Media Literacy

Basic Assumptions

As it is a relatively new intellectual concept, media literacy is still in the midst of developing its principles. In the past two decades, however, something akin to an action program has slowly developed around several commonly held beliefs. Arguably the most important is that all media messages are constructed: TV commercials, newspaper news items, captioned photographs, and billboard slogans are all created by someone working within a discernable set of social, political, historical, and economic institutions, and seeking to achieve a particular effect on the targeted audience. Assuming that most people seek exposure to at least some media messages, media educators seek to deconstruct them. The importance of this mission is underlined by the fact that mediated messages largely define people's sense of “reality.”

In traditional communication theory, a mediated event (such as Joe Smith watching a newscaster on TV) has been seen to have three main components: sender (the newscaster), receiver or audience (Joe Smith), and the message (say, the latest news about the Middle East peace process). The vast majority of media researchers and teachers seek to educate the receiver/audience, but the other two elements are also included in media literacy programs. While focusing on helping people understand where (as well as how and why) media messages come from, many media literacy researchers hope to influence the process so that entertainers and journalists might modify their messages to accommodate a more informed and critical audience.

While most media literacy efforts take place in educational institutions, supporters stress the importance of other venues, such as community events and, most importantly, everyday family life. In keeping with the twin assumptions that the media have a strong (mostly negative) influence on people and that young people are most susceptible to be influenced, the most elaborate media literacy programs are centered on elementary and secondary schools. The elementary schools are receiving more attention, as it is increasingly believed that children must be familiarized with media systems as they become regular consumers of mass media. In the absence of a nationwide media literacy program, American media educators are often generalist, English, or social science teachers working at their own initiative or at the behest of individual schools.

...