See also: Multimedia Resources

What is Media Literacy?

Among the most powerful resources educators can give students are tools for analyzing and evaluating information disseminated by today’s media. Critical thinking skills, the means to disassemble and carefully inspect ideas, will serve learners long after they’ve left the classroom behind. Pupils need to be able to think. They need to be savvy media consumers, discerning individuals who are more than ready and able to intercept and counteract cunning manipulations of information. In order to survive and thrive in the 21st Century world of politics, culture, and business, students must acquire and hone the ability to filter obfuscations.

Media literacy is the ability to find, analyze, judge, and disseminate information in a number of differing formats. Being conversant in a variety of information genres prepares students (and educators!) to navigate the challenging landscape of digital resources. New technologies and the demands of converging global information streams are altering our conceptions of what it means to be literate. It's no longer enough for people to be able to read and comprehend. More than ever, being able to locate information, disassemble it into more manageable chunks, verify it's authenticity, and evaluate its merits is key to economic, scientific, political, and cultural success.

Why Media Literacy is Important?

From the Center for Media Literacy

1. The influence of media in our central democratic processes.
   In a global media culture, people need two skills in order to be engaged citizens of a democracy: critical thinking and self-expression. Media literacy instills both of these core skills, enabling future citizens to sort through political packaging, understand and contribute to public discourse, and, ultimately, make informed decisions in the voting booth.
   
   
2. The high rate of media consumption and the saturation of society by media.
   When one considers videogames, television, pop music, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, the internet – even T-shirts! – we are exposed to more mediated messages in one day than our great-grandparents were exposed to in a year. Media literacy teaches the skills we need to navigate safely through this sea of images and messages -- for all our lives.
   
   
3. The media’s influence on shaping perceptions, beliefs and attitudes.
   While research disagrees on the extent and type of influence, it is unquestionable that media experiences exert a significant impact on the way we understand, interpret and act on our world. By helping us understand those influences, media education can help us separate from our dependencies on them.
   
   
4. The increasing importance of visual communication and information.
   While schools continue to be dominated by print, our lives are increasingly influenced by visual images -- from corporate logos to building-sized billboards to Internet websites. Learning how to “read” the multiple layers of image-based communication is a necessary adjunct to traditional print literacy. We live in a multi-media world.
   
   
5. The importance of information in society and the need for lifelong learning.
   Information processing and information services are at the core of our nation’s productivity but the growth of global media industries is also challenging independent voices and diverse views. Media education can help both teachers and students understand where information comes from, whose interests may be being served and how to find alternative views.

What Media Literacy is NOT

From the Center for Media Literacy

The following is a list of ideas to help explore and understand how media literacy is different from other literacies and what are some of the basic elements of a more comprehensive media education.

• Media 'bashing' is NOT media literacy, however media literacy sometimes involves criticizing the media.
• Merely producing media is NOT media literacy, although media literacy should include media production.
• Just teaching with videos or CDRoms or other mediated content is NOT media literacy; one must also teach about media.
• Simply looking for political agendas, stereotypes or misrepresentations is NOT media literacy; there should also be an exploration of the systems making those representations appear "normal."
• Looking at a media message or a mediated experience from just one perspective is NOT media literacy because media should be examined from multiple positions.
• Media Literacy does NOT mean "don't watch;" it means "watch carefully, think critically."