Page 135 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS115 Reija H.
3. What are the new literacies, how do they connect to statistics and
why do we need them?
Literacy is traditionally thought of the ability to read and write. However,
the large number of new medias and new technologies has revolutionised
literacy. A new set of skills, approaches and abilities are needed to navigate in
the digital world. Some say that the whole ethos of literacy is different in the
new medias: instead of passively acquiring information, new media
encourages participation and active discussion. Some of the new literacies are
detailed and explained in this chapter.
Some examples of new literacies are media literacy and critical literacy.
Media literacy “builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well
as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a
democracy” (Center for Media Literacy). Media literate individuals can control
the way they interpret things they see in the media – instead of letting the
interpretations control them. Critical literacy comes close to this term. It is
usually defined as an ability to analyse and evaluate different texts (or other
media) and considering what bias, influence or discrimination it might have.
Analysing Internet content, such as memes, critically, can increasingly reveal
structures of social power and influence (Knobel, M. & Lankshear, C. [2007]).
The new medias also encourage exploring statistics in a new way. The
statistics user can create new statistics and viewpoints to each data with
different applications. Using apps requires a different skillset that is not
necessarily related to traditional literacy or statistical understanding. While
obtaining information is getting easier, using it requires new kind of skills. The
term data science skills can be used; another new civic skill along the new
literacies. Engel, J. (2017) illustrates the different components of data science
skills: these are information technology and data handling skills, mathematical
and statistical skills and skills related to phenomenon-based learning. The
ProCivicStat -project and its final report (2018) emphasised the importance of
social context and surrounding society when using and teaching statistics. The
project yielded six key recommendations for this purpose. They are shown in
the table below.

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