Page 154 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report
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a highly enriching contribution that gives rise to the coexistence of different types of writing and enables us to master various registers. It is necessary to teach people to use them effectively and choose the most appropriate one for each message and situation, paying attention to the formal differences they each entail.
• In this regard it is essential to help draw
a clear distinction between writing in
the public sphere, which requires greater formality, and writing in the private sphere, which is more spontaneous and casual.
This figure of the active reader who not only receives content but also creates it individually or cooperatively is also being taken into con- sideration and supported by new developers of digital content, such as Ocho Gallos,151 whose managers are catering to the reader-writer:
Concerning reading-writing, we are interested in the latter playing an important a role as the former with respect to approach to the word. We use interactive tools for this purpose, a natural arena for ludic creation, not as the possibility of pressing buttons in action-reaction mechanics but as a dialogue and provocation. We thus bring out applications in which we constantly explore new narrative geometries and in a sense place the reader on the author’s side.152
Figure 20. Motto of Ocho Gallos (Interactivity is not about pressing buttons, it’s about making the mind part of a creative process). Source: http://ochogallos.com/
As well as offering a host of reading and writing options and practices, the digital realm is
ushering in a new era of orality, lending new importance to the power and immediacy of the spoken word and its ability to convey messages and move listeners. Knowing how to express oneself correctly, clearly and effectively is a core competence all citizens need to learn in order to cope successfully in our society. These skills are likewise essential to any communication strat- egy, be it individual or that of an organisation.
Knowing how to direct messages property requires people trained to put together effective oral discourses and implement them successfully. Speaking and listening, together with reading and writing, also broaden the horizons of any personal or institutional endeavour to secure
a position as mediator or play the role of influ- encer, not only in the commercial sphere but also in education and culture.
An example of the above is the phenomenon
of booktubers and bloggers, who have become consumer motivators par excellence of young people’s literature. This phenomenon has now gone beyond digital boundaries and (as was to be expected) has reached Instagram, another
of the most popular social media with young people, where a new profile has emerged that is gaining ground: bookstagrammers.
Bloggers, booktubers, bookstagrammers... are they different or the same?153 They certainly have a lot in common: they are keen readers and en- joy sharing their tastes and to do so they use the main channels (the social media) through which they usually communicate (though they are most likely do so in their analogue day-to-day life
too). They are notable for the passion, originality and creativity with which they experience and express their love of reading and are examples
of the power of peer-to-peer recommendation (word of mouth is a powerful tool for motivating at any level).
For oral communication is a constant presence in our lives; we speak and listen in all aspects of daily life, from the private to the public realm,
STRATEGIES/APPROACHES FOR GIVING IMPETUS TO READING
Readers in the digital age