What is Critical Literacy and Why the Need?

Thesis: Critical literacy is a timeless needed skill that means you are able to analyze and evaluate forms of text by critiquing the author/source and considering the bias that the source has.

Critical literacy means to be detailed in your thoughts while interpreting a text. It is, “the ability to analyze, evaluate and critically reflect on the media a person encounters and creates” (Buckingham, 2009). Fabricated published stories have been around ever since news was circulating, which has been centuries. “(President) Adams’ marginal response reminds us that when something like the truth is up for debate, the door is open for bad-faith actors to promulgate falsehoods — something that a reader today might call “fake news.” (Mansky, 2018). Fake news is a large part of why we need critical literacy. Manipulated news and texts come in many forms, and we need to be aware of it, no matter the package it comes in.

When interacting with a new text one must consider your source. When considering your source ask yourself if this source should be credible for the information it is presenting? For example, is a well-known chef giving advice on the best way to cook meat, or the best way to fix a car’s A/C unit? It is imperative to think of what is the author’s relevancy to the topic and what is their former experience with it?

The next step of critiquing your source is to consider the biases and discrimination, whether subtle or direct, embedded in the text. There are always motivations behind any given text, and it is important to consider what those might be. Even if facts are presented, why did they choose those facts rather than others? Or possibly, whose voices are being heard in the text and whose are not, and why are they not heard? It is true that the author of any form of text has a motivation to make the reader think or feel something, and it is our job to think of what they want us to think and why they want us to think it.

Although a bit robotic, the above video does a wonderful job of explaining what critical literacy is and how authors have biases based on social and political views. It also brings a good point of how it is not necessary to be able to read traditional text because being critically literate can occur while watching movies and interpreting pictures.

We must be critically literate not only in school, but we need to take these skills with us through our entire lives. As said by Oxford Research Encyclopedias, “Critical literacy should not be a topic to be covered or a unit to be studied. Instead, it should be looked on as a lens, frame, or perspective for teaching throughout the day, across the curriculum, and perhaps beyond” (Vasquez, 2018). This is a skill that is as necessary as being able to be culturally aware. Just like how you need maps to navigate through winding roads and confusing cities, you need critical literacy to be able to effectively navigate through various texts, in traditional print or in forms of media.

As you can see in the cartoon above, information can be spoon-fed into our mouths from media and text if we are not careful. The actions that are seen in this cartoon can be combatted with critical literacy! The cry to be critically literate has such a high importance, and now more than ever with since there is so much media constantly around us. “…the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness,” (Wallace, 2005). There are many forms of media and text, and to be able to navigate through them is centralized around being aware. Being aware of the author, the situation, and the facts presented to you is how you will be able to get the most value out of your texts.

Resources

Required Resources

(2013, May 19). Retrieved October 20, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=8CrOL-ydFMI

Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology: Children’s Learning in the Age of Digital Culture. Cambridge: Polity.

Outside Resources

(2017, August 10). Retrieved October 20, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2WyIkK9IOg

Mansky, J. (2018, May 07). The Age-Old Problem of “Fake News”. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/age-old-problem-fake-news-180968945/

The Importance of Media Literacy Among Young People. (2016, August 17). Retrieved from https://www.tmc.edu.sg/2016/08/17/importance-media-literacy-among-young-people/

Vasquez, V.M. (2018, September 18). Critical Literacy (O., Ed.). Retrieved October 11, 2018, from http://education.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-20