Argument Maps as Tools to Support the Development of New Media Literacies: a Systematic Review

Abstract

The post-digital era is characterised by the vast presence of platforms that impose their digital affordances and algorithmic control on our behaviour. This environment is challenging education and training, with implications for digital and transmedial literacy. Investigating instructional methodologies is crucial to fostering critical comprehension of such novel informational environments. Argument maps (AMs), which were first created and evaluated in static information contexts (analogical/old web), could be useful in the emergence of dynamic (post-digital) textual forms. The current paper describes a comprehensive literature review based on the above assumptions. We looked into state-of-the-art research on using AMs to handle dynamic information. We found 150 papers using a PRISMA procedure and then examined 19 of them. Our review produced pertinent data about the current state of AMs, including the types of texts on which they are used and the tools (especially digital and artificial intelligence [AI]-based) that have been employed. Our research lays the groundwork for teaching the literacies needed in new informational settings, such as multimodal, dynamic, algorithmic and data-driven contexts, with a specific focus on AMs as effective mediational tools.

Keywords

• Argument Maps
• multimodal contexts
• post-digital
• new media literacies