Hobbs and Buckingham both agree that digital writing plays an important part in digital literacy. Buckingham believes critical thinking is the most important element of digital literacy, and that critical thinking occurs when students create and analyze media. Hobbs develops Buckingham’s thinking of what constitutes digital literacy by introducing the AACRA model. Like Buckingham, Hobbs includes 1) access, 2) analyze & evaluate, and 3) create. However, she widens the circle by including 4) reflect and 5) act.
While Buckingham believes that digital writing is necessary for developing digital literacy, and hints at the fact that practice and theory are becoming more closely related, eleven years later, Hobbs develops this further by claiming that digital writing is the catalyst for further reflection and, ultimately, interaction with and influence on the “outside world.” It’s not just a tool for learning, it’s a tool for acting and affecting change in the world.
Over the past year the term “fake news” has taken hold. Media literacy gives us the ideas to understand this issue beyond the simplistic true/false equation for which many people long.
Over the past year the term “fake news” has taken hold. Media literacy gives us the ideas to understand this issue beyond the simplistic true/false equation for which many people long.
One important concept of media literacy is “to understand ‘how political, economic, and social context shapes all texts, how all texts can be adapted for different social purposes, and how no text is neutral or necessarily of ‘higher quality’ than another.’ (Fabos, 2004, p. 95).” (Buckingham, 2006, 267).
Buckingham offers a framework with a list of guiding questions to help us do this. They are grouped under the headings “Representation, Language, Production, and Audience.” (269) Hobbs takes a more active approach and believes that we develop our critical analysis abilties by creating media and making decisions about our audience and how we want them to experience--and ultimately, act upon--our work.
Works cited
Buckingham, D. (2006). Defining digital literacy: What do young people need to know about digital media? Digital Kompetanse, 1, 263-276.
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to learn: Introduction to digital literacy. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.
zeitfaenger.at. (2014, May 11). ...next generation [Photograph]. Retrieved from Flickr.
