Week 3

Viral Videos

“Christ Pratt takes the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’”

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_iCIg2oCCs

Uploaded on user-generated content hosting sites like YouTube™, such zones of digital interactions allow ‘viral videos’ (such as the 2014 ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ phenomenon demonstrated above) easy to share across time and place. In regards to the development of new literacies, the creation and consumption of these ‘viral videos’ requires of users a ‘basic knowledge of standard software applications that can create a diverse range of meaningful artifacts’ (Lankshear & Knobel, 2012, p. 51).

Meme

URL: http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/279/249/c30.jpg

Ridiculously Photogenic Guy (March 2012)

Meme Variations:

The notion of new literacies being a diverse and multifaceted concept that extends itself to the practice of digital photographic manipulation is illustrated in the popular 2012 meme ‘Ridiculously Photogenic Guy’. Captured by photographer Will King, the generation of numerous memes by various individuals across the internet focusing on the ‘ridiculously photogenic’ subject under different humorous encoded captions reinforces ‘memes’ as a valid new literacy. It is this process of ‘generating, communicating and negotiating encoded meanings’ (Lankshear & Knobel, 2012, p. 51) that includes memes as part of new literacies.

Tweeting

Tweets by cnnbrk

Through the social media platform of twitter, the three primary software practices of tweeting, retweeting and favouriting allow individuals to engage and directly communicate with others from around the world. In the case of the twitter account above belonging to the American news site CNN Breaking News, individuals possess the freedom to comment and provide their own personal response to national and global issues, sharing their views to an expansive audience. The communicative platform also demonstrates various features of new literacy such as the ability to embed visual images, video and audio that accompany the hyperlink to the article on their website- all accumulating to provide a range of new or more widely accessible resource possibilities for making meaning (Lankshear & Knobel, 2012, p. 51).

Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends

Wikia.com (Variation of Wikipedia tailored for pop culture information)

http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Friends_Wiki

Recognised as an open source project due to its reliance on global volunteers to write, edit and maintain its content, Wikipedia is a demonstration of a constantly evolving body of knowledge where anyone can contribute to a topic of their choice ranging from academia to pop culture as demonstrated in the above link. In regards to new literacies, the information found on Wikipedia is demonstrative of a ‘rhetoric of collaboration and community’ (Lankshear & Knobel, 2012, p. 62) where ideas and information flourish.

References

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2012). ‘New’literacies: technologies and values. Teknokultura. Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales, 9(1), 45-71.

Retrieved from http://everydayliteracies.net/files/RemixTeknokulturaEnglish.pdf