J.D. Applen refers to Richard Lanham’s thoughts and ideas in his piece Writing for the Web: Composing, Coding. and Constructing Web Sites. He opens the topic of new media and literacy with a quote, “Lanham believes that our responses to writing and graphics on computer screens can be likened to the way we have responded to oral discourse, as opposed to print in books in the past.”
New media is always evolving into different mediums; text, audio, imagery, videos, etc. I think literacy is universal – it happens to everyone it today’s age. Anyone can be literate in new media. Can you read? Do you process what is being presented to you? Can you fluently and consistently understand the purpose of it? If yes to all of those, congratulations. You are literate in new media (to me).
People use these mediums on digital spaces in a collaborative way to attract viewers. Instagram, for example is great with this. They use their ‘Reels’ feature to allow influencers to post videos, use background songs/audio, caption it with text, and more. Similar to TikTok, in a sense. Viewers get a chance to meet their sensory needs with these platforms. Viewing things that meet at least one of the five sense makes the content we’re watching more intriguing.
I think the term “literacy” means more than what people believe it to be. Literacy often relates to English text and literature, however, it can also relate to fluency. Being fluent and literate in new media can strengthen our understanding of digital spaces and new topics.
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