An essay on “How does Media Convergence affect Concepts of Literacy”

by laura alexandra migallen

In this generation, accessing information has become easier. Looking for something has become as easy as carrying a mobile phone, which is lighter than encyclopedia, pocket dictionary and the like, but has wider coverage than all of those combined. Television has also dominated the Mass Media in conveying information, news or even infomercials and political agenda. Media convergence enabled people to access information through different mediums or various media platforms, such as books, newspapers, radio, television, and cinema.

               Information literacy, media literacy, and technological literacy to name a few, emerged through time. It even shifted the concept of literacy from a mainstream definition of mere reading and writing to a more complex one. Through the Convergence of Media, the concept of literacy has broadened. There are various interpretations of literacy which are mostly influenced by academic research, institutional agendas, national context, cultural values, and even personal experiences, according to the Education for All Global Monitoring Report of 2006 by UNESCO.

               People became more knowledgeable when technology started playing its role as a means of gathering and spreading information. The perspective of the audiences widened, as different views and opinions about different matters became open to public and they’ve started seeing more than one side of the scope. But on the other side, people also became vulnerable to receiving false news or to what they labeled as ‘Fake News’. Even so, people became more critical and even wiser in analyzing content. This shows how literacy have extended and upgraded from the past few years as various forms of media worked on to educate people and remove the censor from what needs to be seen in the society, and even worldwide.