M a r c i n S i e ń k o University of Zielona Góra, Poland
METALITERACY AS THE GOAL OF MEDIA EDUCATION
ABSTRACT
Media change our culture. Complete and creative participation in culture requires at pre-sent new forms of knowledge, skills, and competencies. Th e aim of the paper is to present a possible direction for teaching about media. Th e considerations start with a discussion about the various approaches to media literacy. On the basis of the concepts of selected authors (Innis, Havelock, McLuhan, Flusser, Kittler, Ulmer), an attempt is made to describe the media dominated change in the culture that poses new educational goals before the system and enforces the application of new methods and tools. Th e category of metalit-eracy performs here a heuristic function, which allows for the description of the problem in a new way, enabling fruitful analysis. Hence, it is shown that the ability to read and write is not suffi cient for complete participation in culture at present. New forms of literacy, tak-ing into account the domination of new media, have to be elaborated. Th e focus on elec-tronic, information, or digital literacy, highlighted in the background literature, replaces old limitations by the new ones. Th e paper suggests that a new teaching strategy, based on the patterns of multiliteracy and metaliteracy, should be introduced. Only such a well-founded strategy will allow the shaping of people capable of compete and creative function-ing in the contemporary world.
Key words:
1. Introduction
Th e contemporary world, permeated by various media, confronts people with com-pletely new challenges. Media change our culture; reconstruct our identity and the social order of the surrounding world. One does not have to be a media determin-ist to observe that. Th e limits of our language become the limits of our world. Th e paper analyses the extent to which individuals are prepared to function in this ‘inter-media’ context. If we wish to understand the situation of people in the hyper-real media space, we have to search for new answers to two signifi cant questions: 1. What should people be taught in order to be ready to participate in the
con-temporary media culture?
2. How can the above be taught effi ciently?
Th e questions formulated above are obviously very general; hence, for the pur-pose of this paper, the scope of considerations has to be limited. Th e major aim of the paper consists to conceptualize the goal of media education. No specifi c meth-odological solutions are discussed since such issues are broadly discussed in the background literature1. Particular focus is put on a more general and philosophical
approach. From this perspective, the above questions do not apply to the method-ology or the contents of teaching, but rather to more signifi cant problems, such as the identity and the situation of people embedded in culture and the surrounding reality.
At fi rst, several theories of contemporary culture, formulated by the researchers assuming diff erent forms of media determinism, are presented. Th is allows the drawing of generalizations concerning the concept of literacy and formulating a general pattern of media competence defi ned hereby as metaliteracy. It is in-tended to show that this new culture requires a new set of competencies that should add to the defi nition of the mission of the contemporary system of education.
2. The media apparatus of culture
While following the discussions concerning the links between media and culture, it is fairly easy to observe media determinism in the background. Th e thesis of the impact of media on the development of culture is partly rooted in Th e Great Th
e-1 C.L. Borgman, Scholarship in the Digital Age. Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet,
Cambridge 2007; T. Brabazon, Th e University of Google. Education in the (Post)Information Age,
ory of Literacy. Th e writings of Harold Innis constitute one of the fi rst, and quite extreme, examples. He showed in the Empire and Communications2 that factors,
such as the presence of writing, its forms, and carriers, may exert a decisive impact on the forms of power, manufacturing, knowledge transfer, etc. He considered the growing power of the simplicity of writing and, in consequence, its popularization. He provide evidence that the appearance of new subsequent carriers of writing in the history of culture, ranging from stone, wax, clay, papyrus to paper, were ac-companied by deep cultural transformations. Th e durability and mobility of the transfer was decisive in shaping the human world. It allowed for considerations on the stages in the history of culture in relation to the dissemination and domination of particular media.
