The Definitions and Arguments of Literacy :: Technology Literary Works Essays

The word literacy conveys different meanings to different masses. Some people may accept a single definition, while others may develop complex, multi-faceted meanings of the word. This essay explores a broad range of literary definitions, arguments and statistics to convey a cleargonr picture of how people embrace literacy. Throughout this essay, we w ailment focus on three sources the National gift for the Arts (NEA) recently published version at Risk report, and two pieces by Nancy Kaplan, Professor and Director of the University of Balti mores School of Information Arts and Technologies.The Reading at Risk report published in June 2004, proclaims the findings of a Census Bureau survey performed in 2002. Survey participants were asked questions over the telephone about their interpretation habits, participation in civic activities, TV watching and the like. The NEA holds that a gradual decline in reading over the past twenty days has occurred. even off more recently, they claim that a 10% decline has occurred within the past 14 years suggesting a more rapid decline in the years to come (NEA, 2004). According to this report, literacy is defined as the ability to read high quality works, which require increased intellectual capacity, dependent upon a readers education, culture and social skills. The report doesnt mention that reading online, whether news or novels, is acceptable therefore, it would seem that they are ignoring a large percentage of where and how people are doing reading today. In fact, it appears that the NEA supports the notion that with the rise of the Internet, literacy declined as people began surfing in favor of reading literary works, which supposedly require more detailed cognitive skills to absorb.One of the things Reading at Risk does well is offer statistics People who read are 3 times more belike to go to a performance event and 4 times more likely to visit a museum People who watch no TV are 1.475 times more likely to rea d 12+ books per year 59.4% of people who make over $75k a year are literate (NEA, 2004). Yet it discounts groundbreaking mediums, such as the internet, other hypertexts and online publications, a bone of contention for people such as Kaplan. Kaplan holds that traditional society might harbor some ill will toward these online publications and consider them threats, but she goes on to further assert that these texts are growing up with the timesfast-paced, ubiquitous and evolving dynamically (for the better).