Media literacy

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Overview

There are four important skills that help the viewer or reader understand the meaning: accessing media, analyzing content, being able to evaluate messages, and being able to create media for self-expression and communication.[2] Media literacy typically lends itself to a deeper meaning and analysis of the work, not necessarily just a direct understanding of fact represented in the work. Media literacy also concerns the ability to identify when there is a problem that impacts democracy, thus allowing the public to generate its own opinion, which can influence society.

Media literacy education for children and youth is intended to promote awareness of media influence and create an active stance towards both consuming and creating media.[3] By teaching children to have a critical eye toward media, they learn how to interpret information and communicate more efficiently, which could impact their everyday lives. Media literacy education is part of the curriculum in the United States and some European Union countries, and an interdisciplinary global community of media literacy scholars and educators engages in knowledge sharing through scholarly and professional journals and national membership associations. In some countries and locations, however, teachers lack appropriate qualifications and the application of best practices is deficient. 

Education

The terms 'media literacy' and 'media education' are used synonymously in most English-speaking nations. Many scholars and educators consider media literacy to be an expanded conceptualization of literacy. In 1993, a gathering of the media literacy community in the United States developed a definition of media literacy as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a wide variety of forms.

Media literacy has a long history and over the years a number of different terms have been used to capture the skills, competencies, knowledge and habits of mind that are required for full participation in media-saturated societies. In England, the term "media education" is used to define the process of teaching and learning about media.[5] It is about developing people's critical and creative abilities when it comes to mass media, popular culture and digital media. Media education is the process and media literacy is the outcome, but neither term should be confused with educational technology or with educational media. When people understand media and technology, they are able to access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of media, genres, and forms.[6]

Education for media literacy often uses an inquiry-based pedagogic model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, hear, and read. Media literacy education provides tools to help people critically analyze messages, offers opportunities for learners to broaden their experience of media, and helps them develop creative skills in making their own media messages.[7] Critical analysis can include identifying author, purpose and point of view, examining construction techniques and genres, examining patterns of media representation, and detecting propaganda, censorship, and bias in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for these). Media literacy education may explore how structural features—such as media ownership, or its funding model[8]—affect the information presented.

In North America and Europe, media literacy includes both empowerment and protectionist perspectives.[9] Media literate people should be able to skillfully create and produce media messages, both to show understanding of the specific qualities of each medium, as well as to create independent media and participate as active citizens. Media literacy can be seen as contributing to an expanded conceptualization of literacy, treating mass media, popular culture and digital media as new types of 'texts' that require analysis and evaluation. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation (especially through commercials and public relations techniques), and understand the role of mass media and participatory media in constructing views of reality.[10]

Media literacy education is sometimes conceptualized as a way to address the negative dimensions of mass media, popular culture and digital media, including media violence, gender and racial stereotypes, the sexualization of children, and concerns about loss of privacy, cyberbullying and Internet predators. By building knowledge and competencies in using media and technology, media literacy education may provide a type of protection to children and young people by helping them make good choices in their media consumption habits, and patterns of usage.

Theoretical concepts for media literacy education[edit]

A variety of scholars have proposed theoretical frameworks for media literacy. Renee Hobbs identifies three frames for introducing media literacy to learners: authors and audiences (AA), messages and meanings (MM), and representation and reality (RR). In synthesizing the literature from media literacy, information literacy, visual literacy and new literacies, she identifies these core ideas that form the theoretical context for media literacy. [12]

David Buckingham has come up with four key concepts that "provide a theoretical framework which can be applied to the whole range of contemporary media and to 'older' media as well: Production, Language, Representation, and Audience."[5] These concepts are defined as follows:

Production[edit]

Media texts are consciously made.[5] Some are made by individuals working alone, just for themselves or their family and friends, but most are produced and distributed by groups of people often for commercial profit. Economic interests and the generation of profit are often at stake in media production.[5]

Representation[edit]

The notion of 'representation' is one of the first established principles of media education. Media offers viewers a facilitated outlook of the world and a re-representation of reality. Media production involves selecting and combining incidents, making events into stories, and creating characters. Media representations allow viewers to see the world in some particular ways and not others. Audiences also compare media with their own experiences and make judgements about how realistic they are. Media representations can be seen as real in some ways but not in others: viewers may understand that what they are seeing is only imaginary and yet they still know it can explain reality.[5]

