Training Readers and Writers for a Multimodal and Multimedia Society: Cognitive Aspects

Book excerpt: Contemporary societies have been advancing gradually towards the construction of a model of a literate population. Significant efforts have been made so that most citizens can access various sources today, using their reading and writing abilities, but are we really prepared to face the information age? Is information literacy being promoted from schools? Are individual capabilities being considered? Do we have a true critical literacy? This article collection aims to show an overview of the most recent research; ranging from the individual to the collective, from the subject's competencies and their beliefs, to the way to develop them from school. There is room in this Research Topic for investigations belonging to the linguistic, psychological, and didactic field. This Research Topic aims to address a pressing problem in contemporary world societies. It is proposed to offer various contributions related to critical literacy, in general, and reading and writing. In this sense, research that addresses analog and digital reading, writing processes, academic literacy, and the use of resources such as non-fiction illustrated books to develop critical thinking, will be welcome. But also, and in a very important way, the cognitive processes of the subject will be considered, not only to deal with access to information, but also in the construction of their mental lexicon, an issue that offers the vision of the world of those who are immersed in literacy and in the post-truth era.