IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jchals/v15y2024i2p29-d1408024.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Communicating for Sustainability in the Digital Age: Toward a New Paradigm of Literacy

Author

Listed:
  • Brian L. Ott

    (Department of Communication, Media, Journalism and Film, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO 65897, USA)

Abstract

Efforts to create a sustainable future require careful and complex thinking, interdisciplinary and cross-organizational collaboration, and effective and ethical communication. However, the structural biases of digital communication technologies foster modes of thought and expression that undermine or impede these necessities. While one possible solution to this problem is digital literacy, the two prevailing paradigms of digital literacy both reproduce the myth of technological neutrality. This myth further inhibits sustainability by wrongly suggesting that digital technologies are appropriate to all communication goals and tasks. As a corrective to these models, I propose a new paradigm of digital literacy, one rooted in media ecology. The adoption of this model, I maintain, allows us to consciously co-create our social world rather than merely inhabit it.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian L. Ott, 2024. "Communicating for Sustainability in the Digital Age: Toward a New Paradigm of Literacy," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-19, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:15:y:2024:i:2:p:29-:d:1408024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/15/2/29/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/15/2/29/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Jacques Hublin & Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer & Shara E. Bailey & Sarah E. Freidline & Simon Neubauer & Matthew M. Skinner & Inga Bergmann & Adeline Le Cabec & Stefano Benazzi & Katerina Harvati & Philip, 2017. "New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens," Nature, Nature, vol. 546(7657), pages 289-292, June.
    2. Brian L. Ott & Carrisa S. Hoelscher, 2023. "The Digital Authoritarian: On the Evolution and Spread of Toxic Leadership," World, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-19, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chu, Angus C. & Xu, Rongxin, 2024. "From Neolithic Revolution to industrialization," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(3), pages 699-717, April.
    2. Fix, Blair, 2017. "Evidence for a Power Theory of Personal Income Distribution," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2017/03, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    3. Enrico Sciubba, 2019. "The Exergy Footprint as a Sustainability Indicator: An Application to the Neanderthal–Sapiens Competition in the Late Pleistocene," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    4. Angus C. Chu, 2023. "Natural selection and Neanderthal extinction in a Malthusian economy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1641-1656, July.
    5. Tisdell, Clement, 2018. "The sustainability and desirability of the traditional economies of Australian Aborigines: Controversial issues," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-8.
    6. Junyi Ge & Song Xing & Rainer Grün & Chenglong Deng & Yuanjin Jiang & Tingyun Jiang & Shixia Yang & Keliang Zhao & Xing Gao & Huili Yang & Zhengtang Guo & Michael D. Petraglia & Qingfeng Shao, 2024. "New Late Pleistocene age for the Homo sapiens skeleton from Liujiang southern China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Delis, Manthos D. & Dioikitopoulos, Evangelos V. & Ongena, Steven, 2023. "Population diversity and financial risk-taking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    8. Sarah E. Freidline & Kira E. Westaway & Renaud Joannes-Boyau & Philippe Duringer & Jean-Luc Ponche & Mike W. Morley & Vito C. Hernandez & Meghan S. McAllister-Hayward & Hugh McColl & Clément Zanolli &, 2023. "Early presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia by 86–68 kyr at Tam Pà Ling, Northern Laos," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, December.
    9. Sylvain Cibangu, 2022. "A Review of Black Skin Research: Gloger Rule/Theory Dead or Alive?," International Journal of Biology, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(1), pages 1-37, November.
    10. Martin H. Trauth & Asfawossen Asrat & Markus L. Fischer & Peter O. Hopcroft & Verena Foerster & Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr & Karin Kindermann & Henry F. Lamb & Norbert Marwan & Mark A. Maslin & Frank Schaeb, 2024. "Early warning signals of the termination of the African Humid Period(s)," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    11. Fix, Blair, 2017. "Evidence for a Power Theory of Personal Income Distribution," SocArXiv qgwus, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:15:y:2024:i:2:p:29-:d:1408024. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.