CHAPTER 5

Media and
Information
Literacy as
Citizen
Engagement
A look at the importance of technology
in teaching and learning
Literacy Numeracy
Widely known as the ability to read and write Skills associated with the basic
Always associated with a set of tangible mathematical operations involving
skills, particularly the skills of writing and numbers.
reading Is understanding how mathematics is
Seen as an aspect of human rights closely
used in the real world and being able
linked to the right to education.
to apply it to make the best possible
is a fundamental human right and the
foundation for lifelong learning. It is fully
decisions
essential to social and human development in Substantial aspects of numeracy also
its ability to transform lives. For individuals, include number sense, operation
families, and societies alike. It is an sense, computation, measurement,
instrument of empowerment to improve one’s geometry, probability and statistics.
health, income, and relationship to the world.
(UNESCO, 2003)
Media Literacy: An Instrument
for Empowerment
Activity: Observing an advertisement
Guide Question
1. Who created this advertisement? Cite not a person
but an institution or an organisation.
2. What attracts you to this advertisement?
3. How do you react to this advertisement? Now how
do you think other people might react to this ad?
4. What lifestyles are presented in this advertisement?
5. What value/s are being promoted in this
advertisement
Media Literacy’s Five Key Question (Centre
for Media Literacy, 1995)
1 2 3 4 5
What How might
Who created creative different What lifestyles, Why is the
this techniques people value systems, message being
message? were used to appreciate perspectives, sent?
attract my and and points-of-
understand view are
attention?
these represented in
this message
messages?
 Item 5 Item 1
20% 20%

Media Literacy: A
Definition
THROUGH OUT THE YEARS,
EDUCATORS HAVE COME OUT WITH
Item 4 Item 2
VARIOUS DEFINITION OF THE WORD 20% 20%

INFORMATION LITERACY

Item 3
20%
Multiple Definitions from Educators
“Media literacy is most validly seen as a repertoire of skills
and capacities. The most common definition is the “ability
to access, analyse, and respond to a range of media
(Sargant 2004, 28)”

“Having access to the the media, understanding the media,

and creating or expressing oneself using the media.
(Buckingham and Livingstone 2005).”

Access - knowledge of where forms of media can be found

Analysis - Reflective and critical thinking on the experience
Response - Evaluation of media, as well as experience and
exploration of media text, and how they are realised
through the language of the media
 The original means of mass communication were
Origins of the print - magazines, journals, and newspapers- and

Word “Media”
their collective name was already in place:
publications
BY JOSEPH TURROW,
MEDIA TODAY 1999
Then, radio and television were added to the mix, and
the term publications would not stretch to fit.

Needing a term that would encompass all these

means of communication, writers borrowed media
from the advertising people and have used it ever
since to accomodate these and even newer means of
communication, such as the Internet
 Why is Hinged on the idea that power
can change, that the ownership
Also because power can

Empowerment
expand or diminish as the case
of power can shift from one
may be.
entity to another.
Such a Big
Word? 3 words coming to mind when
Weber , 1946
Power is related often to our
At the core of the term you hear the word power:
ability to make others do what
empowerment is the idea of Control, Domination, and
we want, regardless of their
power Influence
own wishes or interests.
Media Information Literacy:
Cultivation of power inside you, Power is relational and But, Power can expand or
possessed by some at the diminish. it is not relational. In
turning you from passive recipients
expense of others. A zero sum this case, power can reside
of media and information to active
conception of it means that inside you when there are
users and consumers
power will remain until they give opportunity to access the
it up. knowledge, skills, and attitudes
 It is the set of abilities of abilities requiring
INFORMATION individuals to recognise when information is needed
and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use
LITERACY effectively the needed information.
What is Information? It is that
which informs, that which enables It is also best understood on how we navigate the
us to know. It can be the answer complex and networked world of internet.
to a question, a news, or a data.
It is something that is also Another Definition:
communicable “Information Literacy constitutes the abilities to
recognise when information is nneded and to locate,
evaluate, effectively use, and communicate
information in its various formats. (SUNY Council of
Library Directors, Inofrmation Literacy Initiative
Committee, Final Report, September 30, 1997).”
What is the Information Age?

