copyright © orville boyd jenkins 2000, 2005 last updated 6/2/2014 secondary orality in a...

Copyright © Orville Boyd Jenkins 2000, 2005 Last Updated 04/10/23

Secondary OralityIn a Post-Literate Society

Orality and Post-Literate Culture

• Orality and Post-Literate Culture

A new generation is riding the crest of a new wave.

Communication formats have changed.

Following the media revolution of the 60’s, the world has changed into a new era that has been termed:

Post-Literate.


Post-Literate

The West is well into the post-literate information age.

Many emerging countries are likewise rapidly entering the post-literate age.


Post-Literate

In the post-literate world, learners have a base of literacy, but their primary meansof learning have shifted back to oral and aural media.


This new generation learns and processes in terms of media such as

television (drama, news, music, interactive graphics or text),

radio (music, news, discussion), telephone (often in conjunction with TV or radio),


This new generation learns and processes in terms of media such as

computer (which involves basic literacy, but more visuals, graphics and click skills),

etc.


In post-literate society, writing and reading are still of value, but only as they facilitate manipulation of other media.


There are differences in thought format between literate, “linear” thinkers and

oral, or postliterate thinkers.

The Western linear-type thinkerhas a high cultural value on Factual Knowledge.


The Western linear type thinker has a high cultural value on Factual Knowledge.

This affects the priority in learning, planning, and the underlying sense of truth.

Truth is seen as consisting in facts –Specific descriptive statements about an

objective, perceivable reality.


Truth is seen as consisting in facts –Specific descriptive statements about an

objective, perceivable reality.

Knowledge is seen as the accumulation of these facts.


Oral culture, on the other hand, places priority on relationships, which

produces a concept of dynamic truth and not a focus on facts.

This dynamic relational concept of truth is called

Functional Knowledge.


Oral culture relationships dynamic truth not facts

Functional KnowledgeThis focuses on relational skills.

Truth is seen in terms of personal integrityand fulfilment of relational and family obligations.


The non-literate relational thinker-- with a focus on dynamic truth and

functional knowledge – has a high facility of memory and an

active skill of visual association. This is calledOral Literacy.


The post-literate uses visual skills to process images and activities more than

writing skills.

While the post-literate has an active attitude toward

interactive visual media, formal skills in traditional literacy may be weak.


The post-literate may not have the high memory capacity of the traditional oral non-literate, due to the lack of emphasis on memory power in the broader dominant literate society.


Post-literate technology assumes traditional literacy skills, but the

typical post-literate is a

Passive Literate.

The literacy skills needed for visual dramatic portrayal on TV or a music video, for example, are more for perception than learning or self-

expression.


Literacy is assumed and even necessary, but is not primary.

It serves as an adjunct to the event-oriented dynamic visual world of interactive media.


The post-literate tends to favor an oral-aural learning style, which complements

this visual event-oriented literacy.

The post-literate places a higher value on relationships and interaction than the

traditional literate society, similar to oral cultures.


Personal experience is more important than objective fact and established

knowledge.

Thus in many ways the post-literate is more

similar to the non-literate than is the

literate.


The learning and communication preferences of the post-literate are

similar to those of the non-literate.

They process information and make decisions in similar ways.

Both are far removed from the way a literate person communicates, processes

information, and makes decisions.

Communication must make sense in the worldview of a culture.

This presents the challenge of how to get inside the cultural worldview perspective andhow to cast your message in attractive, understandable, meaningful, and acceptable terms.


A study of cultures and their communication formats is highly

beneficial in knowing how to effectively communicate cross-culturally.