MINLIT1 Prelims 2nd Semester
Civic Literacies
I. Literacy and Its Many Meanings
To be literate is to know how to read, write, and count.
 Societies are measured by the level of literacy its citizens
have attained.
 Prior to WW1, it is said that the literacy rate was 20%
LITERACY
- Set of skills that includes the ability to read with
comprehension and write simple messages
- Fundamental human right and the foundation for lifelong
learning; fully essential to social and human development
in its ability to transform lives (UNESCO)
- Includes processes of acquiring basic cognitive skills
- Attached to many other areas of human activities and
other skills and competencies necessary to move in a more
complex world
- All about the language and grammar of words and
numbers
NUMERACY – related to literacy; ability to use numbers and perform
the most basic mathematical functions
Functional Literacy – functionally literate person - able to engage in
all the activities in which basic literacy is required for the effective
functioning of his or her group and community; enabling him/her to
continue use reading, writing, and calculation for his/her own and
the community’s development
Basic and functional literacy
- pertains to words and numbers on a page or screen
- ability to write and to use the information and knowledge
found on the pages in everyday life
- ability to write and pass on information and knowledge to
others through the words inscribed on a page
- ability to deal with the numbers – to use basic
computational functions as transactional tools
Civic Literacies – skills and competencies necessary to engage with
communities and societies as citizens of a democracy
Digital Age Literacies – ensemble of the skills and knowledges
necessary to navigate the Internet and the ever-expanding world of
digital technology
II. Digital Age Literacies
Digital age began in earnest with the emergence of the Internet and
the World Wide Web which are constantly changing and evolving.
Digital Age Literacies – span the use of all technologies and content
that are created through digital technology
Category of Digital Literacies
1. Computer Literacy – knowing how to use the computer
independently both software and hardware
2. Technological literacy – use of computer and emerging
technologies that are product of human innovation.
Technology – primary driver of human civilization
3. Visual literacy – integrate visual information with those
presented in other forms; can interpret visual information
4. News literacy – verifying the reliability and credibility of
information that comes from a news source; knows the
difference between journalism and other kinds of
information dissemination
5. Information literacy – set of skills and competencies that
enable people to make informed judgments and decisions
on the type of information they need; basis of lifelong
learning for educators
III.
- Body of skills, knowledge, and attitudes that enable a
citizen to actively participate and initiate changes in the
community and the greater society
- Greek word “civitas” – citizen
- Goal is for citizens to think beyond d the confines of their
homes and extend their participation to the community
and society
- Is the goal of civic education; foundational aspect of
community engagement
1. Environmental Literacy – ability to recognize that an individual
choice or action has implications for the environment; capacity to
perceive and interpret the relative health of environmental systems
2. Financial Literacy – capacity to manage inflows and outflows of
money
3. Multicultural Literacy – recognize and respects the presence of
others in his/her immediate community and society who are
different from him/her
4. Media Literacy – ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create
media in a variety of forms and across a variety of platforms; breeds
critical thinkers
IV. Communication: From Interpersonal to Mass Communication
Communication – refers to people or groups of people imparting or
exchanging messages through speaking, writing gestures, or even
using symbolic forms
Messages – collection of symbols that appear purposefully
organized to those sending or receiving them (Turow, 2009)
*Non-verbal and verbal forms of communication interact
to send messages to other persons.
4.1 Types of Communication
Small group communication – involves messages between two or
more persons
Organizational Communication – governed by policies and protocols
set by the organization
4.2 Eight Elements that constitute the creation of a message
 Source – where message came from
 Encoding – message is translated so it can be transmitted
 Transmitting – act of sending message
 Channels – technologies that enable the act of sending or
transmitting
 Decoding – converted to signs as the brain perceives and
processes them
 Receiver – the one who gets the message
 Feedback – response generated
 Noise interference – elements that interfere in the
transmittal process
V. History of Media and Communications
5.2 From Papyrus to Paper – started with ancient cultures in Europe,
Asia, and the Middle East
Johann Gutenberg – invented the printing technology that was
eventually called the movable type machine; earliest creation was
the Bible
Around 1600, printing presses have been established in 242 cities
across various countries
Doctrina Cristiana – treatise on the teachings of the Roman Catholic
Church written by Fray Juan Plasencia
*Development of steam engines gave rise to the steam-
powered cylinder press which lowered the cost of printing
newspapers.
In the Philippines, rise of newspaper came about in the first decades
of the 19th century. On December 1, 1846, La Esperanza , the first
daily newspaper was published in the country. Most popular
newspaper known to the Philippine history is La Solidaridad.

George Eastman – invented the film and built a company known as

Kodak

In the Philippines, commercial television was launched in 1953

1953 – International Business Machines (IBM)

1971 – APRANET  Internet

1983 – TCP/IP was universally adopted

1986 – more than 2,000 users of the internet

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web, 600k users

Social Media – located in the World Wide Web or operated using

mobile applications

VI. Communications and Mass Communications

Mass Communications – “mass” is meant as large, diverse,

heterogeneous audience that it can command

Traditional definition of mass communication is anchored on these

three actors:

1. Senders – transmits messages through mass media

2. Receivers – large group
3. Gatekeepers – have filtered the contents

VII. Media and Society: Framing Relationships

Media – well-established institution in the modern world

Mass society approach – society integrated as a whole; believes that

media offers a new world

Base-superstructure model – Marxist approach allied to mass

society approach; initially articulated in the German Ideology

Functionalist approach – sees society as an organism

Social Constructivism – proposes the notion that individuals are

shaped by their interactions with others and with social institutions

Social Construction – refers to the processes by which events,

persons, values, and ideas are first defined or interpreted in a
certain way and given value and priority, largely by mass media,
leading to the persona construction of larger pictures of reality
(McQuail, 2000)

Media texts – considered constructed artifacts

Information society – emerged in Japan in 1960s; allied to the

notion of information economy characterized by the emergence of a
thinking class