Literacy in a social media culture : an ethnographic study of literary communication pratices

摘要

Literacy is often considered a cornerstone of education that empowers people to participate in economic, social and cultural life. But what does it mean ―to be literate‖? Educational researchers, policy makers and teachers often feel tempted to present literacy as a fixed and universal set of skills, knowledge and attitudes (Livingstone, Bober, & Helsper, 2005; Buckingham, Banaji, Carr, Cranmer, & Willett, 2005). This conceptualization facilitates the construction of tests, benchmarks and teaching materials. However, scholars have demonstrated that literacy is not fixed or universal, but always situated in a social and cultural context (Street, 1993; Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanič, 2005). Based on this insight, they have questioned the dominant ―skills and benchmarks‖ approach in education which conceives literacy as neutral, monolithic and measurable (e.g. The New London Group, 1996; Gee, 2004). Scholars within New Literacies Studies2 have convincingly argued for an alternative approach to literacy in research, theory and education (see Street, 2003; Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2014).In the following sections of this introduction I will first present a brief overview of the empirical and theoretical insights that have contributed to the conception and development of New Literacies Studies. This analysis will also include a discussion of the two main questions that underlie much of the research from the New Literacies Studies tradition. In addition, I will focus more thoroughly on the historical connections between of literacy and media in general, and between literacy and literature in particular. In light of this discussion I will argue that the increasing ubiquity of social media presents a new opportunity for studying the transformations of literary culture and traditional print literacy. Finally, I will outline the research questions and focus of my research as well as the structure and argumentation of this dissertation.