CHAPTER 5 Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies OBJECTIVES At the end of this chapter, you should be able to: develop aworking 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 Intemet. 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, itis the so-called old literacies that will serve 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 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. 62 | Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculumrerncpe i ils simplest sense, media literacy can thus be defined as “the abilly 10 identify different types of media and understand the messages ney one ie unicating" (Common sense Media, n.d. The exact type of media varies—television, fadio, newspapers, magazines, books, handouts, Ayers, ec 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 wor propaganda in the 1930s and the rise of advertising in the 1940s, 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 halt-iruths depicted in print, radio, and television. Because media communication lends purpose of manipulating consumers’ Perceptions on issues both political and commercial, being able tounderstand the "why" behind mediacommunication is the absolute heart of media literacy today. itself so easily and so well to the 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 are 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. ‘CHAPTER'S Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies | 63Animmediate example of thisis the media portrayal of Mindanao. Becausg 50 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 confict, tha 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 defirifion can be gleaned by understanding what media literacy is not, The following is a ist 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 wilingness 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's, “how dowe teachit2" 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? 64 | Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the CurriculumFinally. ¢ more fundamental challenge to Media Literacy Education is one of aes As Chris & Potter (1998) put it, "Is media literacy best understood a5 means of inoculating children against the potential harms of the media or a5 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 the technical, cognitive, and sociological skills needed to perform tasks and solve ‘CHAPTER S Media and Cyber or DigitalLiteracies | 65,problems in digital environments (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 ond competencies listed by Shapiro and Hughes (1996) in a curriculum they envisioneg 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 significance of 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). If 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 di form. The connection should be fairly obvious—if meaia 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 iterate 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 abilty 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 skil of finding things, he/she must also acquire the abilty to use these things in life, Bawden (2008) collated the skills and competencies comprising digital literacy from contemporary scholars on the matter into four groups: 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 (ie., the ability to use computers in everyday life), 66 | 8ulding and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curtiulum2, Background Knowled. + je = This knowing where information on or ea3e Hs largely refers to knowing F " licular subje: ic can be found, how information is kept, and how it Soeeereeiad skill taken for granted back in the day when information almost exclusively resided in the form of printed text. 3. Central Competencies — majority of scholars a namely: These are the skills and competencies that a gree on as being core to digital literacy today, reading and understanding digital and non-digital formats; creating and communicating digital information; evaluation of information; knowledge assembly; information literacy; and : + media literacy. Attitudes and Perspectives - Bawden (2008) suggests that it is these attitudes and perspectives that link digitalliteracy today with traditional literacy, saying “itis 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 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 asa critical component of Digital Literacy as “the cognitive skills that consumers use fo 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 ©n Information Literacy seem to concentrate more on the ability to search for information rather than its cognitive and pedagogical aspects (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004; Zins, 2000; Burnett & McKinley, 1998). CHAPTER'S Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies | 67Socio-Emotional Literacy within Digital Literacy Alongside Information Literacy, Eshet-Alkalai (2004) highligh!s @ kind oy Socio-Emotional literacy needed to navigate the Internet, raising qUestions such as, “How do | know if another user in a chatroom is who he says he is?” oy “How do | know if a call for blood donations on the Internet is real or a hoax?" Such questions should make us realize thal there are no hard and fas, tules for determining the answers. Instead, there is a necessary familiarity with the unwritten rules of Cyberspace; an understanding that while the Interney 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 Eshet-Alkalai (2004), This 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. Digitally literate users know how to avoid the “traps” of cyberspace mainly because they are familiar with the social and emotional pattems of working in cyberspace—that itis 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 fo the generation that was born during the information age (as opposed fo 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 make 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 “digitally literate" is popularly defined as the ability to use computers or use the Internet, which as we have seen earlier, 68 | Bullding and Enhancing New Uteracies Across the Curriculumforms only One part of the digitally literate. Our expand: while the digital natives in o Crucial skils and competencies required to be ee of the term “literate” allows us to see that Ur Classrooms are inly familiar with digital gysiems—pethaps even more so than thelr hehuclosemis 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 difficully many Senior High School instructors hove in teaching research: Students who are otherwise quite familiar with using the Intemet 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 they are either unfamiliar with, uninterested in, or both. Another Problem conceming 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), itis nonetheless mistaken, as no one is truly “born digital." Instead, the determining factor is access fo 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 comprehensive 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 Teshape our societies for new ways of living, learning, and working for a better future—for all?” ‘CHAPTER S Media and Cyber or Digital Literacies | 69Sone Despite the challenges posed by the broad and fluid nature of media (ang therefore digital) literacy, educators in the Philippines can spearhead literacy efforts by doubling-down on those concepts and principles of Media Literacy that are of utmost importance, namely, critical thinking and the grounding of critical thought in a moral framework. 70 Teach media and digital literacy integrally. Any attempt to teach these principles must first realize that they cannot be separated from context-meaning, they cannot be taught separately from other topics. Critical Thinking requires something other than itself to think ctitically 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 these 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 school curriculum and in the everyday life of the students. Anything else will be as misguided as merely telling a plant fo 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 toleam. 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 isin 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 the new literacies can be exercised. For example, have students create a webpage detailing what systems of linear equations are, why they ore important, and the techniques for solving them. Altematively, they can create poster infographics that explain the same things. 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. | Building and Enhancing New Ueraces Across the CuriculumKel + _ Explore motivations, not just messages, While it is very important that students learn what is the message 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 discord in the target populace? Why? Who stands to gain from doing such things? The objective here is not so much to find the correct answers, 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 will go a long way in improving media and digital literacy education in your classroom. 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 communication 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 fo analyze and think critically about what is being communicated. This means making value judgments about the message (i.e., identifying truth from falsehood, right from wrong, etc.), and goes beyond simply comprehending the what is being said.