Orality, Secondary Orality

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Orality, Secondary Orality

• and Post-Literate Society

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Riding the Waves
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Riding the Waves

• Learn to read the waves and know which ones -the
  perfect ones - to catch
• Learn how to catch them
• Learn when to get off before being pulled under
• Learn what it means to be behind the waves -
  being carried out to sea, away from the shore
• Learn what it means to be ahead of the waves -
  having them crashing down upon you

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I am the Lord your God, Who churns up the sea so
that its waves roar. Isaiah 5115
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Just as a surfer needs to learn to read the
waves, we need to learn to read the waves God
sends our way In the providence of God, we are
in the midst of a huge wave that may come roaring
down on top of us if we are not prepared for it.
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The farther ahead we go the further behind we get
!
A look at Secondary Orality...
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We now live in the early part of an age for
which the meaning of print culture is becoming as
alien as the meaning of manuscript culture was to
the eighteenth century. We are primitives of a
new culture... Marshall McLuhan The Gutenburg
Galaxy The Making of Typographical Man 1962
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All values apart, we must learn today that our
electric technology has consequences for
perceptions and habits of action which are
quickly recreating in us the mental processes of
the most primitive men. Marshall McLuhan The
Gutenburg Galaxy The Making of Typographical
Man 1962
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Jim Dator of the University of Hawaii said that
post-literate (soon to be known as
media-literate) cultures emerging around us in
the present -- and looming vastly larger in the
future -- are as different from cultures based on
print as print cultures are from those of oral
societies.
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Since we live within the envelope of the dying
(or marginalizing) print cultures and the rise of
audio-visual ones, Dator said, those of us who
have been conditioned all our lives to think
like a book usually ignore, disparage, or simply
cannot understand those who may learn to think
and to express their thoughts through moving
holographic images... (cont.)
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(cont.) Being so literally brainwashed by
print, we can no longer truly understand the new
cultures that are overwhelming us than we can
truly understand the savage mind of
pre-literate societies we distorted or
destroyed. Jim Dator, Professor Center for
Futures Studies University if Hawaii
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What are these men saying that has implications
for us? Some global, cataclysmic, irreversible
changes are taking place and they are touching
even the literate world we are so familiar
with transforming this world into an unfamiliar
one for many of us. Lets take a look into this
world...
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Name These
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Oral Communicators name geometric patterns by
what they resemble plate, box, piece of
pie Those with even a small amount of education,
though, name them as circle, square, triangle
all learned conceptual ideas!
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Which does not belong?
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Both a saw and a hatchet will work the log, but
a hammer wont. An oral communicator wouldnt
include the hammer as part of the grouping. A
group of tools is conceptual thinking!
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Which does not belong?
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Some oral communicators who associated with
literates were aware that others think
differently. One replied A wise man will say
the cup doesnt belong. When asked what a
foolish man would say, he replied A foolish man
would say the orange doesnt belong.
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We are used to logical thinking. We grow up that
way. It is our default!
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You have ten seconds to read the following list,
tell me which three places you need to visit and
what you need to buy from each place...
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(No Transcript)
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In table 1 you saw a list as an oral
communicator sees our lists -- nothing but a
bunch of incomprehensible symbols!
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Carilah sebuah kisah peribadi yang ada kaitan
dengan hidup anda, atau baca beberapa kisah benar
tentang mereka yang mengalami perubahan radikal
kerana suatu pertemuan dengan Tuhan.
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?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ??? ???? ????? ???? ??? ???
??? ????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ????? ???????? ?????
????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??? ??????? ????
????? ?????
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Esiste qualcuno che capisce veramente a che punto
sei nella tua vita? Trova una storia personale
con la quale ti puoi identificare oppure leggi
qualche storia di persone la cui vita e' stata
radicalmente cambiata da un incontro con Dio.
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Before becoming a businessman and renowned public
speaker, Paul Henderson played professional
hockey for 18 years. He is remembered fondly by
Canadian hockey fans for scoring the winning goal
of the 1972 Canada/Russia hockey series.
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All of these read the same. The first three
paragraphs were probably nothing but
indecipherable symbols and letters to you though.
The way you saw most of these is the way an
illiterate sees our lists, sentences and
paragraphs.
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Poetry is an oral art form -- at least it was
meant to be! Somebody read for us the following
poem by e e cummings...
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(No Transcript)
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grasshopper who,