Th e followers of Innis, frequently associated with the so-called ‘Toronto School’ in media research, chose the same path. Some of them reduced the radicalism of his thesis of media determinism. Eric Havelock, Walter Ong, or Jack Goody un-doubtedly perceived the strong pressure on the part of subsequent media, yet they also observed the multi-directional nature of the impact within the complicated network of links within culture. Th ey were far from specifying sharp caesuras of historical, social, or political character. Havelock describes the gradual merger of speech and writing in a very subtle way. According to his approach, Greece “went subsequently through the stages of illiteracy, craft literacy, half-literacy and full literacy”3. Yet, demarcating strict borderlines is not possible. Ong goes even further
in his description of the development of culture and characterizes the period of secondary oral culture or post-literacy4; at the same time, however, even he
stress-es the fl uidity of transfers between periods of domination of particular media. Naturally, extreme interpretations have also occurred. Marshall McLuhan seems to be most radical in his views. Th e thesis of media, understood as the extension of the man, opens a new research perspective. Since media are located between the human nervous system and the real world, they mediate in all forms of our activ-ity, especially cognition. Yet, the media are not perfectly transparent and neutral, on the contrary, they impose their own conditioning and forms on the transmitted contents. Hence, the media, dominating in a particular period shapes, all of our experience of the world and ourselves. Th ey exert a total impact on the experienced world.
2 H.A. Innis, Empire and Communication, Toronto 1986. 3 E. Havelock, Wprowadzenie do Platona, Warszawa 2007, p. 78. 4 W.J. Ong, Oralność i piśmienność, Lublin 1992, pp. 183–185.
Th e above-mentioned researchers fi nd it diffi cult to characterize the infl uence of particular media on culture in clear way and do not manage to specify the time limits between particular periods. Yet, the categories of orality and literacy sug-gested by them have preserved their heuristic utility. Th ey allow for the construc-tion of a typology of cultures that, in turn, enables one to specify and analyze the diff erences between various communication strategies. Hence, similar approaches can be found in the writings of other researchers, not necessarily connected with the Toronto School. At least three authors have to be mentioned at this point: Vilem Flusser, Friedriech Kittler, and Gregory Ulmer.
Flusser’s Communicology Th eory presents culture as discourse whose key ele-ments are expressed by a code. Th e category of ‘discourse’ is understood in opposi-tion to dialogue as a form of storing, transforming, and transmitting informaopposi-tion. Dialogue assumes joint contribution and exchange of information in order to create something new. According to Flusser, “In dialogue, available information is synthesized (…), in discourse, the information produced in dialogue is distributed”5.
Both stages of communication are conditioned by the code dominating in a par-ticular period. In the case of the European culture of fi rst half of the 20th century, it is possible to observe the prevalence of the alphanumeric code, which to a certain extent can be identifi ed with the concept of literacy. Th e code, while penetrating various forms of information transformation, introduces its own schemes and limitations into the way we think and perceive reality. Th us, the real world is subject to media control and mediated by codes that make it meaningful and, at the same time, hinder the direct contact with it. Th e history of culture is the history of codes and each change means a cultural revolution. Th e turn of the 20th and the 21st centuries was the time when the alphanumeric code is systematically replaced by the digital code. From the pre-history defi ned by pictures, through the history formed by writing, we have reached the post-history defi ned by technical and digital images.
Let us notice, that just as it is the case with McLuhan, we deal here with the total transformation of culture, and hence with the world experienced by people, infl uenced by changes in dominating media. Th e shift of the center of gravity from concrete media technology to the concept of code, allowed Flusser to move the discussion to a more abstract level. In subsequent papers, he introduced the con-cept of the apparatus-code embodied in a technical object, which mediates in the process of development, collection and transfer of information. Th e only way to cognition and freedom consists in comprehending this intermediary machine,
with its all determinants, by “gaining infl uence and control over these apparatuses by discovering their frightening, stiff and uncontrolled functioning”6.
It is worth stressing that Flusser, while constructing his theories, is subjected to the system of writing. And, according to Dieter Mersch, he moves “among the pterns of the writing scheme, and while telling his story, to the same extent he at-tempts to make it dramatic”7. Just like in the case of McLuhan, the story about the
culture of media consists of three acts: pre-history, history, and post-history, which are compatible with the periods of speech, writing, and electracy. Organizing cul-ture, means imposing a cyclical nacul-ture, linearity, points of change associated with formal determinants of picture, text, and digital, technical image. Th is observation brings us to an interesting theme of considerations: the question of the impact of media on the theory of media. If creativity is limited to specifi c media and in par-ticular into the academic written discourse, is it possible to present a critical review of the period of writing, not to mention the following epochs?
