Network literacy
Today, the way people seek for the information has been totally changed because Internet is developing in a rapid way. The large amount of information has been published from every corner in this world by thousands of Internet user. However, the potential risks being produced when they still enjoy the convenience that Internet brought, such as the reliability of those information. In this way, network literacy being considered as a key capability when people are searching for the information that they want. According to the idea of Miles Adrian that ‘network literacy means recognizing that having the skills to find what it is you think you want, of being able to judge it, to incorporate this, in turn, into your knowledge flows.’ In this essay, I will discuss why and how to complete those criteria, also I will relate it to media making to think about the possible implications of this for the future of professional media maker.
It is well known that network is the sea of information. As the figure1 shows that people may receive a variety of information, which are scientific, intriguing, absurd, violent and pornographic, in the meantime. However, it is not possible for everyone to rationally distinguish the information that may be good or bad. For example, when some people especially young teenagers, are going through the information on the website, they are easily influenced by the information which might contain violent content. As a result, it may have some negative impacts, such as bullying. This example inevitably shows that some people are lack of the skills of judging the information.
In addition, some people may feel the worst thing about today Googling is that even after finding a solution to their problems, they immediately forget those answers because in a way they know they don’t have to remember any information. The way that people get information from Google is not problematic, while the problem is that the people are not able to incorporate with the information and change it to their own knowledge flows. As a consequence, their efforts to make up were in vain. From those two examples, we may know the importance of network literacy, which could help people distinguish and incorporate with information.
Figure1, http://www.CartonStock.com
As I already mentioned above, the Network is filled with massive information. Therefore, having network literacy makes people able to distinguish and pick up useful information. However, how can we do it in a specific way? To some extent, the basic of picking useful messages is Mindfulness. As Howard Rheingold (2012) said that ‘Mindfulness is about becoming aware of how you direct your attention.’ Only people control their attention through searching information process on the internet, they can automatically filter superfluous messages, then to pick up the essence. Figure2 clearly show the process of mindfulness. People need confirm their intention, and then connect brain, body and mind together to think.
Figure2, http://plus.google.com/+HowardRheingold/posts/GMTyuEFHWQ
However, it is not easy to control attention for teenagers, so they are easily lost in the sea of network information. The schoolteachers and parents are required to be able to guide them using network. Teachers may cultivate student’s habit of controlling attention and basic skills of studying with network. For instance, they need know how to search some related materials according one concrete theme in study process. Besides, they need totally concentrate on the intended goal. Meanwhile, the parents must educate their child have a correct morality, which enable them distinguish the unhealthy information.
In addition, we should learn how incorporate with it to build our own database after we already found useful information. Miles Adrian (2007) states that ‘Now, such a sea of information begs the question of how I might find anything of value, particularly given the enormous amounts of material being added daily. This is where tags have become very useful.’ A tag is a keyword which we can utilized in any software system. And people defined the tags by themselves. It is totally different with the taxonomic classification, which used in libraries. The video1 is based on one website called Delicious to show an example about how we tag the information. Through the tags, we can collect some useful articles. Also, we may find other users who bookmarks same page with us, in futher to extend our knowledge by looking their website. Moreover, tags could be used widely in the variety of social network service such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For instance, people could tag information from one of any social network service and share the information to other social networks. In this case, we can research and review the information in any time, anywhere, so that we can build our own database.
Video1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=890pwBT-E-A
Undoubtedly, with the advent of a new millennium and the rapidity with which technology has changed society, the network literacy has tightly connected with media making. In the past, the media workers search the materials by stationing in the library during their planning process. Moreover, if some film or audio makers want to get some inspirations from other’s artifacts, they only can rent sorts of published film or audio to watch. Although the films and audios indeed have high quality, they are limited because there are numbers of innovative individual works around the world. Unfortunately, without advanced network, it is hard to find those individual works.
In modern society, the network provides more possibilities and conveniences of media making for people, who have network literacy, which is define as a ability that can wildly use accounts of implications in it. For instance, there are many useful websites and software about media making boomed in network, such as the Sound cloud, Vimeo, YouTube and so on. The majority of people have seen the videos come from YouTube or Vimeo. Also, there are so many interesting and innovative videos shared by different people on the websites, which offer some inspirations to media workers. However, how we use network literacy taking advantages of it? Firstly, we should intimately utilize the websites by some basic skills such as entering keywords in the seeking area, and sharing the video to other public media or checking the comments which under the video. Then, we need to judge the quality of the video by using some professional knowledge or personal feeling of the media.
In my perspective, the network literacy really contributes to me in terms of making media work. The reason is that I may develop my core competencies in media industry in the future after acquiring more uncanonical and useful Internet recourses. For example, I had watched several of episodes television programs on Internet to find inspiration and illumination before I did the television project in this semester. This is an effective way to assist me to complete my work. I can directly enter the keyword in YouTube because I really confirm my theme, which is a part of network literacy. Beside, I am capable of analyzing the TV program construction via using my professional knowledge. As a result, I integrate my own idea with the essence of construction and contents, which I absorbed in those programs.
Furthermore, I usually browse the social media websites in my daily life, such as Facebook. Lots of people are willing to share their ideas, thoughts or individual works on it. Public participation provides a way to me to quickly access wild range of information, at the same time it is assists me to get more good ideas, and always realize the latest trends which is quite helpful for media making. For example, some amazing photographing often presents a variety of brilliant conceptions to me. I will positively incorporate with the good conceptions and mixing with my own idea in my photographing. Those all examples clearly show how I use network literacy to improve my media making in network epoch.
To sum up, according to the statement of Miles Adrian, I talk about the potential problem which following with the fast development of the network. The parts of people may lose themselves in the sea of massive information. Therefore, they must know the importance of network literacy, and know use some basic skills such as controlling attention, network education, professional knowledge to pick up, judge the information. Also, they need know about Tags which may help people review and absorb useful information. The network literacy also connect with media, we utilize it to acquire incessant ideas from public on internet, making our media projects be more innovative and professional. I believe that the popularization of network literacy must bring more convenient and effective way of education and artistic creation to every individual.
References
Adrian M 2007. “Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge.” Screen Education Autumn.45
Bijl, P.W.J. 2013, “Net Smart: How to Thrive Online”, Communications & Strategies, , no. 90, pp. 153-154,157.
Hackademic101, 2011, ‘Find useful links by building your delicious network’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=890pwBT-E-A
Rex May B 2008, http://www.CartonStock.com.
Rheingold, H. 2012, Net smart: how to thrive online, MIT Press.
Rheingold,H 2012, http://plus.google.com/+HowardRheingold/posts/GMTyuEFHWQ