Comparison of the Industrial

The Industrial Revolution to the Information
Revolution Age Rise of Internet

The internet arose in 1969

but it was in 1989 when a
Comparing to the invention of fully developed World Wide
-which began in britain steam engine, information and Web arose and turning it
in the 19th century, is communication technology has into the global platform for
the direct consequence completely changed the way knowledge sharing,
of major invention, the society organises its economic communication, and
steam engine. activity. archiving.
The Internet Who Puts Information
on the Internet?
It is a vast network of computer network There are many kinds of Internet sites
in which anyone has access to a that you might during the course of a
computer with internet connection can search, sites created by different people
publish their documents. or organisations with different
Sites can be searched, or even objectives.
remembered (bookmarked, as the case It is the three-letter coded preceded by
is) through its own address called the dot (.). The domain names give you
Uniform Resource Locator (URL). a fairly good idea of who is publishing
the internet site.
DOMAIN
.edu Educational institution

It may contain carefully processed and reviewed

information though it may not represent the individual
views of the academic personnel

Mostly commercial entities, some of which are

.com
profit-oriented

.org non-profit organisations use this domains

.gov government organisations

.net Internet service providers use this

Sources of Information
Sources of information, drawn
from the internet or otherwise,
can be categorised into the
following:
Popular These include the following:

Publications 1. Journalistic Articles

2. Feature Articles
MOST OF WHAT
3. Manuals
RULES IN THE PRINT
4. Flyers
AND NON-PRINT
5. Fact Sheets
MEDIA ARE POPULAR
6. Blogs or Vlogs by Citizens
PUBLICATIONS WITH
THE GENERAL They serve both to inform and entertain the
PUBLIC AS ITS general public. Reporters, journalists, or
TARGET AUDIENCE anyone for that matter, can publish popular
publications
Scholarly Publications
These are well-researched articles found mostly in academic
journals and published for the specialists of a specific field.
The language is very technical because it is geared for the
consumption of specialists, scholars, and those seeking
research-based information on a particular area of
knowledge such as social sciences, the natural sciences, and
the arts and humanities
Trade Publications
There are also highly specialised
materials meant for the players and
specialists of a specific industry.
Some good examples will be publications
on motoring or pulications on
construction.
Trade publications combine popular and
specialised knowledge because it also
needs to attract the non-specialists who
are potential consumers or users of a
particular product.
FORMATS
HOW DO YOU RETRIEVE INFORMATION, AND IN WHAT FORMAT CAN THEY BE ACCESSED?
LET US DIFFERENTIATE THOSE VARIOUS FORMATS
FORMAT DESRCRIPTION

PRINT Materials produced and collected from print resources

DIGITAL Information materials stored in an electronic format on a hard drive, CD-ROM,

FORMATS remote server, or even the cloud.

These sources of information are recorded using analogue technology, which

AUDIO AND
means data is recorded in early from one point to another. Analogue devidces
VIDEO
read the materials by scanning the physical data off the media

Materials that have been photographed and their images developed in reduced
MICROFORM
size film strips and which are viewed using machines with magnifying lenses
 UNESCO DEFINITION
Information Literacy can no longer be defined
without considering technology literacy in
order for individuals to function in an
information-rich, technology-infused world.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific,
Soicla, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
posits the following definition as standards for
appreciation information literacy and
technology literacy.

Tip: Use links to go to a different page inside your presentation.

How: Highlight text, click on the link symbol on the toolbar, and select the page in your presentation you want to connect.
Computer Literacy
(UNESCO, 2007, 54)
SET OF SKILLS, ATTITUDE, AND KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO
OPERATE AND UNDERSTAND THE BASIC FUNCTIONS OF
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES,
INCLUDING DEVICES AND TOOLS SUCH AS,

Personal Computers
Laptops
Cellphones
iPods
BlackBerrys etc
Hardware Software
Literacy Literacy
Refers to learning to use
Refers to knowing how to use
various kinds of application
basic PC and Laptop features
software packages such as
such as mouse, connecting a
word processing,
monitor to the central
spreadsheets, graphic
processing unit, using a
packages, and PowerPoint for
printer, etc.
making presentations or
KidPiks or Hyperstudios