Friedriech Kittler, a German media philosopher, who used the story of the ex-perience of Friedriech Nietzsche with a typewriter as an example, identifi ed simi-lar problems8. Tormented by intensifying blindness and intense migraines (the
refl ection of white sheets of paper caused headaches), Nietzsche was looking for a new form of writing. He contacted the inventor Hans Rasmus Malling-Hansen and soon became the owner of one of the ‘Writing Balls’. Th is amazing typewriter not only let him return to work, but also made him more sensitive to the impact of tools on the process of creativity. He typed a letter to his friend, in which the following famous sentence was included: “Our writing tools contribute to our thoughts”9. According to Kittler, the appearance of the typewriter on Nietzsche’s
desk paralleled changes in his writing style – “from argumentation to aphorism, from considerations to puns, from rhetoric to telegraphic style”10.
Nietzsche’s fl irtation with the typewriter did not last long. Fairly soon, the faulty machine was replaced by Lou von Salomé, an assistant. Yet, Kittler stresses in his story the extraordinary perceptiveness of the philosopher who noticed the infl u-ence of the machine on himself, both as a researcher and theoretician. Aft er all, the media technology aff ecting voice, image, and writing have made the human es-sence escape “into apparatuses. Machines take over function of the central nervous
6 Ibidem, p. 65.
7 D. Mersch, Teorie mediów, Warszawa 2010, p. 144.
8 F.A. Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, Stanford 1999, pp. 200–209.
9 D. Everwein, Nietzsches Schreibkugel. Ein Blick auf Nietzsches Schreibmaschinenzeit durch die
Restauration der Schreibkugel, Schauenburg 2005, p. 123.
system, and no longer, as in times past, merely those of muscles”11. Th e three
tech-nologies embodied by the gramophone, cinematograph, and the typewriter trig-gered the foundations of all cultural and psychological changes of human creativ-ity. In fact, they created people. “If media had been a priori anthropological, then humans could not have invented language, they could have evolved rather as its pets, victims or subjects”12. Media determinism becomes more radical again.
Tech-nological media have become super-human and beyond any control, which still signifi cantly changes our thinking.
Gregory Ulmer assumed a similar approach while writing about three histori-cal periods demarcated by predominating media: speech, writing, and electronics. Th e three media formed three apparatuses available to people. Th ese are labeled as orality, literacy, and electracy. Th e apparatus is understood by Ulmer as “an interac-tive matrix of technology, institutional practices, and ideological subject formations”13. Th us, the concept encompasses technology, practice, values,
con-tents, and form (i.e. everything that could be referred to as media in a broad sense). Each of the apparatuses creates a specifi c king of the social and cultural world with its own institutions, values, philosophy, and methods. For instance, the period of orality, when speech was the most important medium of communication, lan-guage, still not embodied in writing, remained the main medium of communica-tion. Th is kind of direct contact created a tribal society. Th e world was interpreted mainly by religious standards imposed by the institution of the church. Faith was the only aspect of the mind that characterized people; God was the only and fi nal point of reference, whereas the theories were constructed in reference to myths. Th e structure of the narrative was the key element of the basic statements of the epoch. Th e rules instituted by the rituals were followed and valued on the basis of the right – wrong axis.
Th e dissemination of writing, and later on printing, made literacy a predomi-nating apparatus. Th is triggered the birth of the national society. Th e world was analyzed scientifi cally, rather than by means of the criteria of religion. Schools became dominating institutions. Knowledge replaced faith; Reason replaced God. Epistemology became the central trend in philosophy, and argumentation became a principle form of discourse. Th e patterns of action were no longer ritual and became methodological in nature. True / false responses became the most extreme responses on the axis of values. Th e period of electracy is the time of electronic
11 Ibidem, p. 16. 12 Ibidem, p. 109.
media, and computers in particular. Religion and science are located in the back-ground, whereas the Internet remains the key institution providing cognitive schemes and resources. Aesthetics became primary in philosophy; statements are constructed on the basis of examples and metaphors and not on the ground of logical sequences and narratives. Style has replaced rituals and methods as a default procedure of action, and the key values have been replaced by joy and sadness. Imagination has become more important than faith or knowledge. And, the body has become more important as a point of reference than God or Reason.
Let us observe that the metaphor of the apparatus allows Ulmer to specify the identity of media conditioning. Just as this was the case with Flusser and Kittler, we fi nd the vision of the world created by media. Each individual perceives the social and cultural reality by means of cognitive structures determined by media, the reality that is determined by the media oriented construct. Hence, a common ground can be identifi ed in the considerations of all above-mentioned researchers. Contemporary media exert infl uence not only on the social or political order or the world of culture and entertainment, but also on individual people. Th us, media have to be analyzed, above all, in the context of education and teaching.
