The Demand for Digital Literacy: An Antidote for Media Skepticism

Sponsored by Modern Language Association

Recorded on 01/20/2020
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 108

MLA Guide to Digital Literacy book cover.

Social media has made sharing everything from cat videos to manifestos easier than ever. To paraphrase Spiderman, “But with great ease comes great responsibility…” The responsibility to properly evaluate myriad sources. Ellen Carillo, assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, unpacks what it means to read digital media laterally, in short, by reading across the web from site to site, rather than vertically down a single source. Her latest volume, the nuanced MLA Guide to Digital Literacy, extends the practice of digital literacy beyond rudimentary checklists, and gives students the context for why these digital literacy tools are needed in America today.


About the guest:

Ellen Carillo
Associate Professor
University of Connecticut

Ellen C. Carillo is associate professor of English and writing coordinator at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of many articles and books, including, most recently, the MLA Guide to Digital Literacy (2019) as well as Teaching Readers in Post-truth America (2018), A Writer’s Guide to Mindful Reading (2017), and Securing a Place for Reading in Composition: The Importance of Teaching for Transfer (2015).