Definition of New Literacies

New Literacies are multimodal ways of communicating in the digital world. In comparison with traditional literacies of reading, writing, talking and listening, new literacies can be differentiated by their focus on visual and media modes of communication (McDougall, 2007, pp.130-131).
New Literacies are informed by a new mindset that embodies sharing information to create knowledge. This new mindset is supported by Web 2.0 technologies, such as Facebook and Wikipedia which require collaborative input to achieve their goals (Callow, 2008, p.14).
New literacies enable the re-defining of literacy through technology.
References:

Callow, J. (2008). New literacies, New York & Web 2.0: a little knowledge is a helpful thing! SCAN, 27(4), 13-16
McDougall, J. (2007). Engaging the visual generation : some Queensland teachers come to terms with changing literacies. Screen Education(46), 130-137