A New Communication Order: Researching Literacy Practices in the Network Society

Integral to the New Literacy Studies (NLS) is an understanding of the need to move beyond narrowly defined explanations of literacy to ones that capture the complexity of real literacy practices in contemporary society. Literacy needs to be conceived within a broader social order, what Street and others have called a 'new communicative order'. Significantly, this new order takes account of the literacy practices associated with screen-based technologies. It recognises that print-based reading and writing is now only part of what people have to learn to be literate. After a brief introduction, the first section discusses some of the important characteristics of the new communication order. This provides a context for an overview of research in the field of literacy and technology studies consistent with the NLS view of literacy as a set of social practices. Particular attention is given to the theoretical and empirical aspects of the Australian Digital Rhetorics study which investigated the interface between literacy, technology and student learning. Finally, possibilities for further research, informed by the notion of literacy as social practice, are considered. The challenge is to devise research initiatives that will inform effective practice, mediated by new information and communication technologies, at all levels of education.