The document summarizes key concepts related to literacy, media literacy, information literacy, and knowledge societies. It discusses definitions of literacy from being able to read and write to a more expanded concept. Media literacy is defined as the ability to access, analyze and respond to various media. Information literacy involves being able to locate, evaluate and use information effectively. A knowledge society focuses on using information to build and apply knowledge for development. Various sources and formats of information are also outlined.
3. Literacy
• widely known as the ability to read and
write
• always associated with a set of tangible
skills, particularly the skills of writing and
reading
• Its twin sister is the concept of numeracy
• seen as an aspect of human rights closely
linked to the right to education
4. The United Nations Educational, Scientific And
Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) cites the
importance of literacy in the modern world:
• “Literacy is fundamental human right and
the foundation of lifelong learning. It is fully
essential to social and human development in its
ability to transform lives.
• For individuals, families, and societies alike,
it is an instrument of empowerment to
improve one’s health, one’s income, and one’s
relationship with the world.”(UNESCO, 2003)
5. Media Literacy: An Instrument for
Empowerment
• The word “empowerment” is very
significant in our appreciation of how
literacy provides us with means to access
the world of knowledge, so we can lead
better lives.
7. Media Literacy
• is most validly seen as a repertoire of skills and
capacities
• The most common definition is “the ability to
access, analyze, and respond to a range
of media.”(Sargant 004, 28)
• By range of media, this includes print, moving
images, and other hybrid forms such as
multimedia texts.
8. Media Literacy
• Buckingham and Livingstone (2005) define
media literacy as “having access to the
media, understanding the media, and
creating/expressing oneself using the
media.”
10. • The original means of mass
communication were print-magazines,
journals, and newspapers- and their collective
name was already in place: publications.
• Soon after, radio and television were added
to the mix, however, the term “publications”
would not stretch to fit.
• Needing a term that would encompass all
these means of communication, writers
borrowed the term “media” from advertising
people, and used it since then to accommodate
these means of communication and even the
newer ones, such as the Internet. (Turow 2009)
11. Why is empowerment such a big word?
• At the core of the term ‘empowerment’ is the
idea of power.
• Empowerment is hinged on the idea that
power can change, that the ownership of power
can shift from one entity to another.
• Empowerment is also possible because power
can expand or diminish as the case may be.
13. Power
• is often related to our ability to make others do
what we want, regardless of their own wishes or
interests (Weber, 1946)
• can also mean influence or control
• Weber also gives us the idea that power exists as
a relationship between two people or things.
14. Power
• But we have just clarified that power can
expand or diminish.
• is not always relational
• One needs to cultivate a notion off power within
to fully realize that.
• Indeed, power can reside inside, you given
the opportunity to access the knowledge, skills,
and attitudes.
16. What is Information?
• It is that which informs, that which enable us
to know.
• It can be the answer to a question, news,
or a data.
• It is something that is also communicable.
17. Information Literacy
• is the set of abilities requiring individuals to
recognize when information is needed, and how
to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively.
• “Information literacy constitutes the abilities
to recognize when information is needed and to
locate, evaluate, effectively use, and
communicate information in its various
formats.” (SUNY Council of Library Directors,
Information Literacy Initiative Committee, Final
Report, September 30, 1997)
18. What is the information age?
• The onset of the information age is associated with the
dramatic changes that the digital industry has created.
• Today we live in a knowledge-based society surrounded
by cutting-edge technology that makes every aspect of
our lives faster and easier.
• The internet arose in 1969, but it was in 1989 when a
fully developed World Wide Web arose and turned it
into a global platform for knowledge-sharing,
communication, and archiving.
• A parallel development was the rise of a knowledge
economy characterized by production and consumption
of products that were generated from intellectual capital.
19. What is the information age?
• Other development that coincided with the
information age is the revitalized role of libraries
in the production of knowledge.
• The invention of the microform in 1945
allowed for the storage of bulky materials;
however, the technology would soon be
superseded by digital imaging, digital storage,
and digital modalities of transmission.
21. Knowledge Societies
• are about capabilities to identify, produce,
process, transform, disseminate, and use
information to build and apply knowledge for
human development.
• They require an empowering social vision that
encompasses plurality, inclusion, solidarity, and
participation.
22. • As emphasized by UNESCO during the first
phase of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS), the concept of knowledge
societies is more all-embracing and more
conducive to empowerment than the concept of
technology and connectivity, which often
dominates debates on the information society.
• Issues of technology and connectivity emphasize
infrastructures and governance of the network
planet. They are clearly crucial, but should not
be viewed as an end in themselves.
23. • In other words, the global information society
is meaningful, only if it favors the development of
knowledge societies and sets itself the goal of
“tending towards human development
based on human rights”.
• This objective is all the more vital since the Third
Industrial Revolution-the revolution of the new
technologies-and the new phase of globalization that
accompanies it have swept away many familiar
landmarks and accentuated the divisions between
rich and poor, and between industrialized and
developing countries, as well as within national
communities.
• For UNESCO, the construction of knowledge
societies “opens the way to humanization of
the process of globalization.”
24. What is Internet?
• It is a vast chain of computer networks in which
anyone who has access to a computer with
internet connection can publish their
documents. All of these networks are linked
together via digital technology.
• Thus, the internet allows transmission of a
variety of file types, both written and non-
written multimedia.
25. Who Puts Information on the Internet?
• The three-letter code preceded by a dot (.),
simply known as domain, gives you a fairly
good idea of who is publishing the internet site.
26. Domain Names and Their Equivalent
.edu
Educational Institution-it may contain carefully
processed and reviewed information though it
may not represent the individual views of the
academic personnel.
