In her analysis, she states that the popular websites she studied have sophisticated syntax and vocabulary and follow SAE grammar rules; in fact, these sites often had more complex sentence structure and vocabulary than the required school texts (55-7). She also notes that the sites incorporate multimodality and intertextuality in ways that are not – but should be – addressed in school. “A reader of this [website] not only need to navigate multiple genres, complex vocabulary, and sophisticated syntactical structures, but must make meaning using images, sound, movement, and juxtaposition between these modes, as well” (59).
She ends by arguing that her study illustrates the following points: (1) “these sites demonstrate the limitation of using websites solely to support existing literacy curricula…[W]e need to address a full range of modalities being used by young people. Likewise, we need to help them understand the ways in which such texts are situated in relation to other texts and contexts” (60); (2) “This analysis points out the limitation of framing websites solely as sources of information” (and not entertainment, identity producing, and/or community building)” (60); (3) “This analysis also points to the powerful intersections that exist between young people’s affinity groups and school-based literacy practices” (61); and (4) “this analysis raises the need to begin addressing the convergence of genres, modalities, and intertextuality to promote consumptions” (61).
Key Terms
- Sociocultural theory: “One of the central contributions of sociocultural approaches to literacy has been the recognition of the relationship between texts and the contexts in which they are produced and used. From this perspective, literacy practices are deeply interrelated with broader social relationships, cultural traditions, economic changes, material conditions, and ideological values…Along with an interest in the relationship between text and context, a socio-cultural theory of literacy recognizes that literacy occurs across many contexts” (51).
- Ideological view of literacy: “literacy practices involve taking on and enacting worldviews that value specific ways of being, knowing, acting, and using language and other semiotic systems” (Street’s definition 52).
- Affinity groups: “globally distributed, temporary groups who affiliate with each other around a central topic or cause, but who may share little else in common” (Gee’s concept 53).
- Critical discourse analysis and semiotics: “This analytic perspective is interested in how multimodal aspects of sites (print, images, movement, sound, etc.) encode values and ideological stances of the websites and their participation in relationships of power. From this perspective, the creation and use of text is socially situated. Thus, to understand texts is to understand how aspects such as grammar and layout serve to locate them within particular circumstance, to relate them to similar texts use in similar contexts, to position writers in relation to others, and to take action in the world” (55).
- Media mix: “where products, storylines, and aesthetics are tied together across a range of virtual and handheld media” (Ito’s concept 60).