ESG775 New Media Literacies
Reflective Journal
Topic 2 New Literacies
What are the so-called “new literacies”?
When reflecting on what is ‘new’ for this entry I first went to Anstey and Bull (2009) to re-read the
chapter, “Changing Times, Changing Literacies’. This reminded me that in my lifetime my own
literacy practices have not been static since I have needed to engage with evolving literacy forms,
technology and practices to further my own understanding and to suit the demands of changing
curricula.
For example, the ease of accessing film in the classroom for study purposes has progressed from the
annual trek into the Launceston Cinema to watch that year’s designated film with a class (1980) or
watching multiple reels on a projector in the classroom (and hoping you hadn’t got the film spool on
backwards, to crowding around the television to watch a crackly VHS (1985) before the invention of
the DVD. The rise of effective media study and critical literacy approaches with regard to film really
became viable once we had access to data projectors in classes so students could experience wide
screen images. And of course, film is now ubiquitous in our students’ lives so film literacy has
become an important feature of the English syllabus.
I liked the discussion of what is ‘new’ about the New Literacies and found that Jenkins’ points were
really useful as a starting place. He reassured me that, ‘Reading and writing competence are still
critical but not sufficient,’ and, ‘Students also need to practice technology mastery though this is
not an end in itself- just as holding a pen does not lead to good composition.’
Lankshear’s description of the New Literacies being characterised as being more to do with
participation, collaboration and distribution, and involving changes in values, priorities and cultural
relations, helped me to make some sense of the changing concepts of these literacies. I could see
there was a shift away from the narrow definition of literacy as a set of basic skills in isolation from
context or purpose.
Key points from readings
Jenkins et al, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Media Education in the 21st Century
 New Media Consortium suggest they are, ‘the set of abilities and skills where aural, visual
and digital literacy overlap” (p.19) including understanding, manipulate and transform,
distribute and adapt to new forms.
 Jenkins asserts key importance is also textual literacy which is supplemented by and
supplanted by media literacies. Second point is that new media literacies should be
regarded as a social skill (p.19).
 New literacies should support and expand existing first literacy competence, not replace.
 Opportunities for continued improvement through new literacy participation, feedback,
public audiences (p.19).
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Build on expanded definition of literacy as moving beyond decoding and making meaning to
distinguishing between fact and fiction, (although new literacies may blur this easy
distinction???), to construct arguments and assess the reliability of information.
Also known as media literacy?????
Effects of open source culture: sampling, appropriation, transformation and repurposing
that challenge traditional understanding of ownership, authorship, personal expression.
Understanding and competence is necessary for the formation of a coherent world.
Core media skills: play, simulation, performance (meaning use of multiple identities),
appropriation, multi-tasking, distributed cognition (expanding mental capacities), collective
intelligence, exercising judgement, transmedia navigation, networking, negotiation
Lankshear and Knobel, New Literacies
 Literacy has extended its meaning from the ability to read and write to “the ability to
understand information however presented’ (p. 21). Media literacy involves matching the
choice of medium of communication with the kind of information and the intended
audience.
 Some authorities have interpreted media literacy with ITC and ability to write and reply to
an email, file and understand jargon eg joystick, mouse.
 2 key ways of characterising new literacies: (a) paradigmatic – new paradigm of
understanding as opposed to old psycholinguistic approach and (b) ontological meaning the
kind of literacy (its character and stuff) are new eg they contain concepts and practices not
present in old literacies including globalisation of technology, manufacture and
communication (p.24). These include new social practices prompted/ supported by the new
literacies eg constructing hyperlinks, text messaging on a mobile phone NOT limited to
electronic media but includes popular game playing card games, paper zines and manga,
print-based fanzines, scenario-building etc. These include features of the new mindset.
 Comparison of mindsets (p.38).
Anstey and Bull, Teaching and Learning Multiliteracies
 Embrace definition by Luke and Freebody (2000) that literacy is ‘the flexible and sustainable
mastery of a repertoire of practices with the texts of traditional and new communications
technologies via spoken, print and multimedia.’
