Access as a Theme in Media Literacy

I have noticed with this class, even more, perhaps, than other Women's Studies classes, that everything has an inordinately high level of applicability to such personal matters and opinions that I always feel the need to preface my discussion with a level of personal reflection. When I read "Literacy: R U Really Reading?," for example, I formed my opinions very abruptly and with vigor. No, the Kindle will never replace real books, and yes, digital reading at large can logically be linked to and is indicative of general decline in attention span and self-imposed motivation for more rigorous forms of reading and/or learning. The first statement represents my sincere wish that I can only hope is bolstered by the faith and support of others. The second comes from a place of personal experience, as despite my love of literature, which has carried me through most of my life, I rarely finish books anymore, and not for lack of trying. With that said, I opened my mind a bit more. I considered my mother, who has dyslexia, like the boy mentioned in the article, and similarly to his situation with media literacy, she finds it much easier to read eBooks on her iPad than to ever pick up a physical copy of a book. So of course, I must reason, there is a space for this kind of book learning, so to speak, right? The text says yes, in some ways, but implies so only for those with preexisting privilege (i.e. ready access to a computer for problems like the aforementioned, and otherwise, as examined below, it is potentially a developmental obstacle).

On that note, in terms of themes, I was especially struck by the recurrence of access affecting the ways in which digital literacy can be applied and understood. One would think that we could dismiss socioeconomic status as a factor in our understanding of media literacy, beyond its implications for who is privileged with having it at all. I was surprised when the aforementioned article mentioned that "a recent study of more than 700 low-income, mostly Hispanic and black sixth through 10th graders in Detroit found that those students read more on the Web than in any other medium, though they also read books," then implied that this pattern could be causally linked to diminished academic performance overall, since only frequent novel reading was linked to higher academic performance, and one cannot have it both ways, even with students who occasionally pick up books (New York Times). One inference that can be made, based on socioeconomic status, is that young adults with parents who are not as highly educated seek out knowledge in untraditional manners, and the American style of grade school education, public or otherwise, privileges some forms of knowledge and learning much more highly than others, automatically disadvantaging those who learn and experience life differently, which is a claim has been levied numerous times, especially when indicting standardized testing. This data is strangely skewed from Mary Celeste Kearney's "digital divide," mentioned in Girls Make Media, as it seems to imply that the Internet poses a real threat to the formal education of low-income young people, and I'm sure Kearney would quibble with that data, or at least its interpretation, tremendously (Kearney 241). She would, however, agree with the assessment that the fine arts are traditionally valued over popular culture and its products, as reinforced in her text; however, I feel that that is a rather rudimentary, obvious reflection to make in regard to the scheme of primary and secondary education, and therefore, need not be expounded upon.

Tangentially related is the idea of digital inclusion, broached in Paola Prado's essay, "The Girls of El Seybo," from Girl Wide Web 2.0, which takes the usually rather abstract idea of digital literacy improving quality of life for girls, and gives it a concrete backing, predicated on the idea that being able to see a globalized perspective on gender relations allows girls and young women to develop the courage to defy constricting and often misogynistic ideas about what is gender appropriate. "Digital inclusion," in this case, has a very strong case for this reason, some would even say a social imperative because, as the text notes, bringing Dominican girls into the fold of digital knowledge and understanding, enabling them to have access to worlds which they would otherwise be denied entrance, is a "new beginning," as they are able to foster girl-centered, globalized communities in their otherwise very rural, isolated communities. As the "Eight Traits of the New Media Landscape" notes, media is increasingly more unequally distributed based on levels of access and privilege, and in that way, the public access telecenters represent a milestone in the empowerment of otherwise subjugated knowledges and well, people. I was so vicariously happy that in a world where it's rare to even attend secondary school, the Internet had so positively affected girls' lives that they spoke excitedly about college plans and had professional goals. In that way, perhaps the inclusion and access discussed transcends technology and represents spheres of influence in which women certainly deserve greater stakes, and this is a conduit through which they can understand their personal capital and harness it for the sake of their future.

Back to my original thoughts: In the end, I'm absolutely a purist. I may have all of the resources in the world at my disposal via the Internet, and I may take advantage of them more than I'd like to admit, but I'll never consider what I do in my free time on the computer serious reading. At best, it's just introducing myself to an unfamiliar aspect of feminist theory via a succinct blog post of dubious origins, or reading news articles, or brief, myopic biographies via Wikipedia. If anything, that only reinforces my ability to be encyclopedic, not genuinely insightful. I will always value books over all that, even if my personal practices suggest otherwise. However, if reading via a more technological medium is what works for you, I say, grab that personal empowerment. In that vein, I suggest dailylit.com, as they have a wide range of classic novels as well as contemporary texts available and you can sign up for free and have chapters emailed to yourself daily. It didn't work for me, but as I said, it's not my thing. To quote Ray Bradbury:

Those aren’t books. You can’t hold a computer in your hand like you can a book. A computer does not smell. There are two perfumes to a book. If a book is new, it smells great. If a book is old, it smells even better. It smells like ancient Egypt. A book has got to smell. You have to hold it in your hands and pray to it. You put it in your pocket and you walk with it. And it stays with you forever. But the computer doesn’t do that for you. I’m sorry (Paris Review).

Then again, he doesn't use a computer at all :)