Another area of our intellectual capability is literacy. Not only is knowledge the acquisition and storage of factual information, but it also includes literacy. Literacy has traditionally been thought of as the ability to read and write. However, in a society as technologically advanced as ours, this minimum ability hardly qualifies someone to be labeled as literate. Our complex, technological society requires one to be literate in a number of areas.
Functional Literacy: This is the ability to operate within the demands of our environment. Functional literacy means that we can balance a checkbook, fill out a job application, prepare an income tax form, figure a home budget, and relate to others. It is the source of information over which we have the most control.
Media Literacy: This is the ability to manage what we watch, read, and listen to. The media has become an important part of our daily lives. Media literacy is the ability to apply critical thinking skills to the media.
"Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media— from music videos and Web environments to product placement in films and virtual displays on NHL hockey boards. It's about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions— the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content."
--Jane Tallim, contributor for Media Smarts1
Statistics from the Neilson television ratings service indicate that the average American watches over six hours of television per day. It is hard to imagine that our view of people, events, and things in our life is not be affected by what is viewed on television. Consider the millions of people who understand the world only from reading Facebook. As the influence of the media increases, so will the need to manage the media.
The Center for Media Literacy has many experts who suggest a variety of questions that we can ask as we watch different messages on the variety of medias that are available. In no particular order, here are some of the questions you might want to consider.
- Who the media was intended for?
- Who wants to reach this audience? And why?
- Whose perspective is this story told?
- Whose voices are heard and whose voices are absent?
- What strategies does this message use to get my attention and make me feel included?
- Who profits from this presentation and who loses?
- Who created this message?
- What techniques are used to attract my attention?
- How might different people understand this message differently from me?
- What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in or omitted from this message?
- Why was this message sent?
More than you thought?
Here is a great test for you, find a story that is in the news. Then go search a variety of news outlets from television to radio, to websites, to blogs, and see how the story is different. Ask some of the above questions. Notice the differences you find in the stories and the way they are presented. Often it is not what is there that is different, it is what they leave out that makes the stories so different.
Information/Reference Literacy: This refers to understanding data of all types, from a textbook on critical thinking to a business spreadsheet to e-information from the internet. As the amount of information continues to grow, doubling every four years, people are expected to know more about almost everything. Consider the explosion of information available through the Internet with millions of web pages. From entertainment, to bill paying to research, access to the Internet has become more and more of a necessity. A poll conducted by the BBC in early 2010 found that almost four in five internet users and non-users around the world felt that access to the Internet was a fundamental human right. And in several countries including Finland, Greece, Spain, Estonia, and France, it has actually become a protected human right. On July 6, 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council backed the notion that Internet access and online freedom of expression is a basic human right.
But as an unfiltered medium, people are individually responsible for knowing what specific electronic information and what web sites are reliable and trustworthy. Many college libraries offer online courses that can improve our Information Literacy.
Cultural Literacy: This type of literacy encompasses history, philosophy, and the arts, any expression that represents an attempt to understand and come to terms with our civilization. Although it is correct that no two humans know exactly the same things, they often have a great deal of knowledge in common. To a large extent this common knowledge or collective memory allows people to communicate, to work together, and to live together. It forms the basis for communities, and if enough people share it, it is a distinguishing characteristic of a national culture. The form and content of this common knowledge constitute one of the elements that make each national culture unique
Cultural literacy, unlike expert knowledge, is meant to be shared by everyone. It is that shifting body of information that our culture has found useful, and therefore worth preserving. Only a small fraction of what we read and hear gains a secure place on the memory shelves of the culturally literate, but the importance of this information is beyond question. This shared information is the foundation of our public discourse. It allows us to comprehend our daily newspapers and news reports, to understand our peers and leaders, and even to share our jokes. Cultural literacy is the context of what we say and read.
Cultural literacy has its roots in what cognitive scientists call “schema theory.” Schema theory describes how people organize all of the amount of background knowledge which they accumulate about the world. This theory asserts that knowledge is organized into mental units called schemas. When people learn, when they build knowledge, they are either creating new schemas, or linking together preexisting schemas in new ways. In teaching we call this constructionist learning where students take what is being taught in class and actually construct new knowledge.
Everybody has different experiences, so everyone develops a somewhat different view of the world. However, we also share many common experiences. Most Americans have seen a baseball game, gone to a movie, and have eaten at McDonald’s. Shared schemas constitute an important part of our shared cultural knowledge. When people communicate, they depend on these shared schemas. Conan O’Brien can’t make a joke about sushi unless he can reasonably assume that most of his audience has had the experience of eating sushi. The more background knowledge two people share, the less they have to make explicit in their conversations.
