How to Improve Public Information Literacy in Digital Age

　　Citizens in Cangzhou City, Hebei Province read books by scanning the code desk calendar. Photo by Yuan Liwei (People’s Vision)

　　Wang Qizuo (Xinhua News Agency)

　　From knotting notes to the Internet, the evolution of media is reducing the cost and difficulty of information dissemination. In the digital age, a lot of knowledge is spread through short videos, questions and answers, live broadcasts, etc., which gives the audience the opportunity to learn more valuable information, learn more new knowledge, and stimulate the public’s interest in learning and thinking.

　　According to a report released by China Internet Network Information Center, the number of netizens in China has reached 1.011 billion, of which 888 million watch short videos and 638 million watch live broadcasts. Internet applications and services have gradually built a new form of information and knowledge dissemination in the digital society. At the same time, information and knowledge such as fragmentation, homogenization and excessive commercialization have also increased. Experts said that we should promote the standardized development of the media, improve the public’s information literacy, knowledge literacy and adaptability to the digital society, and establish a correct sense of values and responsibility in the digital society.

　　The threshold for learning new knowledge is gradually decreasing.

　　“‘ Crab is strong ’ How was your day? " "Did it shell successfully" … … During that time, Yu Xiansheng, an employee of a company in Guangzhou, always left a message under the short video released by the creator "Neptune Frank" urging him to update the video.

　　It starts with a video about crabs. A crab was used to feed the white dog shark, but it was lucky to escape, but it lost eight legs and a pair of pincers, and its abdomen was cut open. Yu Xiansheng said, "I didn’t know until I watched the video that crabs, as crustaceans, have to shell if they want to be reborn. This crab is seriously injured, and the success rate of shelling is almost zero, but it has a good appetite, which aroused my great interest. Can it work miracles? "

　　Yu Xiansheng then began to pay attention to this video called "The Story of Crab’s Strength". Every day, he watched crabs feasting on barnacles, shrimp meat, fish pieces and so on, and listened to the creators’ explanations on crab’s living habits. In the end, "Crab Strong" succeeded in shelling with tenacious willpower, and all the legs and claws grew out, and there were beautiful patterns. Yu Xiansheng sighed: "Miracles will only happen to guys who don’t give up. After watching this group of videos, I not only learned a lot about marine life, but also feared life and was more calm in the face of setbacks. "

　　Knowledge carries people’s yearning and pursuit for a better life. In recent years, with the development of social network platform, the threshold for the public to create knowledge and learn new knowledge has gradually decreased, and vivid, intuitive, easy-to-understand short videos, interactive questions and answers, live reading and other forms of communication have become important channels for knowledge dissemination.

　　Interactive Q&A also promotes knowledge sharing. Chen Fei, who has just engaged in financial work, has many questions about the workplace, but she didn’t know who to turn to for help before. "As a financial officer, what misconceptions did you find before you entered the business?" "Where is the gap between financial experts and ordinary accountants?" "What are accounting freshmen looking for in their first job?" … … By chance, Chen Fei found an answer named "Uncle Cat" on the website. Her answers to financial and workplace topics made her suddenly enlightened, and she made rapid progress in her work. Chen Fei said that the answer of "Uncle Cat" is grounded, like an industry elder chatting with you.

　　Reading can also be broadcast live. "I want to fly to Mars when I grow up, and I also want to travel around the world by supersonic train. Can my dream come true? " A 7-year-old child asked Qian Yonggang, the son of Qian Xuesen, a live online activity to promote the youth book The Answer. Qian Yonggang replied that although these dreams are out of reach today, with the development of science and technology, there is always the possibility of realizing dreams. In the highly competitive field of live broadcast, these modes of live broadcast reading, reading by listening to books and reading by punching cards created by the platform in conjunction with the media, writers and celebrities have become the new trend of digital reading.

　　"In different periods of the development of the Internet, the organizational logic of knowledge dissemination has evolved from content aggregation to intelligent interconnection, and the presentation form of knowledge has changed from structured ‘ Official text ’ Turn to unstructured ‘ Informal text ’ 。” Chen Changfeng, executive vice president of Tsinghua University School of Journalism and Communication, said that from portals and search engines to social networking platforms and online encyclopedias, to short videos, questions and answers, and live broadcasts, the channels and forms of knowledge dissemination are constantly changing, and audience interaction and participation are getting higher and higher.

　　Knowledge popularization is the basis of improving information literacy.

　　Compared with the traditional mode of obtaining information and knowledge through books and articles, knowledge dissemination in the digital age is showing many new features.