Audience[edit]

Studying audiences means looking at how demographic audiences are targeted and measured, and how media are circulated and distributed throughout. It looks at different ways in which individuals use, interpret, and respond to media. The media increasingly have had to compete for people's attention and interest because research has shown that audiences are now much more sophisticated and diverse than has been suggested in the past decades. Debating views about audiences and attempting to understand and reflect on our own and others' use of media is therefore a crucial element of media education.[5]

To elaborate on the concepts presented by David Buckingham, Henry Jenkins discusses the emergence of a participatory culture, in which our students are actively engaged.[13] With the emergence of this participatory culture, schools must focus on what Jenkins calls the "new media literacies", that is a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape.[13] In the new media literacies we see a shift in focus from individual expression to community involvement, involving the development of social skills through collaboration and networking.[13]

Jeff Share (2002) has categorized the different approaches to media education to fit into 4 different areas. These are the protectionist approach, media arts education, media literacy movement, and critical media literacy (of which he is an advocate). The protectionist approach views audiences of mass media as dupes of the media, vulnerable to cultural, ideological or moral influences, and needing protection by education. The media arts education approach focuses on creative production of different media forms by learners. The media literacy movement is an attempt to bring traditional aspects of literacy from the educational sphere and apply it to media.

Empowerment and protection approaches[edit]

Empowerment and protection are complementary strategies for media literacy education and are fundamentally linked together.[14] Beginning in the 1930s, media literacy educators recognized the need to increase appreciation for quality media content. Edgar Dale's film appreciation movement embodies the concept of empowerment, helping a generation of students learn how to critically analyze film in the context of English education. By the 1970s, awareness of the impact of media influence on children's behavior increased the focus on building students' awareness of the impact of media violence, including concepts like desensitization, to help students recognize and resist the messages that make violence look heroic, justified and appealing. The Center for Media Literacy's MediaLit Kit (TM) embodies the values of the "empowerment through education" approach to media literacy. [15] Common Sense Media's media literacy curriculum, which emphasizes internet safety, information literacy, cyberbullying and digital drama, creative credit and copyright, self-image and identity, privacy and security, digital footprint and reputation balances the empowerment and protection approaches.[16]

Media arts education[edit]

An arts-based approach to media education falls into related but distinct traditions. A longstanding emphasis is associated with traditions of film education, which typically place a central focus on film as an art-form, on its aesthetic and cultural value, and on the creative processes of young people's film-making. A study commissioned by the European Commission, led by the British Film Institute, shows how these values are generally supported across European countries.[17] In spite of such support by educators, however, the study shows that most European countries allocate few resources or curriculum emphasis to film education. More generally, a media arts approach has been developed as a cross-curricular model, most conspicuously in a group of UK schools adopting the UK government's 1997 option to specialize in media arts, an approach documented by Andrew Burn and James Durran.[18] This account exemplifies how creative production work in media art forms such as comicstrip, animation, television, film and videogames promotes the cultural, critical and creative aspects of media literacy. It also models the use of the media arts beyond the literacy curriculum, in subjects such as Geography and Science. Meanwhile, a third strand of media arts work foregrounds the digital aspect of contemporary media arts, associating creative media production with programming and computer science.[19]

Critical media literacy[edit]

Critical media literacy is defined originally by Douglas Kellner and Share in "Critical Media Literacy is Not an Option", as "an educational response that expands the notion of literacy to include different forms of mass communication, popular culture, and new technologies. It deepens the potential of literacy education to critically analyze relationships between media and audiences, information, and power. Along with this mainstream analysis, alternative media production empowers students to create their own messages that can challenge media texts and narratives."[20] Critical media literacy aims to analyze and understand the power structures that lay within the media and understand the underpinnings of the politics that go into representation of gender, race, class and sexuality in the media. This approach is different than "media literacy" because it critically works to understand that there are dominant power structures that audiences work to make meaning between the dominant, oppositional and negotiated readings of media.[20]

Within society there are many different ideologies operating in media culture at any given time. Stuart Hall argues that ideologies exist in every aspect of life and are not separate and isolated. Ideologies are understood by the individual but created collectively. Critical media literacy examines ideologies that govern social institutions, government, and lived lives.[21] The benefit of a critical media literacy approach is that audiences engage with and analyze dominant readings and codes within media and contribute to a better understanding of the world's "social realities".[20] Instead of taking a mediated image at face value, the reader can understand the history and the characteristics of the image and make meaning in various ways.