Most of the above mentioned authors off ered a vision of ordering or periodiza-tion of the development of culture in relaperiodiza-tion to the history of media. Yet, while describing the issue asynchronously, by means of the metaphor of the apparatus, it is possible to identify diff erences between the experience and the description of the world conditioned by popular media. Such characteristics of particular periods or media apparatuses raise the question of the commensuration and mutual trans-latability of particular media systems. Innis, in the introduction to Empire and Communications, observes how diffi cult it is for “generations disciplined by the tradition of writing and print to appreciate the oral tradition”14. Th is opinion may
be treated as a prelude to the entire tradition of considerations on education in the context of changes in media.
Havelock observed, “the history of Greek poetry is also the history of early Greek paideia”15; hence the evolution from non-literacy to full literacy is linked
with the changes in the process of education and shaping individuals. Flusser strongly stressed that opposition to the apparatus remains the only sphere of free-dom, provided we are well familiar with it. “Whereas the ‘humanistic’ criticism of apparatuses, by calling upon the vestiges of human intention behind apparatuses, obscures the danger lying in wait within them, the criticism of apparatuses
pro-14 H.A. Innis, op.cit., p. 6. 15 E. Havelock, op.cit., p. 78.
posed here sees its tasks precisely in uncovering the terrible fact of this uninten-tional, rigid and uncontrollable functionality of apparatuses, in order to get a hold over them”16. He refers to the camera, yet we must not forget that the camera is
a model for all technical apparatuses, which supports creativity and mutual com-munication. Th e above considerations trigger the idea that the process of education and shaping individuals is deeply entangled with media. It can be observed that, in view of the theories presented above, the question of the contents and the way of teaching media in contemporary schools and universities is not only of the methodological nature, but rather of the essence of humanity in the contemporary culture and attempts to prepare people to function in the contemporary world.
3. How to teach the new forms of literacy?
Regardless of how extreme forms of media determinism we can accept, in the light of the research on culture and media, we cannot escape the conclusion that media to a certain extent form people and the surrounding world. Kittler expresses it with succinct bluntness: “Media determine our situation”17. Hence, the profi ciency in
using media, or media competence, should become one of the fundamental abili-ties of the educated man. Neither creativity nor even comprehension of culture is possible if we do not understand the conditions imposed by media. Is our system of education capable of providing such knowledge?
Gregory Ulmer off ered an interesting answer to this question. According to his approach, institutions, such as schools or universities, are for the literacy apparatus. Teachers and lecturers, the organizational structure of classes, the system of assess-ment, the entire organization of the university – they are all products of writing. Hence, contemporary students fi nd it increasingly more diffi cult to fi nd their place in this world. Th e children of electracy are diff erent from their lecturers. Th ey communicate with each other in a diff erent way, they appreciate diff erent values, and they act on the basis of diff erent patterns. Th ey fi nd reading longer texts bor-ing, yet they spend hours in front of the monitor. Since they use a diff erent appa-ratus, limiting methodology to speech and printed text is no longer an optimum or even a suffi cient solution. For instance, at the universities, typically “literacy” oriented genres, such as essays, treatises or monographs, should be replaced by something more electral, e.g. a mystory.
16 V. Flusser, op.cit., p. 65. 17 F.A. Kittler, op.cit., p. XXXIX.
A mystory is a new type of academic genre18. It was fi rst described in the book
Teletheory and subsequently perfected in further papers19. It is diffi cult to identify
a precise defi nition since the author opts to use less precise terms, such as “a set of elements, collected at a given moment in order to present my understanding of the stage of the academic discourse”20. It is obvious that the new academic genre,
sug-gested here, should respond to ‘electracy’ rather than literacy. Hence, it should reject the traditional patterns. Mystory is not history21 since history is linked to the
clas-sical and linear concept of the way in which the development of knowledge is perceived. Ordering thoughts in accordance with the requirements of literacy in relation to such concepts as linearity, justifi cation, verifi cation, or argumentation simply limits creativity and closes one’s considerations in the default system of thinking imposed by media. Mystory has to be diff erent. While writing a mystory, we create and present, rather than summarize what is already known. Creativity and invention are the fundamental elements of the process of the construction of works. Hence, the discussed genre may fi nd its application not only in research, but also in all other spheres of life related to creativity. Although it is possible to create a work of a similar structure in pencil, it is the electronic media that enrich it with perfect background. Th e possibility of combining various forms of expres-sion and the non-linearity of the hypertext off ered by computers, provide a strong impulse for creativity within the framework of the pattern discussed hereby.
