Meida Literacy

MacManus, Richard. “Media Literacy and How Blogs Should Evolve.” ReadWriteWeb. 15 Apr. 2004. Web. 19 Mar. 2011

Though this article (actually blog post) dates back to 2004, I find it still very relevant today. In it, Richard MacManus, the creator/blogger of ReadWriteWeb (http://www.readwriteweb.com/), talks about discovering the idea of media literacy. He continues by exploring the idea of empowering people through a channel that allows them to create or express their message. Or, McLuhan’s theory that the medium is the message. Where it’s not the content that is the message, but the medium used to express that content. Today we have so many choices of medium, or how, to express ourselves and the content we want to share with or present to the world. I feel this is especially important when it comes to education, to not expect every student to express themselves in the same way that we did. Or, “read only.” But to allow them to choose their own medium and they will take ownership of the assignment and their message. MacManus backs this idea up with a story about inner city LA teens that used sound, images and text in a project about gun violence. They took a topic very relevant to them and through different mediums, created information they were able to understand, analyze and evaluate. In other words, they constructed meaning. And with this meaning, they also constructed a toolbox they can draw from in the future.

MacManus continues his blog post with a section on where he sees the future of blogging headed. He believes blogs might struggle in achieving or reaching an “expanded literacy” unless they move into a publishing tool that encompasses sound and visuals along with the text. Seven years later, I’d say that evolution has occurred. We can now post videos or audio on our blogs. We can even create the video and audio ourselves, along with photographs and the trusty old text. Even the text has evolved into short form or the micro blogging of Twitter and Facebook. We now have to learn how to think about how to say something and evaluate it in 140 characters or less. And more frequently.

Media literacy will remain relevant as long as the mediums we use to create and express ourselves continue to change and evolve.