 To be literate now means being effective in multiple modes and contexts (p.21). people
need to recognize the context and identify the purpose, genre and form and required
response so that discourse refers to modes of literacy such as speaking, viewing,
composing etc while Discourse refers to the attitudes and behaviours associated with the
discourses (p. 21) . It means being cognitively AND socially literate.
 4 identified practices of reading: code breaker, meaning maker, text user and text analyst
(p.44).
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My own literacies practices
New Literacy
forms
Observed
Tried
Email
Internet
Wikipedia
Internet
gaming
Avoided/
Rejected/ Not
interested
Personal contact
with friends
Work purpose/
contact with
business sites
Work purpose:
use and insert
links in documents
Information
Entertainment
source, on-line
shopping
Hyper links
Social media
Embraced
Son (19) - his former
girlfriend created his
Facebook page. He
updates and
communicates through
the page every day.
Some Year 11-12
students’ obsession
with it.
College Production class
has LC Face book page
to communicate with
cast.
Dealt with several cases
of student Facebook/
texting harassment
Son plays ‘Fiesta’ with
teams from around the
world; son spends ‘real’
money buying weapons
to use online
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Facebook to
communicate
with some
family and past
students
Use as first source
of info; have
added content
Silly arguments
about its veracity
as a source
In May LC senior
staff decided to
create an official
Facebook page
after considerable
debate
Friending current
students
Not interested in
regular
communicationtoo much of a tie
Not interested in
games or playing
in a team.
No patience for
acquiring basic
skills to reach
proficiency.
I enjoy reading for
relaxation
(solitary activity)
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Office
Communicat
or
Trial video
conference
with colleagues
at LC
Video
conferencing
UTas Global Ed
Project joint
Launceston/
Hobart meeting
(March)
Easy access, ability
to make changes
and share key
documents with
colleagues
Storage of shared
files, information,
announcements
Common
central files
on LC hard
drive
LC Intranet
SharePoint
Program
(staff and
students)
LC display
video
screens
Sharing of
information,
photos with
students
Weblog
2 blogs:
educational
reflection and
fiction
Wikispace
YouTube
Most other staff
are not interested
or not hooked up
Son and friends
regularly upload film of
their activities and
search for entertaining
sites
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Not interested in
maintaining
professional blog
or making new
contacts except
with people I have
met
Wiki for 2 classes
of Student
Directed Inquiry 3
Wiki for
assessment for
Unit Educational
Inquiry
Wiki for Unit Multi
literacies
Access
educational
tutorials, famous
speeches, embed
in wiki
Not interested in
posting
entertainment or
teaching
segments
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Clickview
program for
video sharing
on LC server
Mobile
Friends and students
phone
who embrace a range of
functions
Tutorials for
student use
Phone as voice
device (traditional
use)
Fan fiction
Manga
Zines
Graphic
novels
Media
literacy/
critical
literacy
Music
sampling
Complicated
phones with
complex
functions. Not
interested in
increased
connectivity or
email access or
communications
Not interested
except as insight
into student
reading practices
Reviewed
Hamlet for The
Examiner.
Read several
for pleasure.
Work and home
Students, son
E- reader
Not interested in
music
Downloaded
several books
from the Tas
Library
Books on CD for
use in the car
Regular use due
to time taken to
down load, lack of
opportunity to
browse book
before
committing
I found this to be a really useful activity because since I first drew up the table at the beginning of
the unit I have added to, and updated, quite a few comments. It has helped me to track my progress
and continuing experimentation.
Analysing my responses enabled me to realise that as a person with quite an introverted personality
the communication and collaboration aspects of New Literacies are not very appealing to me. I
value my solitude and time to do things (including reading and watching TV/ film) by myself without
having to bother about other people. I have quite separate home/ work practices since I am keen to
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stay abreast of educational leanings that can help me to improve my teaching, and that of my
colleagues, but I don’t necessarily want to practice them in life outside work.
This has implications for teaching students with a similar personality to mine: will they be
disadvantaged by not embracing social media and collaborative online practices? Should teaching
them these skills be regarded as a useful, but not essential life practice, like learning trigonometry in
Maths or the characteristics of cells in Biology? Or perhaps with increasing globalisation and the
development of shared on-line learning perhaps I should regard proficiency as an essential
component of all student education? I will have to think more about this concept.
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