Apart from the ideological background, Ulmer points out several more spe-cifi c features of his genre. Texts should literally be multimedia in character. Authors may use written or spoken language, photography or graphics, fi lms, and sound. Th e structure is non-linear in the sense that it does not impose the only appropri-ate sequence of text comprehension. Here, we deal rather with a hypertext, which allows the receivers to make choices and the authors to off er alternative paths. Th ere is no principled order of argumentation or the cause-eff ect sequence. It consists of smaller units of meaning linked in a variety of ways. More emphasis is put on examples, anecdotes, or illustrations, rather than on logical cohesion and narration. Traditional narrative techniques and typical methodologies are rejected in favor of style. Th e goal is not defi ned in terms of true or false statements, but rather as intrigue, fascination, and pleasure. In other words, it is subjected to the criteria of electracy. Ulmer draws a scheme of an entire university course based on
18 G.L. Ulmer, Teletheory, New York 2004, pp. 105–112.
19 G.L. Ulmer, Heuretics, op.cit.; G.L. Ulmer, Internet Invention: From Literacy to Electracy, New
York 2003.
20 G.L. Ulmer, Teletheory, op.cit., p. 106. 21 Ibidem.
mystory and illustrates it with detailed examples of tools or techniques 22. In the
below paragraph, there is not enough space to present the precise concept, there-fore let us go back to the general framwework.
Th e idea that people comprehend themselves, as well as the surrounding world, by means of the social-cultural-media apparatus is justifi ed on the grounds of the theory of Gregory Ulmer. According to this approach, orality, literacy, and elec-tracy are boxes fi lled with tools that are used in the process of constructing our identity. In the period dominated by electronic media, the choice of tools has changed signifi cantly. Th e Internet users are skillful in using digital technology, they create blogs or micro-blogs, profi les, galleries, and communicate with each other by means of short messages based on texts and images whose structure is determined by new technologies. Even their stories about themselves have the same concise and a non-linear order that is typical of the Internet. Th ey are unable to write a novel; they even fi nd reading diffi cult. Mystory approximates what has happened to texts under the infl uence of the Internet. It also constitutes a perfect example of how students can be introduced to the world of electronic literacy by means of non-standard techniques.
Ulmer suggests an interesting strategy of breaking the limits of literacy both at the level of academic discourse, as well as teaching. Th is form of implementing electracy is not the end of the road, but constitutes its beginning. Educating people who are skillful only in operating electronic media must not satisfy us. Hence, electracy does not defi ne the goal of education for people embedded in the culture of convergence.
4. Beyond the horizons of electronic literacy
Ulmer’s criticism of schools narrowed by the discourse of literacy is partly accu-rate, yet it could be argued that the suggested emergency strategy is far from being suffi cient. Replacing one apparatus by another does not solve any problems. Oral-ity, literacy, and electracy should fi nd their place in the process of education. Un-doubtedly, literacy remains a valuable competence which must not be lost by our culture. It is still indispensible for the purpose of cognizing and comprehending the past or the foundations of our culture. What is more, literacy teaches signifi cant universal skills, such as creativity, following argumentation, long-term concentra-tion on tasks or operating symbols, and ideas. Hence, in this sphere, schools and
in particular universities, should impose high standards and expect the appropri-ate level of profi ciency from students. In other words, in the world of humanists, there is no justifi cation for the lack of the ability to read, including classical or historical texts, or to write, including essays or research papers. Yet, this must not limit universities since they should prepare students not only to comprehend the past, but also to participate in the present. And here, literacy is not suffi cient. Hence, there are many attempts to name various other media competencies.
