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On Printed Matter and Beyond: Media, Orality and Literacy

Kees Epskamp

Den Haag: Centre for the Study of Education in Developing Countries (CESO) (1995), 136 pp.

"In fact this paperback is about narration and about text in whatever form: spoken, written or printed. Or even better, this book is about the importance of narrative art. It therefore invests all kinds of storytelling, not only the person-to-person oral tradition, but also the mediated forms of sto ... rytelling. Is taken for granted that the radio is giving an extra dimension to the spoken word, like books are giving an extra dimension to the printed word, or the cinema or television are connecting texts and visuals again, like woodcut printings have done in the past. Stories from the oral tradition found their way to the mass media like movies, radio and television. Therefore a wide variety of media will be discussed in this book without showing any preference for one medium or another. The focus of interest is more on storytelling then on de media used to tell stories. It is about the athletics of words and the flexible relatedness between the various media. All these media make use of characters to present stories. Therefore characters with stereotyped traits are present in every medium that makes use of narrative or dramatic elements like comic books, photo novels and soap operas. Mass media have been taking over the role of traditional storytelling. Nowadays, it seems as if instead of listening to an individual storyteller, the global community sits down and have stories told by their favourite radio plays and television series like situation comedies and soap series. Some social scientists strongly reject this change in media consumption. They regret the changing patterns in spending leisure time. They regret for example the supposed decline of reading habits which has been considered as an effect of changing media consumption. And they are not the only ones to regret this. On the one hand there are the educationalists worrying about the latest statistics on literacy rates. These figures certainly do not show any worldwide improvements in literacy and numeracy. And there are the publishers too, who regret the declining reading habits. On a global scale the selling of books and other printed matter is at a decline. With an expanding media market, people are spending their leisure time in a more varied way leaving them less time to read. However, despite this conclusion the educational system in whatever country cannot do without a structured transfer of knowledge. And it seems that the most effective medium within the educational system still is the written word, being presented to the people by printed materials. Learning children as well as adults to read and write is the main preoccupation of as many multilateral aid organisations as national governments." (Pages 10-11) more