　　The content of communication is interesting, popular and practical. In the era of mobile Internet, information dissemination is short, flat and fast, and the corresponding dissemination content is required to attract the audience’s "eyes" and stimulate the sense of gain and emotional resonance. Qin Yue, the head of the business development department of Anhui Publishing Group Times Publishing Media Co., Ltd., is a senior commentator on Zhihu’s website, and likes to express his feelings, thoughts and accumulation in words. In his view, the creative process of the article is not complicated, and the key is thinking and accumulation. "Just like seeing something at work, people have different ways to deal with it, and there are reasons behind it. Only put these ‘ Dry goods ’ Expressed in popular words, people can practice it after reading it, and it can resonate. "

　　The subject of communication is more diverse. From the general public to experts and scholars, and then to professional institutions to join the team of creators, knowledge production is becoming increasingly lean. An Senyao is a creator of short videos of popular science knowledge. His popular science content involves geography, history, linguistics, anthropology and other disciplines. His interesting design and popular narration have made him have millions of fans on the Internet, and the short videos have also been moved into middle school classrooms. In his view, one advantage of fragmented reading is to stimulate the audience’s interest in learning, because the premise of learning systematic knowledge is often something fragmented and interesting.

　　The form of communication is more novel and interactive. The creator "Frank Neptune" mentioned above likes to raise fish, shrimps and crabs since childhood and works as an electrical engineer in a company. He used his spare time to breed freshwater creatures at home, and shared the interesting stories of raising them on the Tik Tok platform. Now he carefully observes animal activities every day. When encountering problems, he teaches himself about marine life, consults professional books, answers questions raised by netizens and requests for identification of marine life. He said: "A lot of my knowledge comes from practice and discussions with netizens. It was only during the breeding process that I learned about the interesting behaviors of many animals."

　　Of course, any technology is a double-edged sword. With the lowering of the threshold of knowledge creation, some problems are also prominent. Some creators implant advertisements and live broadcasts in short videos, which greatly reduces the trust of video content; Some creators rely too much on personal life experience, and their knowledge reliability is not strong. The contents produced by some professional institutions are too abstruse and single in form. In order to maintain the "popularity", some creators publish standardized and stylized content, which makes the audience prone to aesthetic fatigue … … Especially the teenagers who grew up with the new generation of digital tools, they have great advantages in information technology, but at the same time they also show some problems such as weak self-binding, indulging in the network and releasing network information irresponsibly.

　　Some audiences are worried that being addicted to the Internet for a long time and acquiring information and knowledge through fragmented reading may lead to being trapped in the "information cocoon room", lacking deep thinking ability and making it difficult to enter a higher-level knowledge system.

　　"In the case that the whole people become communicators, the knowledge and information disseminated by various platforms are mixed and need to be distinguished by the audience. The more developed the media is, the more the audience needs to improve their ability to understand and distinguish knowledge and information. This is information literacy. " Chen Changfeng said that the popularization of knowledge in the digital age is the basis for improving information literacy, but knowledge promotion and literacy formation are not necessarily in direct proportion. Only by internalizing knowledge into the ability to understand society and carry out socialized practice can a person’s information literacy be truly improved.

　　Be a lifelong learner in the information society.

　　Every stage has a stage of media, and any influential technological innovation will gradually create a new information and knowledge dissemination environment. When digital technology deeply affects the public’s spiritual life, can the audience learn effectively in the environment of information and technology? Can you use information effectively and master basic research methods and learning skills? These are important indicators to measure the level of information literacy.

　　"Simply put, a person with information literacy is a person who knows how to practice lifelong learning in the information society." Wu Di, a professor at Huazhong Normal University, said that information literacy has become the necessary thinking and ability of the audience in the digital age. The audience needs to know how to learn in the digital age, how to organize knowledge, how to find information and how to use it, and how to prepare for lifelong learning, and always find the information needed for making decisions.

　　Some people think that the development of media in the digital age leads to the audience’s lack of deep thinking ability and lifelong learning will. Chen Changfeng doesn’t think there is a necessary causal relationship between them. "The audience needs to acquire enough knowledge through the media and gradually systematize it in order to have more possibilities for thinking." She suggested that the communication platform should bear corresponding responsibilities, carry some fragmented knowledge with systematic design, enhance more people’s interest in learning, and open the door to deep thinking and deep learning. For the audience, it is necessary to cultivate the habit of lifelong learning, have the spirit of delving into the fields of interest, and gradually cultivate the thinking ability based on strict reasoning and scientific exploration.

　　"It is urgent to cultivate the information literacy of the audience, especially young people." An Senyao believes that in addition to knowledge dissemination, professional institutions, platforms and creators should bear corresponding social responsibilities, so that more teenagers can correctly understand the value of information, learn to use information, accumulate knowledge, understand the methodology and values of induction, falsification and research, and cultivate the scientific spirit of seeking truth.

　　"Reading at ten o’clock" is a platform to recommend books and lead the audience to read books. From the pictures and texts of WeChat WeChat official account to audio audio books, and then to the live recommendation books of WeChat video numbers, the reading boundaries are constantly widening. Ya Jun, editor-in-chief of the "Ten-Point Reading" platform, said that the platform can spread to the audience in layers to meet the differentiated reading needs of readers. As an audience, we should do a good job of positioning ourselves and know what we want, otherwise we will easily get lost in massive information and stay in shallow reading.

　　Qin Yue believes that in the creative era, the audience should not just be the audience forever, but also try to participate in it and gradually become the creators and content exporters. This requires the audience to think more at ordinary times, pay attention to accumulation, read more professional books, and constantly update their knowledge base, so that they can gradually achieve ease in the digital society.