as we look,
now gathering up into
THE LEAP
arriving as to rearrangingly
become
grasshopper
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This poem, No. 276, takes literacy to its
ultimate. Read as we would normally write it
doesnt make sense. It has to be SEEN AND READ
to be appreciated!
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In a formal survey, one oral communicator was
told Precious metals do not rust. Gold is a
precious metal. Does gold rust? He responded
Do precious metals rust or not? Does gold rust
or not? Precious metals rust. Precious gold
rusts.
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Another was asked In the far North, where there
is snow, all bears are white. Novaya Sembla is in
the North and there is snow there. What color
are the bears? He responded I dont know. Ive
seen a black bear. Ive never seen any others...
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When asked the same question the second time, he
responded To go by your words, they should all
be white.
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One oral communicator was asked Try to explain
to me what a tree is. He responded Why should
I? Everyone know what a tree is. How would you
define a tree in two words? Apple tree, elm tree,
poplar tree...
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Question What would you tell people a car
is? Answer Buses have four legs, chairs in
front for people to sit on, a roof for shade, and
an engine. But when you get right down to it,
Id say -- If you get in a car and go for a ride,
youll find out!
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Question What sort of person are you, whats
your character like, what are your good qualities
and shortcomings? Answer I came here from
Uch-Kurgan, I was very poor, and now Im married
and have children.
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Question Are you satisfied with yourself or
would you like to be different? Answer It would
be good if I had a little more land and could sow
some more wheat.
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Question And what are your shortcomings? Answer
This year I sowed one acre of wheat, and were
gradually fixing the shortcomings.
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Question Well, people are different -- calm,
hot-tempered, or sometimes their memory is poor.
What do you think of yourself? Answer We behave
well. If we were bad people, no one would
respect us.
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Another responded to that same question What
can I say about my own heart? How can I talk
about my character? Ask others, they can tell
you about me. I myself cant say anything.
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When asked what he thought about a new village
school headmaster, a Central African man
replied Lets watch how he dances.
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When we require oral communicators to
respond to our Western teaching style, they
just dont measure up!
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The fact is, in a world of oral communicators, we
are the learning disabled.
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What is your response to what you have just read,
heard, experienced or observed? Do you have any
immediate applications or associations? Now
lets dig a little deeper...
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Listen to what Christian researcher George Barna
has to say about the American situation
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For years we have been exposing Christians to
scattered , random bits of biblical knowledge
through our church services and Christian
education classes. They hear a principle here
and read a truth there, then nod their head in
approval and feel
momentarily satisfied
over receiving this
new insight into their
faith...
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But within the space
of just a few hours that principle or truth is
lost in the busyness and complexity of their
lives. They could not capture that insight and
own it because they have never been given
sufficient context and method that would enable
them to analyze, categorize, and utilize the
principle or truth. The Second Coming of the
Church by George Barna
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He may not have realized it, but George Barna has
discovered the secondary orality of America,
which points to the need for oral, narrative
communication styles.
We need oral communication methodology in our
churches if believers are ever going to be able
to grow, mature and reproduce. We also need the
necessary support structure to augment and
sustain it.
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Maybe this begins to explain why we hear
statements like the following one from many of
our colleagues I work in a literate
environment, my people have some literacy, and
they are heavily influenced by audio-visuals, but
they seem to be oral people Lets continue
digging.
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A new generation is riding the crest of a new
wave. Following the media revolution of the 60s,
the world has changed into a new era that
has been termed Post-Literate.
Post-Literate The West and many emerging
countries are entering the post-literate
information age. In the post-literate world,
learners have a base of literacy, but their
primary means of learning have shifted back to
oral and aural media.
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This new generation learns and processes in terms
of media such as television (drama, news, music,
interactive graphics or text), radio (music,
news, discussion), telephone (often in
conjunction with TV or radio), computer (which
involves basic literacy, but more visuals, icons,
graphics and click skills), etc..
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The Western linear-type thinker has a high
cultural value on Factual Knowledge. This
affects the priority in learning, planning, and
the underlying sense of truth. Truth is seen as
fact. Knowledge is seen as the accumulation of
facts.
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Oral culture, on the other hand, places priority
on relationships which produce a concept of
dynamic truth and not a focus on facts. The
dynamic relational concept of truth is called
Functional Knowledge. This focuses on relational
skills. Truth is seen in terms of personal
