Oh that was what I meant by the YouTube video. I don't think he went commercial or anything like that. Here's one of my favourite quotes from his chapter 'Slacking off' in the Counternarratives collection: 'Shopping malls, street communities, video halls, coffee shops, television culture, and other elements of popular culture must become serious subjects of school knowledge. More, however, is at stake here than just an ethnography of those public spheres where individual and social identities are constructed and struggled over. More important is the need to fashion a language of ethics and politics that serves to discriminate between relations that do violence and those that promote diverse and democratic public cultures through which youth and others can understand their problems and concerns as part of a larger effort to interrogate and disrupt the dominant narratives of national identity, economic privilege, and individual empowerment.' (Giroux, 1995: 74)
Hello Guy. I've just listened to the clip. rich. I could dwell on various aspects and points made for a long time. however, a direct question for you -do you encompass critical literacy within your own work? Further,(to be blunt) is it dead in the water?
ReplyDeleteHi,I've never really been in the crtical literacy camp although my take on literacy has always been critical. I have a lot of respect for those who identify with 'critical literacy' - some good friends - but my own work has focused more on the pleasure, potential and voice that can come through in digital literacy. But the more I look at the discourses of 'participation' and 'media literacy' the more I notice a significant absence in the lack of attention paid to the politics. That is: the politics of differential participation and the politics of ownership - ownership of the sites of production rather than the tools of production. So although standard formulations of critical literacy never quite float my boat I have been trying to figure out what a 'critical digital literacy' or a 'critical media literacy' might look like - and they're two phrases I've been using lately...
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