The Internet, World Wide Web, and digital devices have fundamentally changed the way people communicate, affecting everything from business, to school, to family, to religion, to democracy. This textbook takes a well-rounded view of the evolution from media literacy to digital literacy to help students better understand the digitally filtered world in which they live. The text explores digital literacy through three lenses: . Historical: reviews snapshots of time and space to delineate how things were in order to lend context to how they are; . Cultural: explores how values and ideals are constructed and conveyed within a given cultural context - how humans absorb and share the informal rules and norms that make up a society; . Critical: illuminates how social changes - particularly rapid ones - can put certain people at a disadvantage. All three angles are helpful for better understanding the myriad ways in which our identities and relationships are being altered by technology, and what it means to be a citizen in a society that has become individualized and is in constant flux. Written in a conversational and approachable style, the text is easy to navigate, with short chapters, short paragraphs, and bullet points. Comics and images illustrate complex topics and add visual interest. The text is ideal for media literacy, digital information literacy, and technology courses that seek to integrate human impact into the mix. It is also a good starting point for anyone wanting to know more about the impact of communication technologies on our lives.

Contents: Introduction The Book Starts Here - The Evolution of Contemporary Media: Recalling a Collective Past, Sharing a Fragmented Present - The Medium Is the Mass-Age: Revisiting Marshall McLuhan - It Really Is a Thing: The Internet as Infrastructure - If It's Not the Internet, What Is It? The Web as a Collaborative Tool - We're Not Here: The Cultural Consequences of All Me, All the Time - Digital Identity: Options, Opportunities, Oppressions, Impressions - From Neighbors to Followers: Rethinking What It Means to Be Part of a Community - If You Don't Think About It, It's OK: Digital Haves and Have-Nots - The Web at Its Best: A Conduit for Social Movements & Change - This Space for Rent: Corporate Colonialism & Free Speech - Remixes & Mash-Ups: Appropriation of Culture Goes Digital - It's Not Yours: Digital Privacy & Copyright - Can't Put the Genie Back in the Bottle: Now What? - Applied Skills Appendices - Appendix 1 The Web Is More Than Online Paper - Appendix 2 Email Etiquette - Appendix 3 Blogging Guidelines - Appendix 4 Professional Use of Social Media - Appendix 5 The Care and Reading of a URL - Appendix 6 File Management Bibliography Index.