WEBVTT kind: captions lang: en 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:03.000 What is media literacy? 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:11.761 Before we provide an answer to this question, it is useful to try to define the two constitutive notions of this term, 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:14.616 that is media and literacy. 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:18.800 And let us start with the question: what is literacy? 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000 That seems easy enough, literacy is the ability to read and write. 00:00:23.200 --> 00:00:28.900 Fairly recently, say, few decades ago, this definition would be quite addequate. 00:00:29.200 --> 00:00:33.000 If you knew how to read and write, you would be considered literate. 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:40.130 However, looking back in the past, we can say that literacy was not a universal phenomenon, 00:00:40.135 --> 00:00:45.000 but rather a rare thing that belonged only to privileged few. 00:00:45.550 --> 00:00:48.300 Take a look, for example, at this sculpture, 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:51.800 it is an ancient Egyptian sculpture of a scribe. 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:59.000 Literacy at the time was a rare skill belonging only to a small group of people surrounding the pharaoh himself. 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:07.335 It was so rare that apparently people believed that a person is deserving to be immortalized in the form of a sculpture 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:12.000 simply because of his ability to read and write. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:18.800 If you look for a definition of literacy in a dictionary, you will find basically two definitions. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:24.800 The narrow one, let us call it like that, defines literacy as the ability to read and write. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.900 The wider one, let's call it like that, is that literacy is a possession of knowledge 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:37.000 that relates to a specified or particular subject. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:44.900 This would effectively means that perhaps, nowdays, it's not simply enough to know how to read and write 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.750 in order to be considered literate, 00:01:47.850 --> 00:01:55.100 or perhaps that a person needs to have certain knowledge required to function in a world in which he or she lives. 00:01:55.800 --> 00:02:01.800 And let me illustrate this point with two funny clips from a comedy called "The Gods Must Be Crazy". 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:11.000 In the first clip, we see a group of Bushmen from the Kalahari desert in Africa, who can "read" animal trails. 00:02:32.200 --> 00:02:39.000 In the second clip, we see one Bushman meets a lawyer from New York who had a crash and ended up in the desert. 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:05.000 Now, who is actually illiterate here? 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:13.800 Since only the lawyer has the ability to read and write, according to our narrow definition it would be a lawyer who is literate. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:16.800 But, how about the second definition? 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:22.000 Who acctually possesses the knowledge required to survive and function in the desert? 00:03:22.300 --> 00:03:25.200 If we define literarcy in this sense, then of course, it is the Bushman, 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:33.000 and in that sense he is actually right; she is illiterate, insofar as she's anable to function in the desert. 00:03:33.200 --> 00:03:40.200 In that respect, her knowledge of American legal system can make her a fortune in New York, 00:03:40.350 --> 00:03:45.500 but cannot provide any kind of effective survival for her in the desert. 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:51.000 This brings us actually to the core of our problem: what are the skills and knowledge necessary 00:03:51.100 --> 00:03:54.000 to survive in today's modern jungle that we live in? 00:03:54.200 --> 00:03:59.000 Here actually lies the answer to the question about the importance of media literacy. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:06.000 In the era of technology, internet and mass media, simple ability to read and write is not enough. 00:04:06.500 --> 00:04:12.000 You may very well know these things and still be dysfunctional in today's society. 00:04:12.200 --> 00:04:18.950 And that is why a widely used term nowadays is not just literacy, or basic literacy that applies to reading and writing, 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:21.200 but actually functional literacy. 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:27.650 According to many thinkers, to be functionally literate in today's world, you need to know much more than just to write 00:04:27.750 --> 00:04:34.500 you need to be able to use the internet, social networks, probably a smartphone nowdays as well. 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:39.000 This effectively means that being functional today means being media literate, 00:04:39.150 --> 00:04:48.000 that is, to know how the media function in today's world, being able to access, critically reflect on, and produce media messages.