1. What is Media Literacy?

 

The definition most often cited in the US is a succinct sentence hammered out by participants at the 1992 Aspen Media Literacy Leadership Institute:

 

Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms.

 

 

Definitions, however, evolve over time and a more robust definition is now needed to situate media literacy in the context of its importance for the education of students in a 21st century media culture. CML now uses this expanded definition:

 

 

Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.

 

 

**These skills can be shared and amplified in a world where being an effective information manager, a savvy consumer, a responsible producer and an avid participant in media culture is now a necessity for effective citizenship.

 

 

**A well-prepared, media literate person of the 21st century needs to be able to blog, vlog, interview, be interviewed, podcast, webcast, telecommunicate and even host a multimedia press conference. It doesn’t matter if you are a CEO, and entrepreneur, an artist, a clothing designer, a poet, a politician, or just a concerned citizen lobbying for a new stop sign in your community. You will not be successful and you will not have clout unless you can speak to a group of people larger than can fit in any one room—that means you have to reach people through the media.

 

 

**The field of media literacy education has emerged to organize and promote the importance of teaching this expanded notion of "literacy." At its core are the basic higher-order critical thinking skills of any well-educated person - knowing how to identify key concepts, how to make connections between multiple ideas, how to ask pertinent questions, formulate a response, identify fallacies and so on.

 

 

It also expands the concept of "text" to include not just written texts but any message form — verbal, aural or visual - (or all three together!) - that is used to pass ideas between human beings.

 

And full understanding of such a "text" involves not just "deconstruction" (analysis) activities but also "construction" (production) activities using a range of multi-media tools now available to young people growing up in today's media culture.