People often use the skills of critical media literacy without even noticing while watching television, using social media, reading books, listening to music, etc.. Critical media literacy allows people to interpret the messages conveyed onscreen and apply them to their lives. By using this strategy, critical media literacy contribute to social change and activism. As stated by Douglas Kellner in Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture, "The gaining of critical media literacy is an important resource for individuals and citizens in learning how to cope with a seductive cultural environment. Learning how to read, criticize, and resist sociocultural manipulation can help one empower oneself in relation to dominant forms of media and culture."[22] There are multiple different ways that individuals can analyze, interpret, and evaluate media texts, specifically critical visual analysis and audience research. Critical visual analysis is different then visual analysis because of its interdisciplinary way of critical analyzing the frame of reference of a visual artifact and the power structures that are embedded in it.[23] This is a great way to utilize critical media literacy in the classroom. As for an example of audience research, Kellner says "Fandoms of all sorts, from Star Trek fans ("Trekkies"/"Trekkers") to devotees of various soap operas, reality shows, or current highly popular TV series, also form communities that enable them to relate to others who share their interests and hobbies."[22] Audience reception is important within critical media literacy because it offers the understanding that the audience will take in various forms of media and make meaning of them. A viewer is different than the audience because a viewer is just an individual who makes meaning, where the audience is a collective whole.[24] The differences comes into play when one does research using the skills of critical media literacy. In order to understand a piece of media it is absolutely essential to make meaning of the audience and ask questions of who is this targeted at, focused on, and who is viewing it.

As interventions[edit]

Proponents of media literacy education argue that the inclusion of media literacy into school curriculum promotes civic engagement, increases awareness of the power structures inherent in popular media and aids students in gaining the necessary critical and inquiry skills needed in today's society. Educators have argued for decades that teaching media literacy in the classroom is crucial in shaping critical thinkers, well-informed citizens and conscientious consumers.[25] There is a growing body of research focusing on the impacts of media literacy on students. In an important meta-analysis of more than 50 studies published in the Journal of Communication, media literacy interventions were found to have positive effects on knowledge, criticism, perceived realism, influence, behavioral beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior.[26]

As student health interventions[edit]

The critical thinking skills that are often the basis of media literacy education can be utilized to decrease substance abuse in adolescents. A correlative study examined the relationship between skills commonly taught in media literacy programs, specifically the ability to critically deconstruct media messages, and adolescent's intent to use substances.[27] The study found that students who were better able to critically examine and decode media messages reported that they were less likely to use drugs and alcohol in the future. Given that youth exposure to media that features substance use can predict the likelihood of alcohol and drug use,[28] the findings suggest that media literacy programs may be a valuable tool for preventing harmful adolescent health behavior.

Furthermore, media literacy education has been shown to be a valuable tool in combatting childhood obesity and promoting healthy consumer habits.[29] 140 fifth grade Taiwanese students participated in a study that examined the effects of a food advertising literacy program on food purchasing habits. Lessons included in the media literacy program introduced marketing strategies surrounding food advertisements, learning how to evaluate the nutritional value of advertised foods and encouraging students to use marketing tactics to promote healthy food among their peers. The results of the study found that compared to students who did not receive the program, students who had completed the food literacy program showed significantly greater improvements in nutritional food knowledge, food purchasing behavior and food advertising literacy. However, after a 1-month follow up students showed a decrease in the above-mentioned categories.

As a violence-prevention strategy[edit]

Media literacy programs can be a violence-prevention strategy.[30] Results from a major longitudinal study conducted by UCLA with more than 2,000 Southern California middle school students found that introducing a curriculum aimed at deconstructing violence in the media resulted in increased student knowledge acquisition regarding media literacy and effects of violent media on individuals and society, changed attitudes toward media violence, as well as playground behaviors and media usage. The study used a self-report survey to compare participant's knowledge and attitudes surrounding violence pre-intervention and post-intervention. The study not only evaluated the curriculum, Beyond Blame: Challenging Violence in the Media, but also the Center for Media Literacy's frameworks for addressing media-related themes and topics.