I brought up the digital divide as well in this conversation, by using an example of a more ‘traditional’form of media: documentaries. There are many hilarious documentaries in the 70s and 80s that would not fly today, because the audience is more savvy, more aware. Yet, there is still an overwhelming number of people in this world who do not have the benefit of such awareness, and are susceptible to misinformation. Just look at the number of immigrants that come to Canada, having paid a private firm, not realizing what they were actually signing up for.

The same literacy is necessary for the kinds of information that is available on the internet, as well as the methods through which we arrive at information. Understanding inherent biases in the search engines we use, and the content we consume, is as important as the realization that documentaries are not objective. They have a lot of value in them, but to blindly accept and absorb everything that is fed to us will lead one to believe lemmings dive off cliffs to commit suicide. (I myself was a victim of this documentary.)

I am no expert on the media literacy levels of isolated and rural communities in places like Canada, China, US or Russia. However, I would guess that they are not as sophisticated as they are in urban settings. With the new need for information literacy arising, and with the infrastructure slow to reach those hard-to-reach communities, how do you address that divide before it becomes near impossible to bridge? My concern is that if the divide is not being addressed now, it will be the elephant in the room that keeps growing until we have no choice but simply dispose of it. Hardly a picture of civil responsibility, but there it is.

To bring it back full circle, my companion was sold on the idea that places like the Pirate Bay should be a wake-up call for companies to revise their business model and go back to economic 101: market price is the highest price that the consumer is willing to pay, and the lowest price that a business is willing to let a commodity or service go for. If there are enough people thinking that your products are not worth the money, take a hint and start treating your customers like your customers.

My reflections on information literacy is in three folds:

Information Literacy is targeted to those that don’t have the ability to discern credibility and reliability of information online, or even where to begin looking for such things. Yet, precisely because there is such an overwhelming amount of online sources and delivery systems that are out there, the pedagogical approach does not always reflect this reality. Most IL programs are designed to be targeted to a certain group based on their needs, and while what you learn is often transferable, you become completely lost when you switch fields (As I am discovering, as I ‘switch’into the library field, with some overlaps with archives and museum) and you start at ground zero. To equate teaching people how to use a certain search vendor as to have improved their information literacy is not incorrect, but it’s a pretty narrow qualification compared to what media literacy means. Media literacy means you understand the value in different forms of media outlet such as newspaper, television programming, press releases, radio shows, and the inherent bias they all carry. My experience so far is that IL workshops I have attended so far didn’t seem to have time to address those broader issues, and instead pre-occupied with knowing where the search function is, and what a particular vendor’s capabilities are. I blame this in part to just bad design, but I digress.

It is arguable that one cannot survive with some basic form of information literacy if you have access to any kind of Information Communication Technology (ICT), and the more you engage with it, the more you become ‘literate’in discerning the the quality of information you are seeking. For example, coffee house banter now appears on the same page as newspaper articles online, and often more fun and interesting to read than the actual article. To dismiss it as just noise and irrelevant ignores the potential of hearing alternative voices that are not often available in a public forum, and yet to take them too seriously without being able to assess the source and added-value to the information is equally dangerous. Information literacy in that sense is the cultivation of an intuition that is rooted in a bit of sociology, ethnography, healthy skepticism, and lots of common sense. It is not a completely foreign concept that we have to learn, but simply using what we already exercise every day in a different context. The point is, engagement does not always equate literacy. Just as someone who watches MTV all day may not be the person you consult to learn more about media literacy. You might consult them about MTV literacy, but that is not the same thing.

Now, how do you look at Information literacy in the context of the digital divide? (Part 2)

So, media literacy was developed so that consumers were not duped by the dazzling new sounds and images they could access within the comforts of their own homes. It was new, people had no precedence to evaluate it against, and they taught it as an English course in high school when I was there in the late 90s. Everyone who took it thought it was a bird course, as it was clear what the ‘right answers’were, and if you had the gift of gab, you pretty much aced it. These are the same students whose media consumption habits did not change because of a course, and they continue to adapt to new communication and information tools as they become relevant within their social and professional settings.

So my question is, if it wasn’t essential that everyone had ‘media literacy’before they could operate and use a television, why is ‘information literacy’required before one could participate in an information society? I can be ‘media literate’about talk shows and biases in news coverage, even if I don’t consume that media. However, I don’t think I can be ‘information literate’without actually participating and engaging with the information tools available to me. Can we ‘teach’information literacy the same way media literacy was taught? (Part 1)