Digital and Data Literacy:The new essential skills

As the TV industry continues to be enhanced by new, powerful tech, both digital and data literacy are soon to be what basic literacy has meant to employers over the last 100 years - essential to our craft. Before we explore why and what having digitally literate teams means for your business and the wider sector, let’s delve further into these two terms and explore what they actually mean.  

Defining digital literacy 

Digital Literacy is being able to effectively navigate, evaluate, and create content using a range of digital technologies, with confidence. It’s knowing how to write an email; how to create video content; running a digital marketing campaign and everything in between. But it’s more than just practical application - it’s being able to identify suspicious content; understanding how digital privacy works; having knowledge of legal and ethical best practices, and more.

Many of us already have a number of the skills necessary to be digitally literate through our day-to-day lives. What we now need is to apply these skills and knowledge to the AI tools and other emerging technologies relative to our roles. 

That may sound daunting if you don’t have much experience, but it doesn’t have to be. Our recent blog about AI and the TV industry, is a great place to start if you want to know more about how and why you should be exploring these tools. 

Defining data literacy

Data Literacy is in many ways an extension, or the next stage of digital literacy in a world ruled by data-driven algorithms and actions. It’s the ability to understand, evaluate, create, and communicate data as information. 

That means interpreting data correctly, drawing meaningful insights, and making data-driven decisions by understanding data sources, collection methods, analysis techniques, and visualisation tools.

If you want to learn more about data literacy and how it might be used, check out this free video course. Similarly, if you want to know more about digital literacy, Adobe has also released a free video course.

Their impact on your business

In the TV industry, having a practical grasp on digital literacy means being able to leverage digital tools for production, distribution, and audience analytics and engagement. It enables talent to collaborate more effectively, streamline workflows through various tools, and automates repetitive tasks - ultimately saving time and resources so that they can focus on more strategic and creative activities.

Digital literacy is also a key driver of innovation, allowing creative talent to experiment with new ideas, explore new formats, and develop innovative content that stands out in a crowded market. We recently tested ChatGPT’s ability to come up with an original game show format ourselves… with some interesting results!

It’s not just a nice-to-have - without digital literacy we risk becoming susceptible to malicious generated content and disinformation; disconnected from the rest of society; and allow inequality to grow in and outside of the TV industry. 

Like its digital counterpart, data literacy should be seen as more than just a technical skill - it’s a critical tool for both storytelling, strategic planning and competitive advantage in the TV industry. It gives TV professionals data on audience demographics, their viewing habits, and engagement levels that can inform decisions about which shows to produce, when to air, how to market them etc. 

There are concerns over human bias within the data used to train AI being perpetuated by these machine learning tools. Data literacy can help us mitigate these risks by having people onboard who can identify issues in the information. 

Intuition will always be valued in TV, but data literacy is ultimately about making informed decisions backed by solid evidence. The more of your team that can comprehend and use data, the more you can mitigate risks and get a better return on your investment.

The need for digital inclusion 

The effectiveness of a digitally and data literate team can only be as successful as a leader's efforts to create a digitally inclusive team. Digital Inclusion means that everyone has access to affordable technology, the skills to use it and the support to navigate the digital world - no matter their background or circumstances. 

Why is this important?

Let’s think from a business perspective first. What we know about an inclusive business is also true of a digitally inclusive business - a workforce is more innovative, creative, and productive, when all employees have access to digital tools and the skills and support to use them.

Moreover, the industry will rely on digital inclusion to recruit and retain a diverse range of talent to create representative content and tackle bias and cultural insensitivities. By understanding and reflecting the diverse experiences and perspectives of their workforce, indies can produce programming that resonates with a wider audience - improving viewer retention and attracting new audiences to drive overall business success.

But it’s not all about business. As with all matters of inclusion, providing everyone with equal opportunity is a societal imperative. A lack of digital inclusion means that the negative impacts that come with a lack of digital literacy are disproportionately felt by individuals from under-represented groups, like disabled people, those from a less privileged socio-economic background and older people. Fundamentally, it perpetuates inequality and misrepresentation, as well as vulnerability.

Just think about the last ten to fifteen years. So much of our lives have become digitised - media, banking, insurance, healthcare - it’s an almost endless list. It’s arguable that if you don’t own or can’t use a smartphone or computer in today’s world, you’re at a disadvantage. That’s easy enough to understand, right? That same understanding needs to be applied here, so we can ensure no one gets left behind. 

By prioritising digital and data literacy and investing in training for their teams, business leaders not only ensure the success of their businesses but help to forge a better future for our shared society and everyone in it.