Adolescents’ Use of Critical Literacy in a Digital Society
My grandma loves Facebook. She is constantly sharing posts and uploading family photos, but she doesn’t understand some of the “Facebook norms”. For example, if my friend tags me in a picture, she has the tendency to comment something similar to “beautiful girls!” even if she has never met my friend before. People that are literate on Facebook may think her comments are strange, however, my grandmother sees nothing odd about it. Social media also requires an understanding of abbreviated words such as “lol” and “lmk”, meaning “laugh out loud” and “let me know”. If my grandma came across these word abbreviations, she would have no clue what they meant because she is unfamiliar with the language and audience of the text. She does not understand how to interpret the type of language presented online or how to use it, and she does not recognize that her “audience” includes all Facebook users, not just me. Therefore, my grandma is not critically literate with digital media, but most adolescents excel in this area. Critical literacy involves the active reading of texts to determine the author, the audience, the purpose, and the language, especially for adolescents utilizing digital media resources, in order to be aware of the validity of the text and prevent being scammed or fed lies.
In Digital Media Literacies: rethinking media education in the age of the Internet, David Buckingham (2007) discusses four main aspects of critical literacy. Being critically literate involves analyzing texts to determine who the author is and what they are attempting to communicate [production], the intention of the author [representation], the intended audience and the position one plays in the audience [audience], and the type of language used [language] (Buckingham, 2007, p.48). These four components of critical literacy can be applied to every type of text because there will always be some type of bias or an underlying purpose. As Vasquez (2017) says in her article titled Critical Literacy, critical literacy is “a lens, frame, or perspective” (p. 8) that should be used when reading texts. It is essential for people of all ages to be critically literate to avoid miscommunication or misunderstandings, particularly involving fake news or scams that many adolescents encounter online. Critical literacy also applies when one is creating a piece — the same aspects can be evaluated to determine who the text was created for and why it was created in order to determine the message one is attempting to communicate.
In the video posted by Sullivan (2013) of the graduation speech titled “This is Water”, given by David Foster Wallace, the idea that people operate under a “default setting” of selfishness is presented. He states that, “Learning how to think means learning how to exercise control over what you think” (Wallace, 2013), and people have to make conscious decisions to analyze their surroundings instead of solely thinking about themselves because this can change the scope of the experience. In the Critical Literacy article, Vasquez (2017) also states that “critical literacy should not be a topic to be covered” (p. 8). Adolescents will have to change their way of thinking in order to analyze texts and be aware of all aspects of the creation and interpretation; this is not something that can be taught because it is a mindset, not a standard.
In Critical Literacy: A Definition and EFL Classroom Applications, Sander (2016) states, “Critical literacy is not restricted to reading of the printed word, and that students today consume information in a varied media landscape…” (p. 1). In an age where digital media is ever present and its use is expanding, adolescents, especially, will constantly be exposed to technology, so they must understand how to decipher both printed and online texts. Although the example of my grandmother using Facebook is comical, it is essential for adolescents to be critically literate in order to avoid being deceived by fake news or advertisements online.
The video above shows an example of where the truth was altered and presented to the public. Dukakis was portrayed to the public in a negative light when someone created a story about him allowing weekend prison passes which an inmate used to kill and rape two other people. Dukakis was simply in office at the time and was not actually facilitating this. Therefore, this needed to be analyzed to determine that the author was most likely a Bush supporter and wanted to turn people against Dukakis in the election.
This video and the other resources discussed show that adolescents must understand that not everything presented online can be trusted. It is essential that students can critically examine the texts they encounter to determine if they are valid and reliable. This will help them to make educated decisions and to protect themselves from scams and fake news.
Required Readings
Buckingham, D. (2007). Digital Media Literacies: Rethinking Media Education in the Age of the Internet. Research in Comparative and International Education,2(1), 43–55. doi:10.2304/rcie.2007.2.1.43
Sullivan, J. (2013, May 9). This Is Water — full version-David Foster Wallace commencement speech. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI
Outside Resources
DiGeorge, L. (2012, May 14). Critical Literacy. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgUOdInej4U
LitTech.FinalPresentation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2018, from https://www.emaze.com/@AQFFZICL
Sander, A. (2016). Critical Literacy: A Definition and EFL Classroom Applications[PDF]. Lund University.
Vasquez, V. M. (2017, March). Critical Literacy. Retrieved October 19, 2018, from Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.20
