Aikuisten kirjoittaminen ja kirjoitustaitotarpeet digitalisoituvassa Suomessa: Adult writing and literacy needs in a digitalizing society, Finland

Although currently mainstream concept of multiliteracy refers to both reading and writing, writing research has been overshadowed by reading research. However, digitalization has shaped the ways of writing significantly and the concept of writing might need a new definition. In this article, we focus on Finnish adults’ beliefs on writing. The data comes from a questionnaire we posted on social media channels (FB) and relevant e-mailing lists to a wide range of recipients. We received 90 responses mostly from adults who write frequently. We analyzed the responses using the content analysis and descriptive statistics. The analysis shows, that participating in the digitalized society requires writing literacy, and even though writing in general has been democratized, the differences in writing literacy can also cause inequality. Respondents recognized the need to develop their writing together with others on different platforms. However, more research is needed on the beliefs of less active adult writers.
Although currently mainstream concept of multiliteracy refers to both reading and writing, writing research has been overshadowed by reading research. However, digitalization has shaped the ways of writing significantly and the concept of writing might need a new definition. In this article, we focus on frequently writing Finnish adults’ beliefs on writing. The data comes from a questionnaire we posted on social media channels (FB) to a wide range of recipients. We received 90 responses which we analyzed using the content analysis and descriptive statistics. The analysis shows, that participating in the digitalized society requires writing literacy, and even though it in general has been democratized, the differences in writing literacy can also cause inequality. The frequently writing respondents also need to develop their writing together with others on different platforms. However, more research is needed on the beliefs of less active adult writers.