Digital Literacies as Socially Situated Pedagogical Processes: Genealogically Understanding Media, Information, and Digital Literacies

Despite the increasing importance of digital literacies for citizens to be able to participate in society, there is little scholarly agreement over what digital literacies entail. This conceptual ambiguity hinders the translation of digital literacies into educational programs and policies that foster citizens’ digital literacies and inclusion. While various authors have attempted to define digital literacy separately and in relation to other concepts, such as information literacy and media literacy, little attention has been paid to the historical backdrop of these concepts. By tracing the historical development of three literacies (media-, information-, and digital literacy), we reflect on how societal demands shaped conceptual frameworks of these literacies and how these conceptualizations are situated within the broader pedagogical systems that aim to enable participation in digital societies. Using a genealogical approach, we explore and describe the changes in definition, understanding, and enactment of the three literacies, which illustrate how these concepts have developed towards the conceptual frameworks we employ today. Based on this analysis, we argue that digital literacies must be flexible to anticipate challenges that result from the rise of new technologies and need to be appropriated within different socio-cultural contexts. We pledge for an understanding of digital literacies as socially situated pedagogical processes aimed at the way citizens appropriate digital practices within their daily lives. This implies shifting away from formulating one-size-fits-all understandings based upon generic uses of digital technologies. Instead, we must appropriate the understandings of digital literacies based upon their socio-technical, cultural, political, economic, and material dimensions.