.com
Mostly commercial entities, some of which are
profit-oriented
.org Non-profit organizations
.gov Government organizations
.net Internet service providers
28. Popular Publications
• Most of what rules in the print and non-print media are
popular publications with the general public as its target
audience.
• Examples are journalistic articles, feature articles,
manual, flyers, fact sheets, and even blogs by netizens.
• They serve both inform and entertain the general public.
• Reporters, journalists, or anyone, for that matter, can
publish popular publications.
• We turn to popular publications to have a pulse of
popular opinion, or to get entertained, or to simply gain
information regarding a popular subject.
29. Scholarly Publications
• These are well-researched articles found mostly
in academic journals and published for the
specialists of a specific field.
• The language is very technical because it is
geared toward the consumption of specialists,
scholars, and those seeking research-based
information on a particular area of knowledge
such as the social sciences, the natural sciences,
and the arts and humanities.
30. Trade Publications
• These are also highly specialized materials
meant for the players and specialists of a specific
industry.
• Some good examples are publications on
motoring or publications on construction.
• Trade publications combine popular appeal and
specialized knowledge because it also needs to
attract the non-specialists who are the potential
consumers or users of a particular product.
32. FORMAT DESCRIPTION
Print Materials produced and collected from print resources (books,
newspapers and other periodicals, manuscripts, correspondence,
memoranda, loose leaf materials, notes, brochures, etc.)
Digital
formats
Digital materials are information materials that are stored in an
electronic format on a hard drive, CD-ROM. Remote server, or even the
Cloud. These could be e-books, databases, websites, video, and audio
materials. These materials may be accessed with a computer and/or
through the Internet.
Audio and
Video
Materials collected using analog technology in video (TV, video
recordings), audio (radio, audio recordings) tools presented in recorded
tapes, CDs, audio-cassettes, reel to reel tapes, record albums, etc. As
differentiated from digital technology, these sources of information are
recorded using analog technology which means data is recorded in
advance from one point to another. Analog devices read the material by
scanning the physical data off the media.
Microform This includes materials that have been photographed and their images
developed in reduced-size film strips and which are viewed using
machines with magnifying lenses. In university libraries, these may
include back issues of magazines, newspapers, or historical materials.
33. • True information literacy summons both
thinking and doing.
• Given the infinitely expanding information
resources at our disposal, the tasks are actually
daunting.
• Information literacy can no longer be defined
without considering technology literacy in order
for individuals to function in an information-
rich, technology-infused world.
35. Information Literacy
• means the set of skills, attitudes and knowledge necessary to
know when information is needed to help solve a problem or
make a decision, how to articulate that information need in
searchable terms and language, then search efficiently for the
information, retrieve it, interpret and understand it, organize it,
evaluate its credibility and authenticity, assess its relevance,
communicate it to others if necessary, then utilize it to
accomplish bottom-line purposes;
• is closely allied to learning to learn, and critical thinking, both of
which may be established, formal educational goals, but too
often are not integrated into curricula, syllabi and lesson plan
outlines as discrete, teachable and learnable outcomes;
• sometimes the terms ‘Information Competency’, or ‘Information
Fluency’ or even other terms, are used in different countries,
cultures or languages, in preference to the term Information
Literacy.” (UNESCO 2007, 53)
39. Computer Literacy
• “means the set of skills, attitudes and knowledge
necessary to understand and operate the basic
functions of information and communications
technologies
• is usually sub-divided into Hardware Literacy
and Software Literacy.”(UNESCO 2007, 54)
40. Computer Literacy
Hardware Literacy Software Literacy
• refers to knowing how to
use basic PC and Laptop
features and functions
• such as a mouse,
connecting a monitor to a
central processing unit,
using a printer, and so on
• refers to learning how to
use various kinds of
application software
packages
• such as word processing,
spreadsheets, graphics
packages and PowerPoint
for making presentations,
or KidPix or HyperStudio
Access denotes the knowledge of where to find these forms of media. Aside from that, it should include the technical competence to navigate around technology and easily adjust to the technological advancements that happen every now and then. It might mean having access to cable, knowing how to play the DVD player, knowing how to adjust settings, and knowledge where to access the media texts that are crucial to your life and to your community.
Analysis includes thinking reflectively and critically on what has been read, seen, or experienced, and its implications to oneself and to one’s community. It also includes the assessment of the reliability of the material, its sources and if it is presenting facts, the reliability of the sources.
Response includes the ability to experience and explore the pleasures of the media text, and how these are realized the language off the media. It also includes an evaluation of how, as perennial media audiences, these media texts shape our insights, perspectives, and identities.
Most media literacy educators will agree that media literacy should teach learners how to have access to the media, acquire the critical tools to understand the media, as well as create and express themselves using the media.
Aside from access and understanding, the above definition also included the ability to create using media. It can include using the tools of media to create and produce your own media texts to gain a better appreciation of the processes involved. Media literacy embraces everything-from having the knowledge needed to use old and new media technology to having a critical relationship to media content in a time when the media constitutes one of the most powerful forces in society.
Our inquiry-based learning process should enable you to constantly practice and fine-tune your tools for analysis and reflection. When reflection and analysis is combined with creative production, theory merges with practice, thereby allowing you to discover and express your learning through actual hands-on experiences in creating media texts. Theory enriches practice. Practice uplifts your appreciation and tightens your gasp of theory.
Power is relational and possessed by some at the expense of others. While some may have it, some are cut off from it. A zero-sum conception of it means that power will remain in the hands of the powerful, unless they give up. Historically, it has been proven that those who wield power will most likely hold on to it.
That is what media literacy education is all about-to cultivate power inside you. In other words, to cultivate power inside you, so you do not become mere passive recipients of media and information texts, but active users, consumers, and even active producers of media and information texts instead.