integrity and fulfilment of relational and family
obligations.
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The non-literate relational thinker, with a focus
on dynamic truth and functional knowledge, has a
high facility of memory and an active skill of
visual association. This is called Oral Literacy.
The post-literate uses visual skills to process
images and activities more than writing skills.
While the post-literate has an active attitude
toward interactive visual media, his formal
skills in traditional literacy may be weak.
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Post-literate technology assumes traditional
literacy skills, but the typical post-literate is
a Passive Literate. The literacy skills needed
for visual dramatic portrayal on TV or a music
video, for example, are more for perception than
knowledge.
Literacy is assumed and even necessary, but is
not primary. It serves as an adjunct to the
event-oriented dynamic visual world of
interactive media.
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The post-literate tends to favor an oral-aural
learning style, which complements this visual
event-oriented literacy. Thus in many ways the
post-literate is more similar to the non-literate
than is the literate.
The learning and communication preferences of the
post-literate are similar to those of the
non-literate. They process information and make
decisions in similar ways. Both are far removed
from the way a literate person communicates,
processes information, and makes decisions.
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The gospel must be sown from within a culture.
This presents the challenge of how to get inside
a cultural worldview perspective and how to cast
the Good News and all of its implications in
attractive, understandable, meaningful, and
acceptable terms.
A study of cultures and their communication
formats is highly beneficial in knowing how to
effectively communicate cross-culturally.
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Lets take a look at the Gospel filtered by
cultures...
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G N O E O W D S
GODS UNCHANGING TRUTH
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G N O E O W D S
GODS UNCHANGING TRUTH
MY CONTEXT / FORMATTING STYLE
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G N O E O W D S
GODS UNCHANGING TRUTH
MY CONTEXT / FORMATTING STYLE
THEIR CONTEXT / FORMATTING STYLE
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G N O E O W D S
GODS UNCHANGING TRUTH
NOT MUCH OF THE GOOD NEWS IS LEFT UNAFFECTED.
MY CONTEXT / FORMATTING STYLE
THEIR CONTEXT / FORMATTING STYLE
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(No Transcript)
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New Systems of Communications
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The Communication / Information Triangle
Paper
Personal
Digital
Convergent information technology along with
increasing secondary orality (or post-literacy)
has created a new system or process of
communicating, where one element doesnt survive
without the other two. All three must operate in
tandem.
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The Communication / Information Triangle
Paper
Personal
Digital
While one of the fears of globalization was the
disappearance of personal identity and
relationships, one of the projections of
globalization was the claim of a paperless
society. What we have is not a digital world
without paper, but a digital world that needs
paper and intimacy (relationships) as well.
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The Communication / Information Triangle
Paper
Personal
Digital
Convergent digital technology does not replace
old media, nor is it simply added to the old
media. A new, hybrid information system has
emerged that requires the old media systems, as
well as the new. The introduction of one element
must be followed by the other two.
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Dear Daughter...
HI ! I Miss You ! I Love You !
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Remember the game?
Rock Paper Scissors
Each element is distinctly vital...
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The ADMEDIA Project Report on the Future of Media
and Advertising Prepared by the Information
Market Observatory of the European Commission
(1995) http//158.169.50.9510080/imo/en/final_ex.
html
The paperless society at present is a myth
We are presented with a challenge to established
processes, though, with changes emphasizing a
series of very precise procedures triggering a
series of activities both on the senders side
and the receivers...
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The ADMEDIA Project Report on the Future of Media
and Advertising
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The ADMEDIA Project Report on the Future of Media
and Advertising
In addition the reports says that the consumer or
audience plays a major role He or she is not
only a receiver, but has to become active to
receive more information. Therefore
interactivity, creating a dialogue, will be the
most important aspect of this new communication
system...
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The Communication / Information Triangle
Paper
Personal
Digital
Whether it is in communication theory, sales and
marketing practices, education pedagogy, or
social and cultural studies, the picture looks
the same a triangle.
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It is this secondary
orality, brought about by new
media and converging information technologies,
that is cementing together the three sides of
The Information Triangle, creating the
inter-dependency among paper, digital and
personal. The oral is now present in the
literate and what we have is not a collision of
both worlds but a blending of the two...
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The post-literate thinks mosaically instead of
linearly and in terms of hyperlinks. All the
scattered pieces come together to make the whole.
This is the same issue with The Information
Triangle. It is a new system where the various
pieces come together to make the whole. Without
each of the pieces, there wouldnt, couldnt, be
the whole.
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The challenge of increasing illiteracy and
secondary orality is before us and it calls for
the inclusion of the narrative and story in our
communication. Can we adjust our communication
styles and preferences to meet the challenge?