Abstract
This book is based on a novel idea, or at least an idea that is novel in thinking about media and digital literacy. It is based on the notion of having an intellectual grandparent. Each of the contributors writes about a man or woman they feel has served as a grandparent in this sense, with the overall intention being to explore the historical roots of digital and media literacy. They do so through a personal narrative concerning their life histories and their encounter with the work of the person chosen; this then becomes intertwined with the historical figure under scrutiny. Following an introductory chapter on media literacy by the editor, the result of this is a set of cross-generational encounters with such assorted scholars and thinkers as Heidegger, McLuhan, Barthes, Bakhtin, Foucault, Allport, Adorno, Marcuse, de Beauvoir, Dewey, Bruner and Barthes. As this roll call may suggest, the history of digital and media literacy is approached in the book from a range of different intellectual positions and academic disciplines. This book certainly provides a fresh way of introducing new readers to key intellectual thinkers, some of whom were writing about media, education, technology and culture a good while before media and communication studies emerged as distinct fields. It is also an entertaining read, with an engaging mix of individual accounts, well-chosen quotation and scholarly discussion. Both old hands and novitiates will find many points of interest in this collection.