Digital Literacy and Information Fluency

The Difference Between Digital Literacy and Digital Fluency

Literacy and fluency* have to do with our ability to use a technology to achieve a desired outcome in a situation using the technologies that are available to us. This applies to our ability to use a hammer, nails and wood to build the house that we intend to build:

..and it applies to our ability to use digital technologies to have the intended positive effect on people and situations:

Note that a literate person is perfectly capable of using the tools. They know how to use them and what to do with them, but the outcome is less likely to match their intention. It is not until that person reaches a level of fluency, however, that they are comfortable with when to use the tools to achieve the desired outcome, and even why the tools they are using are likely to have the desired outcome at all.

 

 

 Animal Planet: Mermaids being discovered

Mermaids: The Body Found 

 

Mermaids is a docufiction^[1] that originally aired as Mermaids: The Body Found on May 27, 2012, on Animal Planet and June 17 on Discovery Channel. It tells a story of a scientific team's investigative efforts to uncover the source behind mysterious underwater recordings of an unidentified marine body. The show presents the generally discredited aquatic ape hypothesis as evidence that mermaids exist, along with a digitally manufactured video. A sequel broadcast called Mermaids: The New Evidence aired May 26, 2013

Criticism

Mermaids has been criticized for giving the impression of being an actual documentary, when in fact much of the material was made up, and the scientists shown were actors.^[3] Publicity for the program included a website falsely claiming government seizure of the site's domain, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put up a rebuttal to the program.^[4]

Mermaids: half human, half fish and nothing less than fascinating. But are they real? There isn’t any scientific proof Earth’s oceans are occupied by the mythical creature, yet believers continue to find “proof” of the legendary being exists.
When Animal Planet released “Mermaids: The Body Found” in 2012 and then “Mermaids: New Evidence” in 2013, many netizens went wild about the “mockumentary,” that provided phony evidence. Recently, the hype ignited after story from a blogger on Lifestyle Tabloid claimed two mermaids were found alive in the Nkandla, South Africa.
The site provides a “statement” from Mac Maharaj, the official spokesperson for South African president Jacob Zuma: “The president of the republic, Jacob Zuma, would like to set on record that although the two mermaids were discovered in a pool situated inside his Nkandla homestead, he was not aware of their existence,” the statement apparently read.
The mermaids in the photo have high cheekbones and full lips, giving them the glamorous appearance many imagine the half human creatures would have, and scaly skin and fin make the visual look real, too. The hoax was perpetuated on Twitter where a photo of the mermaid went viral, with more than 8,000 retweets.


Why you think Animal Planet created the website and the series

Animal Planet channel aired a pseudo-documentary entitled Mermaids: The Body Found in the U.S., a purely fictional work dealing with a purported federal coverup of a discovery involving scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that proved the existence of a remnant population of mermaids (described as being an evolutionary offshoot of the "aquatic ape" hypothesis, a generally discounted idea that early Hominid species went through an aquatic phase in their evolution). The program was not fact but rather speculative science fiction, which included obvious CGI-produced video sequences like the one displayed above and actors fictional characters such as "Dr. Paul Robertson, former NOAA scientist." To enhance the pseudo-reality aspect of the program, a web site was established at believeinmermaids.com offering no content other than a opening page hoax proclaiming that the site's domain had been seized by the U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/supernatural/mermaids.asp#zZZEDTzKshYLVyki.99

References

Jump up ^ "Mermaids: The Body Found (press release)". Animal Planet Media. Retrieved 4 July 2012. This two-hour special is science fiction based on some real events and scientific theory.

 

Jump up ^ "Animal Planet Slays With Best-Ever May in Network History". Animal Planet Press Release. Retrieved 2012-05-31.

 

Jump up ^ Jim Vorel (July 17, 2012). "Mermaid body found? No, bad TV". Quad-City Times.

 

Jump up ^ "Mermaids: The Body Found". Snopes.com. May 28, 2013.