School of Culture and Communication - Theses

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Start date: 2014 × Type: Masters Research thesis × End date: 2014 × Author: HARNETT, MATTHEW ×

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    From codex to kindle: exploring the technological mediation of words in the digital era
    HARNETT, MATTHEW ( 2014)
    This thesis argues that like the emergence of the technology of writing in antiquity, digital literacy is also a technology with tremendous cultural, economic, political and cognitive repercussions, and that these technologies partially inform the ways by which contemporary Western society is ordered. The thesis begins by offering a broad definition of ‘literacy’ that takes into account literacy’s potential as a technology to help shape individual understanding of the external world. The first chapter is concerned with exploring the implications of this definition of literacy by investigating how print literacy alters human cognitive function, which in turn affects society more broadly, with particular reference to the work of Ong and Dehaene. It suggests literacy’s influence on the human cognitive system affects the structure of narratives, and that literacy privileges certain modes of cultural consumption over others by reifying cultural artefacts as private property. The thesis goes on to investigate whether emerging digital technologies affect human cognition to the same degree as print literacy, and how this affect may be moderated by cultural forces in the form of digital literature conventions, as well as how digital literacy is taught. An interview was conducted with two University of Melbourne Library staff, who spoke about emerging digital pedagogic practices, as well as the difficulties faced by staff and students in successfully navigating digital systems. It emerged that digital literacy is not yet formally taught, and I suggest that this is one of the largest reasons for the negative conceptions of digital literature as a force of cultural degredation that this chapter explores. Finally, the thesis suggests that – with certain caveats – digital lierature is capable of deepening the conceptual abstration of thought enabled by print literature. It goes on to analyse the implications of this on narrative modes, as well as the economic and political ramifications of digital literature’s lack of physicality.