Th e background literature describes numerous variants of literacy: media, com-puter, digital, or electronic23. It seems, however, that the only reasonable strategy
for education consists in teaching based on various forms of literacy. According to Douglas Kellner, the comprehension of the multiplicity of media messages received requires “understanding diverse and hybrid semiotic fi elds and the ability to ac-quire print, graphics, motion pictures and sound in a critical and hermeneutic way”24. Importantly, particular competencies cannot be taught separately. In the
convergence culture, everything is mixed; the contents are expressed by various media and constantly re-mediate25 while being permeated with new formal
condi-tions. Hence, contemporary multiliteracy has to be well understood. Th is consti-tutes a methodological challenge for universities. Aft er all, many professors get on much better with the Internet than their students. Yet, the use of new media in teaching has to be intentional and incorporated into the curricula. Th e media must not be treated merely as sources of information or objects of analysis, but also as communication tools. A literary essay should not be the only form of creativity taught. Perhaps the time has come to accept semester papers written in the form of mystories, websites, or fi lms.
Th us, schools should teach various forms of literacy, but this is still not enough. Th e profi ciency in comprehending and creating messages guarantees the ability to move within the limits of culture. Yet, it is not suffi cient for comprehending it. Th is requires additional knowledge of how the mechanism itself works. In other words, there is a need for a specifi c form of metaliteracy, or a set of knowledge, skills, and procedures that could allow for understanding literacy as such, including its ori-gins, mechanisms, and conditions. It can be constructed on the ground of general
23 P. Gilster, Digital Literacy, New York 1997; F.T. Hofstetter. Internet Literacy, Boston 2005;
M. Warschauer, Electronic Literacies: Language, Culture, and Power in Online Education, Mahwah– –London 1999.
24 D.M. Kellner, Technological Resolution, Multiple Literacies, and the Restructuring of Education
[in:] Silicon Literacies. Communication, Innovation and Education in the Electronic Age, I. Snyder (ed.), London–New York 2002, p. 163.
theories characterizing particular types of literacy. Th e philosophy of media seems to be appropriate here.
Various proposals concerning metaliteracy have been formulated. Th e category can be found for instance in the paper Reframing Information Literacy as a Metalit-eracy26. Th omas Mackey and Trudi Jacobson suggest that information literacy i.e.
the profi ciency in producing and managing information should be labeled as metaliteracy. Yet, this approach remains relative in view of one feature: information which seems to be described here as more general rather than digital, cybernetic, textual, etc. Th e very concept of information is in fact entangled in discourses cre-ated by media. Perhaps it would be more precise to name such strategies in the way suggested by Jay Lemke who suggests the concept of metamedia literacy27. Once
a meta-medium has been defi ned in the categories of information, its digital char-acteristics and interactivity, the problem of media competence can be transferred to a wider platform and made independent of particular media technologies. Yet, we still seem to remain within the domain of one discourse, defi ned by a particu-lar technology or a more abstract code. A diff erent path should be suggested.
5. Stages of literacy
Th e examples above show that the concept of literacy may be understood in vari-ous ways. A specifi c hierarchy or stages of the acquaintance with media can be observed.
At the most basic level, literacy means a number of competencies necessary to use writing. Th e ability to read and write is undoubtedly fundamental, yet not suf-fi cient to participate fully in the culture of writing. Additionally, wide reading, the familiarity with forms and codes used in literature, as well as a certain corpus of texts, are necessary. Th e researchers from the Toronto School showed clearly that we deal here with complex cultural formations constructed around particular me-dia. Hence, e.g. Polish lessons are not confi ned to grammar and semantics, but form a process of gradual immersion into the entire culture of writing.
Th e emergence of subsequent media triggered the need to teach appropriate forms of literacy. Th us, in the consequence of the widespread use of computers
26 T. Mackey, T. Jacobson, Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy, “College & Research
Libraries” 2011, No. 1, pp. 62–78.
27 J.L. Lemke, Metamedia Literacy: Transforming Meanings and Media [in:] Handbook of
Litera-cy and Technology: Transformations in a Post-Typographic World, D. Reinking (ed.), Mahwah 1998,
a new subject: IT was introduced into school curricula. Computer or digital liter-acy, at the basic level, meant at that time the ability to use computers and the most popular applications. Schools increasingly observe the need to develop not only the basic skills, but also to introduce students into the new digital culture. Literacy, in its fundamental meaning, stands for the abilities necessary to use a given me-dium. In a broader, cultural meaning, it is equivalent with the entire social and cultural formation constructed around a particular medium.
