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Around the world, the most common definition of media literacy is the ability to “access, analyse, evaluate and use” media. However, media literacy is so much more. It’s the ability to elicit critical thinking and appreciation of media as familiar and global culture through discourse and discovery. Its purpose is to create active participants who are aware of the potential for bias and misrepresentation, recognizing that media forms are used as tools in constructing reality.

Mass media has been defined as “the methods of communication used to reach large numbers of people at the same time---TV, newspapers, radio, films, books and the Internet.” Through accelerated advancement of communications technology, modes of communication are becoming more sophisticated every day making access to ideas more immediate than ever. As global corporations reach further into the world and communications technologies evolve, it is difficult to control people’s access to the media. There comes a responsibility to educate and create media-literate citizens.

For more detail on the topic of Media literacy, see media awareness site

Major topics

  • Understanding the processes involved in critically analyzing and creating media messages
  • The business aspects of mass media such as broadcasting
  • In particular, this includes the business and function of advertising
  • The interaction of media and government
  • The nature of journalism and the problem of media bias
  • The sociopolitical nature of the media's content such as the depiction of social stereotypes and violence.
  • In countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, the development of knowledge related to these topics is often described as understanding key concepts associated with: media languages, media institutions, media representations, media audiences and media technologies.
  • The Scottish Film Council uses a triangle for deconstruction of media texts into three main areas. One side represents text as the product (graphics, written text, sound, or visual),as well as the codes, conventions, values and ideology, and story. Another side of the triangle represents the study of audience; audience perception and appeal. Another side of the triangle represents production; purpose and commercial interests and how the text is constructed.

Benefits of Media Literacy

  • It enables people to gain understanding of the communication media used in their society and the way they operate in contemporary society.
  • It ensures that people learn how to:
      • analyse and critically reflect upon media texts;
      • identify the sources of media texts, their political, social, commercial and or cultural interests, and their contexts;
      • interpret the messages and values offered by media messages;
      • select appropriate media messages based on an assessment of genuine needs and goals;
      • develop competencies for authoring media messages in a wide variety of formats and the knowledge and skills for distributing the message to reach intended audiences.

Issues in Media Literacy Education

  • Educating teachers to teach about and through the media.
  • Education practices tend to be personalized by teachers’ own assumptions about the media, rather than the actual habits and interests of media users.
  • Dispelling the myth that children are non-discriminating receivers of media.
  • Technology and media issues are advancing faster than media literacy curriculum can be written.
  • Invasion of privacy through increasing technological surveillance.

History and dispersal

The leading countries in media education are Australia, South Africa, Canada, and Great Britain, with a growing interest in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Austria, and Switzerland. (Brigitte Tufte)

Media literacy was originally established as an educational tool against the media, protecting citizens from its so-called ill effects and trends. The earliest country known to use this innoculative paradigm was Great Britain in the 1930’s. In the 1960’s, the switch in media literacy was not to dicriminate against the media, but to discriminate within the media and work within popular culture. This was known as the popular arts paradigm. In the 80’s, there came a recognition that the ideological power of the media was tied to the naturalness of the image. Constucted messages were being passed off as natural ones. The concern in media literacy also evolved into the consumption of images and representations, also known as the representational paradigm. David Buckingham (external link) In the United Kingdom and Australia media literacy is a stand alone credit course, as well as part of the Language Arts curricula.

In other areas of Europe, media education has seen many different forms. Media education was introduced into the Finnish elementary curriculum in 1970 and into high schools in 1977. But the media education we know today did not evolve in Finland until the 1990s. Media education has been compulsory in Sweden since 1980 and in Denmark since 1970. In both Nordic countries, media education evolved in the 1980s and 1990s as media education gradually moved away from moralizing attitudes towards an approach that is more searching and pupil-centred. In 1994, the Danish education bill gave recognition to media education but it is still not an integrated part of the school. The focus in Denmark seems to be on information technology. France has taught film from the inception of the medium, but it has only been recently that conferences and media courses for teachers have been organised with the inclusion of media production. Germany saw theoretical publications on media literacy in the 1970’s and 80’s, with a growing interest for media education inside and outside the educational system in the 80’s and 90’s.

In North America, the concept of media literacy as a topic of education first arose in 1978 with the formation of the Ontario Association for Media Literacy (AML). Canada is the foremost country to require media literacy in North America. Every province has mandated media education in its curriculum. The launching of media education came about for two reasons. One reason was the concern about the pervasiveness of American popular culture and the other was the education system-driven necessity of contexts for new educational paradigms. Media education is less widespread in formal schooling in the United States, in large part because there is no central authority making nationwide curriculum recommendations. Each of the fifty states has numerous school districts, each of which operates with a great degree of independence from one another. Media literacy 'caucuses' or 'movements' arise as voluntary efforts by educationalists. In South Africa, the increasing demand for Media Education has evolved from the dismantling of apartheid and the 1994 democratic elections. The first national Media Education conference in South Africa was acutally held in 1990 and the new national curriculum has been in the writing stages since 1997. Since this curriculum strives to reflect the values and prinicples of a democratic society there seems to be an opportunity for critical literacy and Media Education in Languages and Culture courses.

Proponents of media literacy

Further information

Media studies

Medienkompetenz | メディア・リテラシー | Медиаобразование | 媒體素養

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Media literacy".

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