Media literacy
[10] Media literacy also includes the ability to create and share messages as a socially responsible communicator, and the practices of safety and civility, information access, and civic voice and engagement are sometimes referred to as digital citizenship.
Media literacy represents a necessary, inevitable, and realistic response to the complex, ever-changing electronic environment and communication cornucopia surrounding us.
[18] Education about media literacy can begin in early childhood by developing a pedagogy around more critical thinking and deeper analysis and questioning of concepts and texts.
[24] This pedagogical project questions representations of class, gender, race, sexuality and other forms of identity and challenges media messages that reproduce oppression and discrimination.
[28] Media literacy enables the populace to understand and contribute to public discourse, and, eventually, make sound decisions when electing their leaders.
Media education currently incorporates phenomena such as social networks, virtual communities, big data, artificial intelligence, cyber-surveillance, etc., as well as training the individual in the critical use of mobile devices of all kinds.
These include: (1) attention to teaching methods; (2) the training and preparation of educators; (3) the scope, structure, and coherence of the activities of instructional practice; (4) the presence and appropriateness of underlying theories of media literacy; and (5) the originality of the programs in relation to available resources and community needs.
Most state policies do not allocate financial resources to promote media literacy education, with only a few providing staff positions or coaching.
Key concepts and core principles have been synthesized from the work of 20th century thinkers and scholars who have been called grandparents of media literacy, such as Paolo Freire, Marshall McLuhan, Stuart Hall, and others.
[34] With the growing problem of so-called "fake news," Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg adapt an approach to fact checking as a type of media literacy, suggesting that information seekers emphasize lateral reading, including starting some searches on Wikipedia.
This approach views children and young people as particularly vulnerable to cultural, ideological or moral influences, and needing protection by means of education.
Meta-analysis of a large number of these studies has found that the average effect size was strong and positive for outcomes including media knowledge, criticism, perceived realism, influence, attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior.
[49] Health interventions have also explored issues such as media violence, stereotypes in the representation of gender and race, materialism and consumer culture, and the glamorization of unhealthy behavior, including smoking.
Research shows that media literacy is associated with increased resilience in children and youth that is effective in a wide variety of contexts and learning environments.
Some researchers use performance- or competency-based measures to examine people's actual ability to critically analyze news, advertising, or entertainment.
[51] Media literacy programs that focus on political attitudes and behavior are thought to provide the cognitive and social scaffolding needed for civic engagement.
[55] Although progress around the world was uneven, all respondents realized the importance of media education, as well as the need for formal recognition from their government and policymakers.
For educators who are developing media literacy programs, the study of propaganda has become increasingly important, especially with the rise of fake news and disinformation.
[57] Media literacy education has been an interest in the United States since the early 20th century, when high school English teachers first started using film to develop students' critical thinking and communication skills.
Where educators began to show commercial films to children, having them learn a new terminology consisting of words such as: fade, dissolve, truck, pan, zoom, and cut.
Educators began to realize the need to "guard against our prejudice of thinking of print as the only real medium that the English teacher has a stake in.
[60] In 1976, Project Censored began using a service learning model to cultivate media literacy skills among students and faculty in higher education.
[62] Additionally, an increasing number of school districts have begun to develop school-wide programs, elective courses, and other after-school opportunities for media analysis and production.
03.13.30) specialization for the pedagogical universities, and the 2005 launch of the Media Education academic journal, partly sponsored by the ICOS UNESCO ‘Information for All’.
Main centres of media education include the Ivan Franko University of Lviv (led by Borys Potyatynyk), Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine (Hanna Onkovych), Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine (Lyubov Naidyonova).
In recent years, media literacy education is growing in Asia, with several programs in place across countries throughout the Asian Pacific region.
[79] Beginning in the 2017 school year, children in Taiwan study a new curriculum designed to teach critical reading of propaganda and the evaluation of sources.
[81] In Vietnam, the Young Journalists Group (YOJO) was created in 1998 in collaboration with UNICEF and the Vietnamese National Radio to combat false accounts by the media.
[86] Third and Fourth graders in Kuwait are learning to address visual stereotypes surrounding the Middle East through media literacy education, in part to be better able to challenge representation.
The organization held the Global Forum for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy which took place from 26 to 28 June 2013, in Abuja, Nigeria to promote these goals.
