Chapter One is specific to his overall approach to his argument: “[This book] is a book about literacy now, everywhere, in all its sites of appearances, in the old and the new media...literacy anywhere in this new media age” (8). Kress argues (and introduces) for a theoretical/conceptual framework that gives support tools for asking the right questions when multimodal literacy is involved.
Chapter Two is a theoretical approach with Kress asking “ what knowledge do we need to produce and what resources do we need to make available...so that issues [human literacy, human work, human stuff with human things] can be handled productively by all?” (14). Kress concerns this chapter on communication and growth - which builds a bridge from his Preface to the rest of his argument.
Chapter Three breaks down the meaning of our alphabet system and that “it truly matters what we decide to include as being part of language...what has been established for social reasons can be undone for social reasons” (31). His take on the abstract nature of meaning in the English language emphasizes his approach to encourage a thoughtful glance at meaning making.
Chapter Four focuses on communication, text, and comprehension. Kress asserts that “[In] writing and reading, meaning is the result of semiotic work” (39). He uses this to discuss audience, social context, and meaning making when presenting information to an outside audience. This supports his notion of literacy through means of abstract texts that are not usually noted as texts.
Chapter Five discusses the visual entity of literacy in that the screen contains its own grammar, principles, and aesthetic as to how it looks and is read (65). The image is a way to talk about what is “written” and how it is decoded for meaning making.
Chapter Six looks at genre and the inner workings of content inside literacy, specifically genre rules, functions in fluency inside the text, and meaningful context for meaning making (84).
Chapter Seven discusses grammar in the genre conventions (multimodal texts) and how this encourages a new look at literacy (117). I will admit that this chapter was building on top of the previous one, but the meaning was a bit tricky to decipher. From here, Kress’ argument begins to become slightly abstract in nature and focused on the movement in literacy and the mode it functions in.
Chapter Eight frames the mode of speech and writing with “three points” (like a triangle in-use): levels of the letter, the word, and the clause - as it changes in the image, the screen, and in the written text.
Chapter Nine asks the audience “to rethink notions of what reading is,” articulating that letters from a text do not only provide meaning, but all aspects of literacy, enhance and provide an accessible “reading” - like that from a video game on a screen or information about a video game in a text - which re-asserts what the screen is doing, but it is presented on the physical page. He brings up the notion that young learners are keen to habits, codes, and inference that many “readers” outside of the specific gaming culture may not be able to grasp onto.
Chapter Ten intrigued me the most in its comment on authorship and accessibility to the medium of an audience. I will explore this in my notes below:
Chapter Four highlights the mode of “communication happening as text” - which interprets the idea that a text is ‘social action’ and ‘representation’ since meaning is always taking place. This brought my reading up to speed in Chapter 10 when Kress argues that “[once] everyone [has] the status of author, authority disappears” - specifically with new media, technology, and literacy practices, communication is fundamental for survival of intelligence in the world.
My question is - Both of these notions (communication and authorship) seem to be considered, but did Kress miss the importance of speaking to the aspects of teaching authorship wirth new modes of communication? Chapter Ten is presented as a negative interpretation of communication and literacy, but in 2018 we are feeling the after effects of an authorship class that is begging for structure. While “gatekeeping” kept many voices from from the cultural mass, the emergence of social media is not going away.
Twitter may not be a friendly place, but the platform will most likely outlive many of its young users.
How do we become authors that are aware of new media literacy and communication practices?
What are those practices?
You're again doing really thoughtful work here, Brian, and your questions at the end here get to the heart of what many of us invested in literacy, rhetoric, and digital culture are wrestling with.
ReplyDeleteKress, of course, couldn't have anticipated what Web 2.0 (what we call the current version of the internet, which is composed in large part of user-generated content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0) would really be or how it would function, as the term itself was coined and gained prominence during and after the writing and publication of this book. His notion about the disappearance of authority is, of course, salient.
If I'm reading you correctly, I don't think Kress missed the importance of teaching authorship with new media (I'm thinking particularly here of his participation in the New London Group and their recommendations for curriculum and pedagogy). This book is more focused on a theory of meaning (and less than the NLG on pedagogy).
Your final two questions are key for us now -- and there are lots of researchers and scholars working to answer those questions. Of course, those practices vary by platform, context, and audience, but there are some broad concepts for digital authorship (like rhetorical velocity, which we'll be reading about later this semester) that you should find useful.