The Premiss of Postliteracy

Posted on | September 23, 2008 | 6 Comments

Doug Johnson posts In Defense of Postliteracy, defining:

“…….the postliterate as those who can read, but chose to meet their primary information and recreational needs through audio, video, graphics and gaming.”

While we might debate the term itself, the basic premiss is one that I would largely agree with. If I were to qualify Doug’s definition, I would contend that text remains at least as important as the other modes of expression, and probably still more important than the others, both in terms of text online and text on paper. Text is still a major component of expression on the Web and in the wider online environment, and there are just too many books and magazines being published and sold today, with the younger generations still a major slice of the market for both, for us to dismiss text quite so readily.

However, I do strongly agree that the other modes of expression have risen massively in importance in recent years, and especially (though not exclusively) for young poeple. Doug’s post reminded me of my own response – The Story of Anthony – to an earlier piece from Ron Burnett – The Transformation of Culture. Ron wrote:

“Language, verbal and written is at the core of what humans do everyday. But, language has always been very supple, capable of incorporating not only new words, but also new modalities of expression. Music for example became a formalized notational system through the adaptation and incorporation of some of the principles of language. Films use narrative, but then move beyond conventional language structure into a hybrid of voice, speech, sounds and images.

As long as Anthony’s incorporation of technology and new forms of expression is viewed as a phenomenon it is unlikely that we will understand the degree to which he is changing the fundamental notions of communications to which we have become accustomed over the last century.”

I like Doug Johnson’s notion that: “…postliteracy may be a return to more natural forms of communication – speaking, storytelling, dialogue, debate, and dramatization.” I’m not sure I agree with the idea though that we have: “…. an irrational bias toward print as the best way to communicate and preserve information.” Our adherence to print has been and remains entirely rational – and, of course, richly productive for human history and culture across the past four centuries or so – but the debate should not be about print but about the utility, beauty, strength and continued resilience of text in its multifarious contexts, whether on paper or on any other medium.

But I agree entirely with both Doug Johnson and Ron Burnett when they question the extent to which formal institutions and systems of education understand, or are willing to acknowledge, the nature of the the change that is taking place in relation to definitions of expression, literacy and communication.

Technorati Tags: doug johnson, ron burnett, literacy, modes of expression, communication, text, video, print, audio, graphics

Category: change, education
Tags: literacy

Comments

6 Responses to “The Premiss of Postliteracy”

Joe Nutt
September 23rd, 2008 @ 5:37 pm

The Argentinian government ran a visual literacy programme to encourage families to watch TV more selectively. One of its aims was to encourage children to criticise and evaluate visual media. How else can any child do that except via language, spoken or written? Another feature of this was a film competition for teenagers to enter, the prize being you got to have your film made by professionals. How did you enter…? You wrote a script! One of the project’s productions was a video of interviews with teenagers who had been to see a film in a cinema for the first time in their lives. I don’t speak Spanish, but even I could see that their ability to express themselves was pitiful. I’ve just received an invitation to a leading ICT event from a “thought leader” which was full of sense errors (not typos) a GCSE English candidate would be expected to correct. Is that being postliterate…or just illiterate?
John Connell
September 29th, 2008 @ 11:11 am

I’m not convinced by your examples, I’m afraid, Joe. I also think you understate the nature and significance of these other ‘literacies’. I started to pen a reply and found it getting longer and longer, so I have turned it into a post:

Literacy, Postliteracy, Modes of Expression….and a real Guitar Hero!
21st Century Skills : John Connell: The Blog
January 9th, 2009 @ 8:31 am

[...] but we do need to be able to differentiate one from the other at least in theoretical terms); [link] [...]
Post Literacy « OPEN REFLECTIONS
August 23rd, 2009 @ 10:16 pm

[...] John Connell responds to Johnson in a post in which he emphasizes the continuing importance of text, even in an online environment. Although he agrees with Johnson concerning the lack of attention for other forms of literacy, he does state that ‘the debate should not be about print but about the utility, beauty, strength and continued resilience of text in its multifarious contexts, whether on paper or on any other medium.’ This is actually a very interesting point that he makes, to take a closer look at and investigate how text ‘mixes’ with other media, and how it is perceived and consumed in the context of other (digital) media. How does the interaction between text and other media change the way we analyze and interpret the message inherent in this multimedia format, which then in a way transcends the mere textual medium? [...]
Debating Literacy: pulling some threads together : John Connell: The Blog
September 10th, 2009 @ 7:21 pm

[...] discussion kicked off when I quoted Doug Johnson on what he termed ‘postliteracy’, to which Joe Nutt responded witheringly in a comment: [...]
Postliteracy: a view from Leiden : John Connell: The Blog
September 19th, 2009 @ 9:32 am

[...] post starts more or less where my original piece on this debate began too: with Doug Johnson’s insightful musings on Libraries for a [...]