The subject of blogging as a form of new media provokes strong responses from many, particularly those who work in the newspaper industry. David Horsey, a columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, posed this question to his readers on December 30, 2007, and (perhaps ironically, perhaps not) asked them to post their responses to the online forum:

“Unquestionably, there are good things resulting from the democratization of the media. The best bloggers are delving into issues and information that may be bypassed by professional journalists. But with everyone holding a virtual megaphone, will we be able to hear the wiser voices amid the din of full-throated free expression?”

His question goes to the heart of what I believe is an exciting new territory for media and education—the posts held by the gatekeepers of traditional print-based media have been knocked down and the result—the democratization of media—causes many people to shift uncomfortably in their chairs. Should everyone really have a voice? Does every opinion on local politics, climate change, government conspiracy, popular culture, and practically anything else you can imagine really warrant a forum for expression? And (the question which most interests me) what are the implications of these practices on teaching media literacy?

To explore these and other questions, I have created a blog. In creating this blog, I hope to engage in a meta-analysis of blogging as a cultural phenomenon and reflect and explore the theory and practice of this emerging new digital literacy. My blog will also include reflections on new literacy studies and educational theory and practice. I will explore the resources available on the internet for teachers to engage with digital literacies, especially blogging, and will include links to other blogs and websites that help to support or complicate my own theories on the topic.

The process of creating a blog and linking to other websites has already activated a new literacy for me—the intertextual and multi-modal nature of this practice is different from any literacy practice I have engaged in before, yet requires a competence in the skills found in the traditional, print-based literacy practices of the classroom in order to deliver my message effectively. Intertextuality and multi-modality are two terms that are discussed at length in the current research digital literacy that I hope to explore even further throughout the course of this project. My project will involve tying the practice of blogging and my personal experience with it to the conceptual frameworks posed by digital literacy theorists such as: Gee, Oravec, Lewis and Fabos, Stone, Knobel and Lankshear, Luke, the New London Group, and other yet-to-be-read theorists from our Digital Literacies seminar.

This project is particularly relevant for me because I work as an educational curriculum specialist for two Seattle newspapers, and am constantly exploring new ways to engage students with media literacy. I see blogging as a tool that is ripe with potential for activating students’ prior knowledge and engaging them with the practice of journaling and writing for different audiences. I also believe that it is a practice that is becoming more and more common in the digital age and that is—for better or for worse—changing the face of journalism as we know it. Our students will someday be the future taste-makers, meme-warriors, culture-jammers, or gatekeepers of our media landscape; teaching them to think critically about democracy, media and messaging today is the most important step we can make towards helping them navigate a future that is certain to be as complicated, intertextual, shifting and exciting as our present.