Public pedagogies in post-literate cultures

Abstract

In this paper we present a perspective on normalisation that turns on public pedagogies; that is, on ambient, ever-present systems of mediated experience that consciously teach ways of seeing, evaluating, acting, and reacting. Our perspective is further focused by theories of literacy and utopianism. It takes the view that we are in, or at least fast moving towards, post-literate cultures for which instructions to achieve political utopias are grounded in the devices of narrative mnemonics. We demonstrate our perspective using negative discourse analysis and show how narrative elements from extremist manifestos get normalised through the mediations and remediations of mainstream politicians, and through print and broadcast journalism, greatly aided at every stage by the volatile environments of digital media.