While reading the texts of McLuhan, Havelock, or Ong, one may have the im-pression that several periods predominated by particular media can be identifi ed in the history of societies. Th eir theories were infected by strong determinism and reductionism, which resulted in one-sidedness. Th e echoes of such thinking may be found in the writings of Flusser, Kittler, or Ulmer. Yet, it is not possible to de-marcate a strict borderline between the oral culture and writing, neither histori-cally nor mentally. Attempts to reduce the complexity of culture to one medium only were increasingly more diffi cult, along with the popularization of electronic media. Th e contemporary culture is infl uenced by various media, each of which, introduces its own conditions, characteristics, and properties, and a new structure of the contemporary media space arises which is referred to by Jenkins as the convergence culture28.
It is characteristic that the contemporary media theories depart from linking the categories of media with technology. Bolter and Grusin defi ne medium simply as “what it remediates”29. In order to characterize education in relation to this kind
of understanding of media, it is necessary to make a further generalization of the concept of literacy. Th us, the concepts of multiliteracy or meta-media literacy can be perceived as subsequent stages in hierarchy. Multiliteracy, as the goal of educa-tion, means the necessity to teach various forms of media literacy in a parallel way, whereas meta-media literacy imposes the search for the universal properties of media and puts the main focus on them.
If we take a look at the above mentioned philosophical theories analyzing the apparatuses of our culture, we can observe another generalizing strategy that points at yet another stage in the discussed hierarchy. Seemingly, the analyses of Flusser appear to be close to the theory of literacy; hence, there are reasons to refer to him as to the European counterpart of McLuhan30. Obviously, he uses a diff erent
28 H. Jenkins, Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide, New York 2006. 29 J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, op.cit.
30 S. van der Meulen, Between Benjamin and McLuhan: Vilem Flusser’s Media Th eory, “New
terminology: instead of the cultural domination of literacy, he tends to write about the alphanumerical code; he does not mention digital literacy, but rather digital codes. Yet, his theory of communication is much more than merely another theo-ry of literacy.
Th at is how he presents the goal of his research: “If one now attempts a criticism of apparatuses, one fi rst sees the photographic universe as the product of cameras and distribution apparatuses. Behind these, one recognizes industrial apparatuses, advertising apparatuses, political, economic management apparatuses, etc. Each of these apparatuses is becoming increasingly automated and is being linked up by cybernetics to other apparatuses. Th e program of each apparatus is fed in via its input by another apparatus, and in its turn feeds other apparatuses via its output. Th e whole complex of apparatuses is therefore a super-black-box made up of black boxes. And it is a human creation: As a product of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, human beings are permanently engaged in developing and perfecting it. Th e time is therefore not far off when one will have to concentrate one’s criticism of apparatuses on the human intention that willed and created them”31.
While describing the program embedded in the complex of apparatuses, Flusss-er means something more than the community of people using camFlusss-eras. He refFlusss-ers to the entire set of media, interpretation, and the institutional and social practice entangled in various codes. Th us, there is no need for theories describing particu-lar media and their selected properties. Th ere is a need for a superior theory, which would allow for understanding the condition of people entangled in this media web by “uncovering the terrible fact of this unintentional, rigid and uncontrollable functionality of apparatuses, in order to get a hold over them”32.
Tony Schirato and Jen Webb seem to be following the same direction. Th eir vision of Multiliteracy is constructed on the basis of the concept of Pierre Bourdieu. Metaliteracy is understood here as the ability to analyze the symbolic space, fi elds, and habitus linked with the media as such33. Th e social actors, involved in various
fi elds, are shaped by the habitus, i.e. the “socially created system of structured and structuring instructions”34. Since the habitus is “the product of the embodiment of
a certain nomos, the principles of observation and division which constitute an inherent element of the social order or fi eld, it generates practices which are
in-31 V. Flusser, op.cit., pp. 63–64. 32 Ibidem, p. 65.
33 T. Schirato, J. Webb, Bourdieu’s Concept of Refl exivity as Metaliteracy, “Cultural Studies” 2003,
No. 3-4, pp. 539–553.
stantly adjusted to this order, and hence perceived and evaluated by those who perform them (and by others) as right, appropriate, clever and well adapted”35.
