MINLIT1 Prelims 2nd Semester
technologies and content that are created through
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
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. Civic Literacies
- 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 1986 – more than 2,000 users of the internet
purposefully organized to those sending or
1991 – Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide
receiving them (Turow, 2009)
Web, 600k users
*Non-verbal and verbal forms of
Social Media – located in the World Wide Web or
communication interact to send messages to other
operated using mobile applications
persons.
VI. Communications and Mass Communications
4.1 Types of Communication
Mass Communications – “mass” is meant as
Small group communication – involves
large, diverse, heterogeneous audience that it can
messages between two or more persons
command
Organizational Communication – governed by
Traditional definition of mass communication is
policies and protocols set by the organization
anchored on these three actors:
4.2 Eight Elements that constitute the creation
1. Senders – transmits messages through
of a message
mass media
 Source – where message came from 2. Receivers – large group
 Encoding – message is translated so it can 3. Gatekeepers – have filtered the contents
be transmitted
VII. Media and Society: Framing Relationships
 Transmitting – act of sending message
 Channels – technologies that enable the Media – well-established institution in the modern
act of sending or transmitting world
 Decoding – converted to signs as the brain
perceives and processes them Mass society approach – society integrated as a
 Receiver – the one who gets the message whole; believes that media offers a new world
 Feedback – response generated Base-superstructure model – Marxist approach
 Noise interference – elements that allied to mass society approach; initially articulated
interfere in the transmittal process in the German Ideology
V. History of Media and Communications Functionalist approach – sees society as an
5.2 From Papyrus to Paper – started with ancient organism
cultures in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East Social Constructivism – proposes the notion that
Johann Gutenberg – invented the printing individuals are shaped by their interactions with
technology that was eventually called the movable others and with social institutions
type machine; earliest creation was the Bible Social Construction – refers to the processes by
Around 1600, printing presses have been which events, persons, values, and ideas are first
established in 242 cities across various countries defined or interpreted in a certain way and given
value and priority, largely by mass media, leading
Doctrina Cristiana – treatise on the teachings of to the persona construction of larger pictures of
the Roman Catholic Church written by Fray Juan reality (McQuail, 2000)
Plasencia
Media texts – considered constructed artifacts
*Development of steam engines gave rise to
the steam-powered cylinder press which lowered Information society – emerged in Japan in 1960s;
the cost of printing newspapers. allied to the notion of information economy
characterized by the emergence of a thinking class
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