New Literacies
New Literacies can be defined as forms of literacy that are communicated through various modes of technology. New literacy studies focus primarily on communication in all forms. New literacy studies are "concerned primarily with communication in its widest sense (visual, oral, gestural, linguistic, musical, kinesthetic, and digital)" (Alvermann, 2011). Through new literacies, messages and ideas are communicated across various media outlets. New literacies allow individuals to experience society through a more complex lens that moves away from a world dominated by linguistic literacies. These multiliteracies provide an abundance of opportunities for individuals. "Children's and young people's uses of popular culture texts in both online and offline spaces provide numerous opportunities for theorizing and researching 21st century literacy practices across media platforms and modalities that feature language as but one of several other modes of communication (imagery, sound, and performance)" (Alvermann, 2011). These literacies allow individuals to move away from using languages as the main form of communication, rather they are inclined to use various modes of communication to interact with others.
New literacy studies are different than traditional literacy teaching in a sense that new literacy studies utilize numerous modes of communication, while traditional literacy teaching places importance on linguistics. Traditional literacy teaching, the 'autonomous model', "characterizes reading and writing as neutral processes that are largely explained by individual variations in cognitive functioning and the motivation to achieve a literate status in life, assumes a universal set of skills necessary for decoding and encoding mostly printed text" (Alvermann, 2011). This traditional model focuses mainly on reading and writing as forms of communication. Although this may have been effective in the past, new literacies allow individuals more diverse forms of communication. These new literacies tend to be more beneficial as it does not limit individuals to simply two forms of communication, rather individuals may utilize numerous literacies in order to communicate with others.
Popular culture utilizes new literacies to convey messages to their audiences. Through images, videos, and/or texts, media platforms continually express messages to their audiences. Although there are numerous positives to new literacies in popular culture, mass media messages can negatively affect youth. "The structure/agency debate, which addresses the degree to which mass media messages embedded in popular culture texts are negatively affecting young children and youth as opposed to evoking within them a sense of agency for making meaning of the messages on their own terms" (Alvermann, 2011). Often, the messages portrayed in the media can be harmful to youth as is diminishes self-confidence. Individuals may compare themselves to the messages/images portrayed in daily advertisements, which can be harmful as they may not feel as though they can relate to the images and messages displayed.