All forms of human activity, including communication, are entangled in fi elds, which teach appropriate patterns by means of “educational actions”. Media are subordinated to the same rules. In the collection of his lectures, entitled On Televi-sion36, the French sociologist argues that the hidden structure conditioning the
existence of media institutions decides about the contents and form of the message. TV stations (and other media institutions) are subordinated to the rules of audi-ence measurement, market, and politics. TV broadcasts cannot be correctly com-prehended without the knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes. Every-one functioning in the fi eld of media, the journalist and reporters, as well as receivers, are subjected to social pressure. Th is form of symbolic violence shapes all media linked with practices accompanying communication. Th ey have to be taken into account while interpreting broadcasts.
Bourdieu analyzed the fi eld of journalism and revealed the hidden structure shaping the media. He attempted to prove that it is not enough to understand particular media or selected factors, e.g. economic37. Holistic comprehension,
in-cluding both discourse limitations of media, as well as the results of their collabo-ration with other fi elds, is necessary. Th e suggested strategy is further developed on the grounds of research on critical literacy. It assumes a signifi cant generaliza-tion of the concept of literacy, so that it could include discourse analysis. It seems, however, that too little emphasis is put on the media nature of the problem, with too much focus on its social aspects. Hence, this proposal is not fully satisfactory as well. Th e approach suggested in this paper is slightly diff erent.
While analyzing subsequent stages in the hierarchy of literacy, it is easy to no-tice subsequent stages of the generalization of the concept. From specifi c skills, strictly related to specifi c media (fundamental literacy), we ascend to the compre-hension of the cultural contexts of particular media (cultural literacy). Th e multi-media nature and the convergence of the contemporary culture, makes us focus on various media at the same time (multiliteracy) or on the universal qualities of media (meta-media literacy). Th e next stage on the path leads to the analysis of media as such, the very mechanisms of mediation. At this point, we enter the ter-ritory of philosophy that for years has carefully observed the cognitive mechanism, our culture, and people. Th e analyses of Flusser, Kittler, and Ulmer, but also of
35 P. Bourdieu, Medytacje pascaliań skie, Warszawa 2006, pp. 204–205. 36 P. Bourdieu, O telewizji. Panowanie dziennikarstwa, Warszawa 2009. 37 Ibidem, p. 69.
many other researchers, instantiate how we, in essence, philosophize about the human condition through considerations about new media.
Th e theory of metaliteracy may thus become an interdisciplinary, superior dis-course integrating the achievements of the current research on meta-literacy. Com-plete and conscious functioning in the media space requires a number of universal competencies, not covered by lower-level literacy. Knowledge of media and the discourses created by them is necessary. In order to understand the infl uence of media on people, it is vital to comprehend the mechanisms in which media medi-ate with reality, as well as their impact on our identity. Among the key skills, the ability to use various media, i.e. profi ciency in operating the apparatuses of orality, literacy, and electracy, has to be mentioned. Also, the abilities ‘to switch’ between particular apparatuses and transfer contents between diff erent media are of para-mount importance. Th ese are only examples of the elements, which are relevant for the full comprehension of culture and ourselves. It could be observed that in the world of the culture of new media, teaching literacy should constitute one of the key goals of schools and universities.
6. Conclusions
Providing people with knowledge and skills is necessary for them to function in the society and constitutes one of the tasks of the system of education. Graduates should be able to participate fully in the modern culture that is deeply marked with media. Th e role of new media in contemporary life is so big that the profi ciency in using them has become as important as reading and writing in the past. Th is pos-es completely new tasks in front of the system of education.
Th e observation of educational practice to date indicates the gradual extension of the teaching contents. Both in the case of the mastery of writing, as well as computer skills, a gradual shift can be noticed from purely technical aspects to cultural competence, from using one medium to a convergent combination of various media. In order to describe this variety of approaches, the researchers have constructed numerous theories of media literacy. Th e analysis of these concepts shows a hierarchic order and indicates a need for a more general theory. Such meta-theoretical considerations were conducted already on the ground of media philosophy. Th ey may constitute the basis for developing a universal model of media competencies around the category of metaliteracy.
Obviously, the problem of metaliteracy is too complex to reach the lowest levels of education. Subsequent stages of literacy should be introduced gradually into
school practice. Ultimately, however, media education must include such issues as well. Contemporary schools and universities must adapt to the reality predomi-nated by media. Th e concept of metaliteracy allows for the characteristics of the goal, which is a complete understanding of the relations between media and the human being.
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