Page 2 - Literacy in the New Media Age

LITERACY IN THE NEW MEDIA AGE

‘In his new book, Gunther Kress shows us that as reading and writing
move from page to screen, literacy is not just as a matter of language but a
matter of motivated multimedia design.’
Jay L. Lemke, City University of New York

In this ‘new media age’ the screen has replaced the book as the dominant medium
of communication. At the same time image is displacing writing and moving into
the centre of communication.
In this ground-breaking new book, Gunther Kress considers the effects of a
revolution that has radically altered the hitherto ‘natural’ relation between the
mode of writing and the medium of the book and the page. Taking into account
social, economic, communicational and technological factors, Kress provides a
framework of principles for understanding these changes and their effects on the
future of literacy.
Kress considers the likely larger-level social and cultural effects of that future,
arguing that the effects of the move to the screen as the dominant medium of
communication will produce far-reaching shifts in relations of power and not just
in the sphere of communication. The democratic potentials and effects of the new
information and communication technologies will, Kress contends, have the
widest imaginable political, economic, social, cultural, conceptual/cognitive and
epistemological consequences.
Literacy in the New Media Age is essential reading for anyone with an interest
in literacy and its wider political and cultural implications.
Gunther Kress is Professor of English Education at the Institute of
Education, University of London, UK. His publications include Before Writing:
Rethinking the Paths to Literacy (Routledge, 1996), Reading Images: A Grammar
of Visual Design (Routledge, 1996), and Learning to Write, 2nd edition
(Routledge, 1994).