Reading literacy in the age of digital technologies1

Abstract

Abstract The article outlines the basic contours of the current debate on literacy. Since the start of the millennium, the determining and dynamising factor in this debate has been information and communication technologies. The aim is to observe whether, and how, reading literacy, an important target category in education, is changing in this new reality. In the first part, the paper shows how the above questions are perceived and discussed in the field of relevant scientific disciplines from different points of view. In the second part, the research findings showing the risks and negative impacts of technologies are interpreted through the lenses of contemporary research on “new” literacy. Empirical research on specific aspects of online reading strategies and traditional print media reading are analysed and discussed in light of their contribution to reading literacy theory and education.