Kress, Gunther. Literacy in the New Media Age. New York: Routledge, 2003.
This book is part of the Literacies series, which is a collection that reevaluates the theoretical principles of literacy in our new media age. Kress begins with the statement, “It is no longer possible to think about literacy in isolation from a vast array of social, technological and economic factors” (1). He argues that there is a shift from the dominance of print-based communication, specifically in the form of print based literacy through the medium of the book, to the dominance of image in conjunction with text through the medium of the screen. Taking a sociolinguistic and semiotic approach, he theorizes how literacy is changing due to the multiple modes available in the contemporary world. By presenting examples ranging from Milton, Biology textbooks, horoscopes, and the writing of young children, he explains how these changes in literacy impact the ways in which we create meaning through processes of design, re-design and assimilation.
In chapter 1, Kress explains that difference between the modes of writing and image are “governed by distinct logics” in that writing is governed by causal relationships indicated by time, whereas images are governed by spatial relationships indicated by proximities. He writes, “The imaginative work in writing focuses on filling words with meaning—and then reading the filled elements together, in the given syntactic structure. In image, imagination focuses on creating the order of the arrangement of elements which are already filled with meaning” (4). Due to the accessibility of modes of multimedia, writers have become designers in multiple modes. Writing can be seen as more than alphabetic, or print based, and has shifted to a more interactive process of design. His intentions for the book is to give scholars “a conceptual framework and tools for thinking about a field that is in a profound state of transition” (8).
In chapter 2, Kress outlines the historical progression of writing and the concepts of literacy by examining the social, economic, communicational and technological changes from a historical perspective up to the unique circumstances of the present. The shift from book to screen presents the need to redefine the general concept of literacy: “ . . . on the screen writing may appear with the modes of music, of colour, of (moving) image, of speech, of soundtrack. All these bear meaning, and are part of one message . . . there is an urgent need for theoretical accounts that tell us how to understand communication in periods of instability” (11). The remainder of the text is devoted to this theoretical undertaking through his analyses of a variety of examples through the lens of semiotics.
In chapter 3, Kress outlines the shifts in structures of literacy as we move more toward globalization, and he makes a case for “the new environment of writing.” He writes, “If the book was organized and dominated by the logic of writing, the screen is organized and dominated by the image and its logic” (19). Because of the changes in modes of communication, traditional definitions of literacy must be restructured to include how we read and interpret a variety of texts that include multiple modes. , He does stress that using literacy as an overarching, all-encompassing term can be problematic; however, literacy of the 21st century must go beyond alphabetic text.
Chapter 4 provides a “theoretical framework” to “Literacy and Multimodality.” The need is for an understanding of how meaning is made through the construction of the message and the interpretation of the message through a variety of outlets. This is why, he argues, there is a need for theory of semiotics in the understanding of multimedia texts. Meaning is socially constructed and “has to be shaped to its social environment to make it suit the maker’s sense of the needs of the environment of communication” (39). Under this premise, Kress uses examples to show how writing is shifting to a focus on design. He writes, “Communication—whatever the mode—always happens as text” (47). As such, we use various modes, guided by “social relations” and social issues to communicate and create meanings and understanding in our world. Design incorporates all the necessary and available means for meaning making in an effort to communicate understanding. “Multimodality, and multimodal design, has therefore deep epistemological effects” (50).
In the following chapters, Kress uses examples to examine the terms “writing” and “literacy” by looking at the “resources of the mode of writing.” He then presents a “Social Theory of Text” by looking at the use of genre in the construction of meaning. “Genre . . . deals not with what is talked about, what is represented in the sense of what issues, but with who acts (and) in relation to whom with the question of purposes” (84). Meaning is represented not only through textual representation, but through the social interpretation of genre. In chapter 7, “Multimodality, Multimedia and Genre,” Kress explores the blending of genres in a digital environment in which several modes may be combined. This is relevant to my research in that the traditional academic essay may be expanded to be a mixed genre in the form of student-produced multimedia texts. Chapter 9 looks at “Reading as Semiosis” and Kress theorizes how reading has changed in that “the increasingly and insistently more mulit-modal forms of contemporary texts make it essential to rethink our notions of what reading is” (141). He concludes with “The future of reading in the multimodal landscape of the ‘West’ by suggesting that the shift to screen dominance has made it necessary to focus more on the “logic of the image to writing” (166).
Kress leaves us with “Some Items for an Agenda of Further Thinking” in chapter 10, the last chapter of the text. He returns to the core of his argument that literacy has now shifted to a focus on design, “The notion of competence in use will give way to that of interested design . . . Design . . . starts from the interest and intent of the designer to act in a specific way in a specific environment, to act with a set of available resources and to act with an understanding of what the task at hand is, in relation to a specific audience. Design is prospective, future-oriented: in this environment, with these (multiple) resources, and out of my interests now to act newly I will shape a message” (169). Though literacy is changing, new media is not eliminating our sense of imagination or our need to interpret and construct meanings through critical analysis. The changes are, however, asking us to see and interpret writing and reading in a more dynamic and inclusive way. In some ways, meaning making and interpretation can be seen as more simplicity, while at the same time it is more complex because of the multiple modes of signifying and representation that are available to us as designers.
The theoretical concepts in this book support the work I am doing with my students when I ask them to create multimedia texts as an extension of the writing process. It was interesting to delve into the concepts of semiotics and sociolinguistics from this new media perspective. It seems as if Gunther Kress, along with other contributors to this series, are re-writing some of the theoretical assumptions of semiotics from its inception. Since I was not already familiar with semiotics, I am coming in late during the discussion. Nonetheless, Kress’ definitions of literacy, communication, and text are very useful in my argument that multimedia texts should be a part of composition pedagogy. Likewise, the focus on a shift to design in the multimodal aspects of writing is also essential in validating the use of multimedia in the classroom. As we have evolved into the age of new media, so has the demands on our students to make meaning and create meaning in a complex world of text, image and sound. Kress’ work is crucial in the support of my research into student-produced new media texts.
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