Promoting Literacy In A Digital Age

In the article, Promoting Literacy In A Digital Age: Approaches To Training For Information Literacy, David Bawden and Lyn Robinson present the benefits of literacy in today’s world, even within the advancement of technology. The article promotes the advantages literacy has in a world that continues to move into the future at a high-speed pace, and it argues that information literacy, and other branches of literacy such as, digital literacy, mediacy, and informacy, become a needed base of knowledge, skills and attitudes at various levels. Bawden and Robinson urge to convince the reader that literacy enhances the ability to deal with information in a range of subjects and various situations. The article implies that understanding the concepts of information literacy, digital literacy, mediacy, and informacy, implies that learning was equally broad, varied, and context sensitive. It promotes the idea that literacy is a primary tool to advancing our knowledge in every field of study, and that the advancement of technology was made through literacy.

The article communicates its argument to a broad audience, ranging from any age group that might consider the level of necessity literacy has in today’s digital world. The argument is to convince the audience that literacy remains important to operate the digital world, and the writers use logical-based arguments by including two case studies that supports their argument. The first case study consisted of a training programme in information literacy for the research workers in a multinational pharmaceutical, and the second case involved a summer school working with digital literacy. The case studies express a logo appeal within the article, suiting the logical side of the argument. Carefully, it is explained the studies made to promote literacy in a digital age, and they are presented to be rational for the reader. The studies explain the necessity of literacy within the digital world. The article’s purpose is to prove that literacy is the core to the success of the digitized world, and the authors direct their argument to the general public but most importantly to those that believe literacy is not as important as it once was. The article, through logical senses, desires to prove that literacy is essential in today’s digital age and that training is needed to proceed in the branch of digital literacy.