning a school of
thought wherein the decline of modern education is explained by educators’ lack of understanding of
how digital natives learn and make decisions.
However, a popular misconception borne out 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 “digitally literate” is popularly defines 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 classroom are most certainly familiar with digital systems-
perhaps even more so then their instructors- this does not mean they automatically know how to
read, write, process and communicate information on these systems in a way 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 instructors have in teaching
research; students who are otherwise quite familiar with using the Internet for
entertainment are suddenly at a loss in locating, accessing and understanding information from
research journals and websites, mainly because they are looking for information on topics  there 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 poor families will naturally seem less digitally literate for a
lack of access to technology and an education in said technologies, well those born
into 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 develop their appreciation
for digital media? 
     Brown (2017) also note that that despite the global acknowledgement that digital literacy education
is a need, there is as of yet no over arcing model or framework for addressing all the skills deemed
necessary. Put simply, there is no single and comprehensive plan anywhere for teaching digital
literacy the way it should be taught. Accordingly, he asked, “what assumptions, theories, and
research evidence under being specific framework? 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 promote critical mindsets an active citizenry in order
to reshape our societies for new ways of living, learning, and working for a better future- for all?”  

    ENHANCE 
Despite the challenges posed by the broad and fluid nature of media (and therefore digital literacy,
education in the Philippines can spearhead literacy efforts by doubling-down on those concepts and
principles of media literacy that are utmost importance, namely, critical thinking and the grounding of
critical thought in a moral framework. 

 Teach media and digital literacy integrally. any attempt to teach these principles a I must first
realize that they cannot be separated from context- meaning, they cannot be taught separately
from topics. typical sinking requires something then itself to think critically about, and thus
cannot develop in a vacuum. Similarly developing a moral framework within students cannot
be taught via merely talking about it. This moral framework develops by practicing it, that is,
 basing our decisions on it, in the context of everything else we do in our day-to-day lives. We
therefore agree with Koltay (2011) that the teaching of the fundamental principles of this and
other literacies should be done integratively with other subjects in school, however difficult the
process might be. In other words, teach them in mathematics, sciences, language arts, social
studies, and so on. Make them part of the social curriculum and in the everyday life of the
students. Anything else will be as misguided as merely telling a plan to grow and expecting it
to do so by the power of your words. 
 Master your subject matter. Whatever it is you teach, you must not only possess a
thorough understanding of your subject matter, you must also understand why you are
teaching it, and why it is important to learn. As educators, we must not shy away from a
student genuinely asking us to explain why something we are teaching is important. After
all, teaching is in itself a kind of media the students are obliged to consume; it is only fair
they know why. 
 Think Multi-disciplinary. How can educators integrate media and digital literacy in a
subject as abstract as mathematics, for example? The answer lies in stepping-out of the
“pure mathematics” mindset and embracing communication as being just as important to
math as computation. Once communication is accepted as important, this opens- up new
venues where is the new literacies can be exercised. For example, how are, why they are
important, and the techniques for solving them. The exact same strategies can be applied
to nearly any subject and any topic. It is just a matter of believing, as educators, that how
we communicate is as important as what we communicate. 
  Explore motivation, not just messages. While it is very important that students
learn what is the messages being communicated by any media text, it is also important to
develop in them a habit for asking why is the message being communicated in the first
place. In the case of an information pamphlet warning, against some infectious disease for
example, is there an outbreak we are being warned of? If not, could this then be an attempt
to sow panic and discard in the target populace? Why? Who stands to gain from doing
such things? The objective here is not so much to find the correct, but rather to develop the
habit of asking these questions.
 Leverage skills that students already have. It is always surprising how much a
person can do when they are personally and affectively motivated to do so -in other words,
a person can do amazing things when they really want to. Students can produce
remarkably well-researched output for things, they are deeply interested in, even without
instruction. Harnessing this natural desire to explore whatever interests them eill go along
in way in improving media and digital literacy education in your classroom.

REFLECT
WRAP UP
 Media Literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they are
communicating, including who is the intended audience and what is the motivation behind the
message.
 Digital/Cyber Literacy is a subset of media literacy; the ability to locate, evaluate, create, and
communicate information on various digital platforms. This includes, the ability to verify information as
factual as well as identify and avoid communicate with deceitful, malicious, and exploitative content.
 Information Literacy is a subset of media literacy; the ability to locate access, and evaluate information
from a variety of media sources.
 Of utmost importance to both literacies (media and digital) is the ability to analyze and think critically
about what is being communicated. This means making value judgements about the message (i.e.,
identifying truth from falsehood right from wrong, etc.) and goes simply comprehending the what is
being said.