“New and Traditional Media,” Media and Information Literacy. UNESCO, 2011.
The
way people communicate has changed through time, specifically by the
improvement of ways to spread those ideas. Currently, the use of technology has
not only influenced communication, but also interaction and information
exchange. We were originally only exposed to traditional media, such as
television, radio and news papers, but with the development of technology this
has changed to a new media that includes, social networks, blogs, sites,
twitter, among others. Both medias follow the same path, but the use of
technology has made possible to more people to be not only informed, being just
a consumer; but has made possible for them to post an opinion on different
issues. Therefore, this way of communication allowed democratizing the ability
to inform others by enhancing a participatory democracy. This has allowed
people to participate in social, economical and political matters. It has also
widened the area of interaction. The information posted can be accessed by
anyone in the world.
Accordingly,
teachers have also been influenced and can now share knowledge, get ideas or
interact with other teachers around the world. This has powered the
construction of tools for education and “teacher or student sites”. Regardless
of all the benefits that are clear to the use of technology in class and with
students, there is still much to be done. As teachers we have to make sure students
learn that what they publish will have an impact, that not all the sites are
reliable, that they have to be critic, to show them the tools to enhance their
learning, authoring, among others. Communication will continue evolving and
students need to be prepared to face those changes and become a responsible link
in new global media.
I think that the exchanging possibility that new media provides is precisely what makes the huge difference between traditional and new media. I also liked your graphic very much.
ResponderEliminarThe participatory culture and democratization of information are, as you said, are allowing people to be more involved in what is happening in our world. It still amazes me how we can know about any news in remote countries when 10 years ago we only read what the media wanted us to know, or what was the most “relevant”.
ResponderEliminarIt is because of the way new media is so open and informative that we need to teach our students to question what they read, listen or see in the web, as you said there is much to be done. We were more in touch with traditional media, we lived it’s evolution and convergence with new media, and we have to pass on that experience to them.