(Re)Tasking Literacy for The Digital Age

Abstract

The notion of literacy is traced across the historical evolution of the phenomenon, and special emphasis is placed on the planes and modalities of its application. The key perspectives hereby examined are the following: 1) cognitive perspective, 2) cultural/social perspective, and 3) rhetorical perspective. While primarily focusing on the notion of digital literacy, the paper also examines the relatable notions of visual literacy, media literacy, reading literacy, and orality. The key premises, leaning on the works of Kress, Cytowic, Meyrowitz, Manovich, Jakobson, Ong, etc. are examined, revised, and used to offer different yet complementary perspectives on the meaning(s) of literacy applicable in the contemporary digital context.